Day 19: Happy

Happy new year, people.

Day 18: Not gonna get sick, no.

While my other self keeps writing the Hebron entry, I'll briefly explain what happened today. It all started with me being overly concerned about getting sick. Since I was stupid enough to bring nothing but a light sweater with me yesterday in J'salem and Hebron, and since it took me hours to warm up my body after I got back home, one simple sneeze freaked me out this morning. But so far, I'm doing all right. So I guess this time I dodged it.

Today it was as cold and cloudy as yesterday and that didn't make me happy. I don't like not being without the sun. However, despite all these, I enjoy the short walk from my house to the school. I climb up a hill to get to the iron gate. Actually two gates, that are tied to each other by a chain. I manage to slide through the gab between the doors of the gate. I'm tiny, and I still don't have the key to the chain lock. The doors are closed until noon, until the kids are back home. It is there to protect them from reckless drivers. Then I pass the bird house. So many of them! Mostly doves, and some parrots and other colorful wingy wingies. Right before the school, I pass by the guard, a devout Jew, whose job it is to lock and unlock the gates on both ends. Whenever I pass him by, he's reading either Torah or some kind of another holy text. He rocks back and forth, murmuring in Hebrew. But every time I tell him boker tov (good morning), he manages to squeeze in a boker tov for me between his prayers or whatever he's reading. No smile yet.

The school was pretty busy today. There was an encounter workshop between Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs. Halim and Yael wanted me to take pictures during and in between meetings. I gladly did. First they had two uninational meetings, and then two binational discussions. They started it yesterday and I believe it will continue tomorrow, until noon. I have no idea what they're speaking about but I sure will ask Halim and Yael about the details. There were some delicate moments as far as I could tell from the faces and the tone of the voices.

Mouna left for Germany today, and I was at the meeting when I was supposed to meet her by the hotel to say good bye. I'm taking her room but I think it has to wait until tomorrow. I'm tired and I sure have to clean the room before I move in. I'm wishing for a sunny day tomorrow, and safe flights to everyone tonight.

Fatin Mali

Day 17: Hebron 3

Some links you might find interesting to look into, mostly from the haaretz archives:

1. Breaking the Silence

This is about the organization and its founders, a day at their office, the experience of the author of the article and his Hebron tour with the BTS and although it is a very long text, it's most definitely worth reading:

http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/magazine/crying-out-loud-1.325558

2. Might be a good example of how testimonies collected by the BTS affect certain processes
in the army:
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/mess-report-gaza-war-probes-are-changing-israel-s-defiant-ways-1.303316

3. (A little bit about Ashkenazi's response to the allegations reported by the BTS)
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/idf-chief-on-ethics-issues-our-camp-must-be-pure-1.280944

4. There is a short paragraph about a serious allegation made by the BTS:

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/between-the-lines-when-the-chief-of-staff-speaks-1.280910

(On combat ethics: For the first time the IDF is providing a direct response to a specific claim raised in the report by Breaking the Silence regarding the use of the "neighbor procedure" by the army's elite Egoz unit.) This Neighbor procedure is using human shields.

5. http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/news-in-brief-1.250696

A "news in brief" section from 2008 that reports about Hebron Brigade's complaint about the BTS and other peace activists, claiming that these people are creating frictions between Jews and Arabs. I don't know these people personally and haven't had the chance to observe their internal operations and whatnot. BUT I really don't think it is the BTS nor other NGOs that ignite the fuel for frictions there. If you do "control+F" and search for Breaking the Silence, you'll get to the paragraph in the text.

6. Also interesting and worth reading until almost the very end:
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/welcome-to-year-41-1.247234

7. Also a very significant article that requires to be read fully:
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/when-everything-is-permissible-1.160541

8. http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/an-end-to-double-standards-1.146249

An article from 2005 about "The double standard used with the settlers even now as they strike soldiers, burn military jeeps and cut off a post from its water supply raises the question whether the silence of ministers in the face of the violence this week toward soldiers..."

