Israeli soldier does a "security" check on a Palestinian boy.
Like the answer of the Israeli soldier Daniel, when we question him about why he has decided to search the bag of every school child on the way to Cordoba school in occupied Hebron: “You don’t understand, it’s different here.”
Israeli soldiers question a Palestinian with Israeli reg car in Hebron H1.
Lereon, an Israeli soldier originally from Albany in the USA, has a witty sense of humour. “Hey, I’m just trying to get through this so I can get to go to college here.” We have met quite a few nice guys like Daniel and Lereon, during the hours that we spend standing at checkpoints here. Having lived among Palestinian people, bought in their markets, ate in their homes, experienced their generousity and rich culture, the phrase “its different here” doesn’t convince.
This photo shows the contrast between the busy market and the closed streets
It doesn’t convince in Hebron, the Palestinian city of 170,000 people where I’ve lived for the last 3 months, and where the security zone around 700 Israeli settlers who’ve decided to live in the centre of that city, deprives 40,000 Palestinians who live in that zone of many of their basic rights.
October '09 Israeli soldiers incursion into Hebron H1
One occasionally has the opportunity to speak to Jews visiting these areas from other parts of the world, who can drive up through the centre of the old city, where Palestinians haven’t been allowed to walk or drive in 7 years. Some wax lyrical about the special place 'Hevron' has for Jewish people the world over, as the burial place of Abraham, the father of their faith. Any mention of the rights of Palestinians either ends this conversation, or brings you back to that same phrase: “You don’t understand, it’s different here.” It certainly is.
Soldiers at the checkpoint near the Ibrahimi Mosque detain a young Palestinian, forcing him to stand with his t-shirt raised.
