On Tuesday May 9th, we went to Hebron.

The group includes several staff of the American Friends Service Committee. The staff members have done an excellent job planning the itinerary with local activists and leading the delegation. Delegation members include lay leaders and ordained ministers and the faiths represented are Baptist, Episcopalian, Friends (Quakers), Mennonite, Methodist, Presbyterian, Unitarian Universalist, and United Church of Christ.

These daily highlights detail the local activists who serve as guides for the delegation.

Hebron, Al Khalil in Arabic, is the site of a mosque that also holds the tombs of Abraham and Sarah and other patriarchs of Judaism and their wives. It was a hub of commerce since those times at least and up to the 20th century inhabitants included Muslims and Jews. One of our guides is a descendent of its old Jewish Palestinian community. As the Zionist movement ramped up its immigration plans under the British occupation of the area, tensions grew. In 1929 there was violent uprising by the Palestinian Arab population and one location was Hebron in which 67 Jews were killed. In the aftermath, the Jewish population left the city. In 1967, the six day war saw Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and within that was Hebron. Plans were enacted to establish a Jewish presence again in the city. This has been done in ways that are unjust particularly in the Old City area which is one of the best preserved medieval cities. A Jewish gunman in 1986 carried out a massacre of Palestinians praying in Ibrahimi mosque. After this, the Israeli authorities ordered that the doors of Palestinian shops facing a specific street, Shahada Street, should be permanently closed stating fear of retaliation against settlers/colonists and that Palestinians will not be allowed to walk on this street. On our Facebook page you can see photos of these closed doors. 

The Jewish colonists who move in to the old city take over homes above shops when the owner is away. From the windows on the opposite side of the street they often throw trash down onto the walkway for Palestinian shops there. Palestinians have a mesh barrier in place to control the amount of debris. From being a hub of commerce in the area, the old city shop area has become very depressed as many Palestinians prefer not to go there due to checkpoints and the presence of very aggressive colonists. A Palestinian organization provides funds to belp shop owners keep their shops open. In the old city are about 800 colonists and thousands of Palestinians whose families have been there for generations, slowly losing their homes. There is one woman who lives on this street and the authorities dictated she must keep her from door open at all times, and we witnessed this gap. 

As we walked this street taking photos and hearing its history from our Jewish Israeli guide, we were approached a few times by the young soldiers at the checkpoint. On one occasion a Black member of our group was approached individually, which was a very disturbing experience for him as a Black man. 

We walked up stone steps to reach a building rented by a group called Youth Against Settlements. Muhannad told us about the organization and what it does to encourage activism among young people. To illustrate the apartheid reality, he explained that to get an ambulance to help a Palestinian in the old city area takes five phone calls ending with the local military commander who at times denies the permission due to security reasons. The time spent traversing this exercise is obviously wasting precious minutes, Golden Minutes in the case of heart attack, and has resulted in multiple deaths that could be prevented. 

Children must navigate a military checkpoint on their way to school. Numerous Palestinian children and adults have been shot and killed by Israeli soldiers over the years for often just suspicion, and have been left to bleed out with denial of aid and ambulance. Apartheid is a systematic and intentional program of separate and unequal treatment with elements of cruelty. The definition fits. there is now an AI powered gun at the checkpoint that can deliver sponge bullets (which can injure despite the soft part of the name) and tear gas canisters. 

Our speaker still has optimism and asks though that faith communities in the U.S. do more to support the goal of liberty and a peaceful and dignified life. 

We walked around a different route to reach the checkpoint toward the Old City open shops. We went through a tall turnstile to get to this area. A specific shop has embroidery and ceramics by a women’s co-op amd several of our group stopped to support this entity. 

We also found an outgoing shop owner who invited us in to see an Ottoman era sesame seed press that was used to make tahini, a cooking staple for hummus, salads, and sauces. This is a grinding stone structure that was rotated due to the work of a camel. 

It struck us as very sad to see the demeanor of the many shop owners, mostly older men, sitting at the entrances enticing us to buy with so few shoppers along the street. 

The architecture was amazing to witness, and our hearts were full of yearning for the people here to see freedom times.

We went to the office of the organization that funds the shops needing assistance and heard from a representative of Defense for Children International which defends Palestinian children who are detained by the military court system. This is another apartheid example. Jewish children accused of crimes are prosecuted through a different nonmilitary court system and would always have a family member present during interrogation. Palestinian children never have a family member present, and are often arrested in the middle of the night. There are about 700 arrested each year. They can also be held in something called administrative detention, a holdover practice from the  British occupation. This means there is no charge but they are still in prison. A recent law states that children found guilty of throwing stones can be sentenced to 20 years. 

Two years ago Israel declared DCIP a terrorist organization, confiscated its office contents, and welded the door shut. Read their statement protesting this false designation  

Visit our Facebook page for photos from this day in Hebron.