9. http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/what-society-should-know-1.143410

I would have liked to know - and in fact I decided to ask blatantly to Palestinians - if the Palestinians are actually criticizing their brutal actions against Israeli and Palestinian civilians, if there was/is a body within PLO or PA or even Hamas that investigates and punishes the alleged crimes against civilians? This kind of a responsibility should be expected from all political/military-related organizations, whether it's a state or not. But so far, this is one of the articles I found interesting on the part of IDF and how they handle the wrongdoings. Also includes the BTS as a source for allegations.

How I despise war and the brutality that may follow after a killing that was committed in order to defend oneself should be ackowledged. And these stories are not peculiar to the IDF or Hamas or PA. But to all  wars in the human history. And it is not just a crime against civilians, but also against the soldiers who are used as tools for these crimes.

10. http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/it-can-happen-here-1.140958
I am dying to find out if there is an article such as this in any of the Palestinian or Arabic media or an NGO publication that calls out to the armed forces of resistance to take a minute and dedicate it to self-criticism, in order to not justify their killings of civilians and then abusing their dead bodies but to "to restore human dignity to the Palestinians and the soldiers. Until then, PA and Hamas must take urgent action to create a new atmosphere in its ranks. The suspension and immediate trial of militants suspected of such crimes - no matter what their ranks are crucial for building the State of Palestine's moral backbone." Also I wonder if Hamas or PA would let Palestinians or the world know about the refusals to serve, refusals to join the acts of violence against the civilians, for instance what happens if a live bomb decides not to explode himself? I do believe that Palestinian civilians are victims of so many atrocities committed by the IDF and Hamas and PA. But that should not be an excuse for procrastination of self-criticism. And if there are cases where Palestinians are refusing to join the armed battles and wanting to testify to the atrocities they committed but they are not allowed to, the international NGOs must make it a priority to help them to expose these stories.

11. http://www.haaretz.com/general/bloody-this-dirty-linen-1.148530

Again, a very very interesting article about the comparison of a letter sent to IDF chief of staf by four honorable officers from the special forces unit in the air force who didn't want to make it a public announcement, trusted the IDF that they will take the appropriate actions for their serious allegations, with the Breaking the Silence group. Such as "The IDF is complaining that the soldiers did not report what they saw to their commanding officers, but is nevertheless taking the group seriously. Ya'alon (the chief of staff) mentions Breaking the Silence regularly, and the group's reports prompted the army to establish a team, headed by the commander of Officers School, Colonel Gal Hirsh, examining the combat values of the IDF in the confrontation in the territories. Members of the movement have been invited to appear before two meetings of the IDF and the Border Police." It also reports us some acts of responsibility on the IDF's part. Something we rarely see in the US army, or Turkish army for that matter. Heck the latter is a phenomenon all by itself!

12. http://www.haaretz.com/general/bloody-this-dirty-linen-1.148530
An article about the testimonies, the IDF's reaction and some interesting stories with a notable remark from the Paratroops commander Battalion in Nablus at the time. This is from 2005.

There were 20 pages to go through after doing a search for "Breaking the Silence" in Haaretz archives. I read all articles related to them, several statements from IDF, testimonies etc and put in here the ones I saw worth sharing. It's time consuming though!

And here are some of these articles without my comments:
13. This is actually a short article on the writer's trip to Hebron with Breaking the Silence:
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/i-am-not-declaring-loyalty-1.302727

14. And then you have these guys:
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/hamas-israel-has-two-options-death-or-leaving-palestinian-lands-1.332867

15. Or hypocrites such as:
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/turkey-pm-israel-to-blame-for-deadlock-in-mideast-peace-talks-1.331867

16. And this:
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/abbas-to-israeli-mks-in-ramallah-help-us-not-miss-the-chance-for-peace-1.331486

17. And this:
http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/a-special-place-in-hell/we-all-owe-israel-s-racist-rabbis-a-vote-of-thanks-1.330565
18. And this as a response:
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/leading-rabbi-denounces-colleagues-edict-against-renting-homes-to-non-jews-1.329769

19. And this is from state officials regarding the issue. However, they have yet to do more than just condemning these rabbies.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/barak-anti-arab-letters-by-rabbis-and-rabbis-wives-leading-israel-into-dark-place-1.334093
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/in-wake-of-anti-arab-letters-defense-minister-rails-against-wave-of-racism-threatening-country-1.334157

Day 17: Hebron 2

After not hearing the yellow shop story, I decided not to miss anything from now on. Leading us back to the beginning of the market, Isaac started talking about his own experience here in Hebron when he first arrived. "At the beginning of the Second Intifada, every night Palestinians would shoot. From top to hill Abu Sneina down to Avraham Avinu (settlement); from Haret a-Sheikh, a neighborhood on the other side to Abu Sneina from top the hill down to the settlements in the valley. And we had no idea who is firing from where. So our decision was, basically what we did as we took over three high posts, one is a Palestinian house, a family up in the other side of Tel Rumeida, entered the house, gave the family 45-50 minutes to pack up. Until today family doesn't live in the house. Then a roof top of a Palestinian family on top the hill of (Jabari) neighborhood; and the third place was what we call the school barrack. It was a Palestinian school, we shut it down, four and a half years, we turned it into a military post... We post there snipers, machine guns, grenade machine guns, and the idea was they shoot, we shoot back. Now we have no idea who is shooting from where, so every barrack like that had between 10 to 15 empty or abandoned buildings and the neighborhood across the valley served as targets." 

Then he went on to point at some of those abandoned houses that were their targets. "In my advanced infantry training I was trained as a grenade machine gun operator. That's why my first assignment on the ground actually, after finishing my training was a school barrack. I just arrived, first briefing by the company officer, good guys, bad guys, H1, H2, who sits where, the radio we listen... And then my platoon officer takes me to the grenade machine gun post. It's a machine gun that fires grenades to 2212 meters away. Very massive. And he explains to me, 'Look, Isaac. You see these buildings? Every evening when they shoot we shoot back.' Now I don't see you people that look to me people who went through military training. But the first second I heard my mission, I was like 'What are you stupid? No way we're doing this, this is insane.' Three months before when I was training with these machine guns, it was somewhere in the middle of a desert in the south of Israel, safety regulations are no one is allowed to be a mile away from each side of the target. You have to understand that a machine gun is not an accurate weapon. You don't aim at your target, pull the trigger and the target is down. You aim to the area, it doesn't matter where you hit, what matters is that you see where you hit in order to be able to aim. So you shoot, you see where you hit, fix, take left, up, right, down. If you're a really good operator with a lot of experience, you probably hit your target the fifth, the seventh time you try. I'm talking about a kilometer away, night, one millimeter you're wrong, here a kilometer is (he shows the whole neighborhood with houses side by side.) Mind you we're talking about a grenade. It's not bullets. Grenades hit something, explode, kill every one in the 8 to 16m radius. But that's noon time when you get the order. 6 o'clock it gets dark. 6:15 Palestinians start to shoot, and your order comes out from the radio, and what you're not going to shoot now? They're shooting the settlement. And you approach the machine gun, you aim to the area and you pull the trigger and you leave it as fast you could and inside of you, you just pray that the less amount of grenades were fired. Because if you pull the trigger for one minute it's 88 grenades are sent out.  And you have these 4-5 seconds until the grenades reach the target line which is basically the neighborhood, because it's a kilometer away. You hope you never hurt anyone. After a while it becomes the most exciting event of the day. you're locked down in this building 24 hours a day, without going out, bored to death, at least you can play with the joystick a bit every evening. After 2-3 weeks if this doesn't work and those bastard Palestinians continue to fire, they didn't get the message, the decision from now on that we're not going to wait for them to shoot what we call response fire. We would shoot what we call deterrence fire. 5 o'clock before it gets dark the order comes out through the radio. 10-13 machine guns from the 3 different posts start to open fire after 30 mins you stop because you don't wanna waste too much ammunition. 6 o'clock it gets dark; 6:15 they shoot, now you must respond. And after few weeks if this doesn't work, we're not gonna wait for them and we're not gonna fire from far away. We're gonna invade their neighborhoods and we'll do violent patrols. Drive through the neighborhoods with APCs, and you do patrols for deterrence." 

Again, a very familiar story one can hear from several veterans from different wars. In the event of close battle or sudden attacks, you do what you can to stay alive. They shoot, you shoot. You may not have the time to contemplate on your actions or on non-militaristic solutions. It's the present survival that matters. However it's the military policy that is at issue here. Same tactics are used when there is no state of emergency, but acts of deterrence. 

Isaac looks overwhelmed and perhaps felt relieved when someone asked him about how people react to Breaking the Silence. "Since we've started till today, there's only an increase in the amount of people who are willing to listen. Israelis. Most of our work is done with Israelis. What they do with it afterwards, that's a different story." At that time, we were waiting for the people to gather so that we could start walking again. I was curious about the initiative and didn't want the topic to be dropped. So I asked, "What about the soldiers on duty? What do they think about BTS, are they supporting what you're doing?" Here's Isaac's response. 

"It very much depends on what's their background, which unit they are, where they serve, how they see themselves. In most of soldiers, I believe, of course will not accept what we're saying. Because they're inside. Just like when I was inside, everything made sense to me. But still I think that most of the soldiers who served in Hebron specifically, if you don't put them in front of the camera, not from a judgmental approach, they would tell you that's what's going on here is wrong." Then I remind him what he told us earlier about his unit and how they used to talk about their discomfort about the situation and their need to do something about it. He goes, "Look, you really wanna open all this issue? Because we can do it, but it's going to take time." He pauses and then continues, "When I was a soldier, and I firstly arrived here to Hebron, I arrived in to the school barrack. But after 4 or 5 weeks, I don't remember exactly how long, it was after a Minister of the Israeli Government Rehavam Zeevi was assassinated in the Hyatt Hotel. I think it was October 2001, I'm not sure (he's right about the date), but after a few weeks the rest of my battalion came and we replaced the unit that controlled Hebron. I served in a very unique unit. In a way my story does not represent anything. I'm a person who always lived his life in bubbles. American modern Orthodox, a modern Orthodox yeshiva in a settlement. The unit that I served in is the most leftist unit in the army. It's to do with the way Israel was built in the 50s and the 60s, it's people who come from youth movements, who live in socialist communes together, mainly from socialist youth movements, in the past they used to build kibbutz in the border, now they do education work in the poor communities. So if everybody serves 3 years in the army, they volunteer for another year and a half social service... So people who are more educated, who come from better social economical background, and that's one of the reasons this unit is sent a lot to Hebron. That's why I did two lines in Hebron. Because the perception is that this kind of unit in a place like Hebron where the friction with the Palestinian civilians is so high, this is the best unit to have. And I think that's why it was so a big shock to see our exhibit and hear these testimonies; and these testimonies are coming out of this unit. Again it doesn't represent anything. %10 of my company voted Hadash when we were stationed here. (Hadash is what used to be the Israeli communist party.)" At that moment Isaac's partner calls and informs us about the clashes in the south of Hebron. Nope, we didn't go there. And clashes between who, I don't know. 

(Press coverage about BTS, IDF and other issues will be on the Hebron 3 post.)

Later on Isaac indicated that this is a complex issue and said 9 of the people from his company, right after they arrived in Hebron, thought to refuse to serve in Hebron. I don't doubt that it is an easy answer to give. He seems frustrated but willing to talk. Or at least he striked me as a person who cannot simply say yes/no but have to fill it in with some extra information. Suddenly he asked us to follow him to the main road, a block away from where we were. So here we are at the door of an abandoned Arab house. "One of the evenings the settlers came down with a 5kg heavy hammers and started banging on this door to break in. Men were inside, a ring of women outside. But of course the orders are, we're (IDF) not allowed to touch them. Go on the radio and call the police." Then he stops and kindly calls some of the members of the tour to stop filming the "exotic and exciting" soldiers and join us. I find it a little annoying the fact that people were filming and taking pictures of the IDF soldiers most of the time without asking for their permission, and from right in front of their faces. I even saw a guy trying to run backwards in front of a jogging soldier just to film him from the front. I felt uncomfortable being part of the group at times like this, and no no less uneasy with the fact that I'm holding a video camera, and a photo camera hanging from my neck. We walked 10 more meters to see "one of the things that pissed them off." Isaac announces that we are on the a-Shuhada Street. That's a sterile road which means "Palestinians are allowed to be on the other side of the fence, of the Muslim cemetery." He shows the house right behind him and says, "they can be behind these doors but they're not allowed to step where we are standing now. We were actually sent, you see, (he points at the seals on the doors) all the doors are sealed up." A woman asks if people living in these houses have another exit. Isaac says, "on the roof, the ladders, into the old city." He continues, "After we were sent to do this, there was a lot of discussion in our company. And it got to a way, to a place where... the officers understood that the only way they can control us is by opening these issues. So it came to a point that every day, every day you have a barracks briefing between 3 to 4, or 2:30 to 3:30, so every day for few weeks after the barrack briefing there was a discussion about refusing of our officers. Which again, every person who served in the IDF hears the story, it sounds to them, you know, this is madness, this is not acceptable, to think that an army unit can operate this way is really weird."

I need to cut in here and talk about the A-Shuhada Street. Isaac told us something very important but unfortunately I have no footage of that. So I'll do my best to cite him as best as I can. The street is currently closed to Palestinians. However, according to what's official, it should be open. So Isaac and some other people appealed to the court and the court said, yeah you're right, it is open. So with their court order and some Palestinians they go to the soldiers there, showing the permit. They open the road to them. After a week, it is again blocked. Same court order, it's open one more time. When it happened again, IDF says we're not opening it again. So, I will try to contact Isaac and ask for more about this, and I have a feeling that he will be accessible. So we'll see. But two of the things I observed -and it was impossible to ignore them- were, one, the cage houses of Arabs in H2. Picture below gives you an example for that. All Arab houses, their doors and windows are covered with metal cages to prevent stones or other solid items being thrown in by the settlers. 

Another thing was the ridiculous rules that ban Palestinians to walk on streets that have Jewish residences. There's this street where one side has the newly-built house of a settler, detached to an Arab house abandoned some years ago. In fact when you look inside the windows of the abandoned building, you see another window, which at first makes no sense. Isaac explains to us that the settler family decided to expand their house so they built inside the Arab house. Anyway, because of this property, Arabs are not allowed to walk on the street which they need to use in order to get out of their apartments to, for instance, visit someone on the other end of the street. Since they cannot use the street, they either climb up the rooftops, or sometimes use the tunnels inside the buildings or take the stone stairways made for them to bypass the part of the street they're not allowed to use. And I'm not sure if I am able to describe the absurdity here but it looks incredibly silly. Also unjust since none of the settlers are prohibited from using the streets where there are Arab houses for the sake of security.

Anyway, I'll pass it on to Isaac again. "Later on we left Hebron, we were sent to Defensive Shield operation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Defensive_Shield). That's where the questions vanished. It was after, I don't know if you remember, March-April 2002 and two months over, 120 Israelis were murdered in suicide bombing attacks. And we were taken out of Hebron, taken to Ramallah, and you know, the perception was we're not anymore protecting the settlers. Now we're fighting terrorists. Arresting people, coming back with APC's (Armored Personnel Carrier) full of guns and ammunition and explosives. And when I first came back here, my first patrol back after the Defensive Shield operation, I came to the post, it's a building that used to have a lot of medical clinics, and I saw that the doors of the clinic were open. And I remember the place, it was closed, I was there four-five months before, from October to April. So out of curiosity I pushed the door. And what I saw there basically, soldiers have replaced us during the operation so we could operate in Ramallah, they were holding the line here. Destroyed the place, shitted on the floor, everything was broken. Two things happened to me when I was standing in this clinic. One is, I took out a camera. i took photos of the place, the first week I had (somebody's name) develop the photos, scanned them, opened my first email of my life. I sent out the story, my name, my phone number, my photos, every Israeli journalist I could get, I sent this email. Nothing happened of it. And the second thing was, I decided I'm going to be a commander. To make sure that soldiers don't behave this way. We're good guys, we don't do these things. I came to my officers and I asked to go out for Sergeant training and they looked at me laughing, 'What are you, stupid? A month ago you were talking about refusal, now you want to be a sergeant?' And I told my Sergeant, 'You were with me in that patrol, you remember what this and this unit did. I wanna make sure people don't behave this way.' And later on I went to sergeant training. First time that I met the army.Went out to protect the environment of my unit. And the stuff that I've experienced... We were called for three weeks, for deterrent path, June 2002, in the Dheisheh Refugee Camp, in Bethlehem for an operation, and I can go on or years just talking about these three weeks, what we've done there and what I've seen, one of our sergeants in our company killing a Palestinian boy with a rubber bullet to his chin, that was just, you know, became something funny that everybody spoke about, tell the stupid cases of breaking up places and then doing a lot of other thing that we've done there. And in a way if there is one thing that brought me to do breaking the silence was that it was only towards the end of my service... Look, when I was a company sergeant, it's a bit difficult to say it, that's why I'm saying I'm not representing anything. In that sense I'm a lonely case. Every Friday that I would go out back home for a weekend, I would stand with women in black at Peres Square against the occupation, and then Saturday I would stand outside of Saron's house for demonstrations, and when I was a sergeant, I would take my soldiers in the uniforms in military vehicles to testify in human rights groups. The last seven months of my service, we're operating in a level that, let's say we were outside of Bethlehem and they're supposed to now expand a settlement and uproot a Palestinian field so, my soldiers in the war room know that they don't give the OK to start uprooting the trees until I get the OK. Meaning, we have a TV crew coming there, to film it. It was in that level. And I think that one thing that brought me to breaking the silence was the moment, I don't know if you followed the stories I told, throughout my service, it was all about other people who have done wrong. It was about the settlers and how they behaved there and that's why we don't have to be here, and how other units behaved there and that's why I needed to be a sergeant, how the other units behaved during the sergeant training and that why... yeah?" 

"The moment that changed me was the moment I started seeing myself in the story. It is the same officers and the same people who fought to refuse to serve here, that had this discussion between 3:30 to 4:30 every day, 5:30 on the APC, went and blow up parked cars. And that was the real shock for us. And then you really put things in the perspective and you understand that, OK, there is settlers, there is other units...That's the way that you're not actually seeing yourself. That's the part of your wall of silence. So you can a lot of people and how they behave, other units and how they behave but you cannot see yourself. And that's part of it. Because there is not way to actually understand what I understand today." 

Finding Isaac that talkative, I wanted to ask more. I was curious what would happen if an IDF soldier does take action and try to stop a settler who is, say, hammering down a door that belongs to a Palestinian property. Again he tells us a story that, although doesn't answer my question fully, is still interesting. "It was quite in Hebron, there was no shooting for few days. Suddenly you start hearing gun fire. And the soldiers that were standing in front of the gate, thought that someone was shooting at them. So they started shooting back and ran into the Old City. No one understood what's going on, right away we did what the military needs to do. If there's shots from the Casbah, the Old City, you start to operate, all the forces started to do what they needed to do. And what happens, slowly slowly we started to understand that no one shot actually the post. And then dogs came and started to check around, there's trackers, and they started checking and looking for signs but they didn't find anything. And what they came up, what they understood after an hour is that a settler took out an uzi (name of a famous submachine gun produced in Israel), a guy from Avraham Avinu took out an uzi and fired towards Abu Sneina. He probably wanted noise, he wanted mess. They found the clip, the remains of his fire, his gun shot underneath his window. And the soldiers that were standing underneath Avraham Avinu, the fire was above them, they're actually thinking that someone is shooting at them. And a lot of Palestinians could die. Thank god nothing happened, because they were running into the Old City and firing all over, streets were empty at that specific moment which was good. You think something happened to them? No. Nothing we were just, 'Good bye, go back to sleep.' They didn't even go and check who was the person who shot. Serial numbers of ammunitions, nothing." 

Then I, Aylin, repeated my question. "Since IDF soldiers are not supposed to touch the settlers, what happens if one soldier tries to arrest one? Is there a punishment for such a behavior?" Isaac quickly corrects me, "You're wrong, they're supposed to. Official law, he's the only person who has the authority. His orders on the ground, you're not allowed to do anything. Text, written law in a court, the authority is the army. The orders that they get, that we get on the ground, seven months as a soldier, seven months as a sergeant briefing my soldiers, you don't touch them." I have a feeling that Isaac can indeed speak for years on this subject! Right after this one, without stopping or breathing in between, he starts telling another one I would like to share with you here as well.

"In the middle of the day, my friend Avram was a sharp shooter, he was at the top of a sharp shooter post on top of the old market. It's a line of shops they broke in. Around noon time Avram recognizes an Israeli flag on top of Abu Sneina. This is before Defensive Shield Operation, before 2002 when we took over all the city. This is a place where you have armed Palestinian police and we don't enter. Suddenly he realizes, he sees an Israeli flag on top of a Palestinian house, and he goes on the radio and reports. And what we understand is, women and children from the settlement just went into H1, took over a Palestinian house. What do we do? Right away we called all the emergency squads in the area, APCs, snipers, machine guns, we invade the neighborhood, put posts, take over all the houses leading up, all the junctions with APCs... They're women, so we can't touch them. Because we're men, and they're religious women. So there is a bus collecting all the female soldiers from the area of the Hebron brigade, bringing them down here. They go up, drag them one one down into H2, and then we leave H1. No one is arrested, nothing. This is something for their own safety, we wanted to take them out, there's armed people, armed Palestinians. This is an example when we do intervene. But we don't arrest anybody." 

A question comes, "I think there's a law that allows soldiers to detain people until the police comes? Maybe it's not in Hebron but in other places?" Isaac impatiently cuts in and says, "The law is that you can actually arrest them. You wanna talk about law properly, you know, clean law? If a policeman stops you here, you can come and ask him, who are you? It's like an American police stops you in Berlin, or in Paris. 'Man, you have no authorization, you don't touch me.'And the answer he'll give you, 'I'm operating here on behalf of this and this military order that gives me the authority.' That's the only reason he can touch you here. It's because the army gave him the authority. That's the law. The law is that everything is the army. Just in order to make sure that we are not treated...", he stops and then continues, "All this thing came up from the fact that you have settlers here, yeah? That's a big problem. You have settlers here that are Israeli civilians and they would be court-martialed in military courts because they live in outside of Israel. And that means that an arm of the Israeli government has them on trial without the rights they deserve as Israeli civilians. And that's why you have this instrument where Israeli civil law  becomes the law in them according to the military law and that's how they can be tried in the civil with the rights of ordinary civilians. Even though they live and what they've done, they've committed outside of the borders of Israel. So basically as an Israeli you walked into West Bank in a bubble of Israeli civil laws around you. The land you're stepping on, Israeli law doesn't apply on, the person standing next to you not necessarily, depends if he's Palestinian or not, but Israeli law applies on you as individual." 

Well, that's quite a fact. I'm wondering if the civil law was not applied -since the area and the circumstances are certainly not ordinary and comfortable as a "safe" habitat, military law could have applied on them- and ALL the settlers who attacked the Palestinians and their properties were arrested and tried and punished just like their Palestinian counterparts who had damaged Jewish property -despite the question whether or not it's legal in the Palestinian land- and attacked Jewish civilians here, who were sent to Israeli prisons, how would that affect the settler-Palestinian conflict in the long run? If it is deterrent enough, which I think it is, then why won't the government or the IDF apply that and take care of the most part of the Hebron problem? 

MOVE ON TO THE 3rd AND THE LAST HEBRON POST.

Day 17: Hebron 1

This is going to be tough. Not only because the experience all by itself was overwhelming, but there's a lot to tell. What I want to do, is to share most of it here as the way they happened. The reason why it took me this long to post these two entries is because I had to transcribe the footage, cross check or find related articles about Breaking the Silence and what our tour guide Isaac told us during the trip.

So here's how my last Wednesday of the year 2010 started. I woke up around 7, and left my place at 7:27. Precisely. I tried hitch-hiking, clumsily, to no avail for a while. The first one stopped  right away and I thought she stopped for me but it turned out she was dropping off her son and driving back to her house in the village. Second one, I was too late to point my finger on the ground, so he just passed me by. Third one was going to Tel Aviv, but with the fourth one I got lucky. A woman who just dropped off her kid at the kindergarten and on her way to Jerusalem gave me ride. Pleasant morning, and a ride. She warned me about Jerusalem getting real cold in the evening. Given the fact that it was 30C yesterday, I didn't bring my jacket with me, I thought it would be warm. Can't say I saw Jerusalem but when we entered the city from the forest as you might imagine it was simple gorgeous. Irit is a civil engineer and she works at an industrial district (not pretty). I had to take a bus from there to the central bus station where I was supposed to meet the rest of the tour. The public bus was filled with Orthodox Jews, all dressed in black. One of them was so kind to help me with directions. Most people in the tour were from the States, the rest were Israelis. Then there was a couple from Portugal, a girl from Holland and a guy from South Africa.

Before I start writing about the tour, here's Hebron from a brief historical perspective:

*Patriarchs and matriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebekah, Leah and Rachel are buried here); 

*Jumping to the massacre of 1929 (wikipedia: Arab rioters killed 67 Jews and wounded 60, and Jewish homes and synagogues were ransacked; 435 Jews survived by virtue of the shelter and assistance offered them by their Arab neighbors, who hid them); 

*End of Jewish organized presence in Hebron;

*67 the Palestinian Park Hotel and the passover (a group of Jews led by a Rabbi refused to leave the Park Hotel they rented, 1970 Qiryat Arba is built (Israeli government allowed the Rabbi's group to build K.Alba in an abandoned military base in Hebron); 

*1979 the invasion of Beit Hadassa (wikipedia: A group of settlers headed by the Rabbi's wife led 48 Jewish women and children to move back and take over the former Hadassah Hospital, now Beit Hadassah in central Hebron, to found the Committee of the Jewish Community in Hebron near -a synagogue-. The take-over created severe conflict with Arab shopkeepers in the same area, who appealed twice to the Israeli Supreme Court, without success. This was later extended to other Hebron neighborhoods including Tel Rumeida, and the settlers are currently reported to be trying to purchase more homes in the city);

*The murder of 6 Yeshiva students in 1980 (They were returning from Sabbath service and were fired upon and attacked with grenades from the rooftops); 

*Construction of the settlements in the 80s;

*Goldstein massacre in 1994, sterile buffer zones began (Qiryat Arba resident B. Goldstein opened fire on Muslim worshipers inside the Tomb, murdering 29 and wounding 125);

*Hebron protocol in 1997 where the city is divided into H1 and H2, %80 Palestinian control, %20 Israeli control;

*2000, the uprising of the Second Intifada. So these are the important dates.

Our tour guide Isaac calls himself an observant Orthodox Jew. His parents are from North America, he's born in J'salem. He says he grew up in a settlement surrounded by yeshivas, he had issues with the school and everything around him, so many questions in his mind. Then he served in the IDF between 2001-2004, during the Second Intifada, in Hebron. He says it is hard to fully understand what's going on in the army and in Hebron while you're still on duty. You know something's just not right but it is only after you're done with your service and some time passes that you begin to comprehend what you had experienced. He says he likes Hebron because nothing is hidden here. It is simply impossible to ignore, impossible to lie or hide facts. He thinks this is the microcosm of Israel and its politics. I must say I disagree with this but it clearly is an evidence as to how some politicians used Hebron as a leverage to their advantage. Seeing how they allow Palestinians being treated that way, I can even assume that it might be an indication of a political hypocrisy on some of the Israeli politicians' part. I can hope that those fractions will soon be eradicated from the scene, along with Hamas.

Before and after entering the West Bank, there were roads, mainly the high way where Palestinians are not allowed to drive on. There's actually a wall that separates that section from the rest.

Isaac gave us a brief history of Hebron and how it's been divided into two sections. H1 and H2. And here I'm quoting wikipedia: "The H1 sector, home to around 120,000 Palestinians, came under the control of the Palestinian Authority. H2, which was inhabited by around 30,000 Palestinians remained under Israeli military control to protect several hundred Jewish residents in the old Jewish quarter. A large drop has since taken place in the Palestinian population in H2, identified with the impact of extended curfews, strict restrictions on movement with 16 check-points in place, the closure of Palestinian commercial activities near settler areas, and settler harassment."

Our bus drove us from Jerusalem to the Qiryat Arba gate (this is the first settlement in Hebron). At the gate we had to stop and wait for our IDF and Israeli police escort. (Funny detail, the police force also had to wait for IDF to escort them since settlers don't like them more than they dislike the IDF soldiers.) Once our escort arrived, we entered from the north end of Qiryat Arba neighborhood and drove to the center of the settlement.

Breaking the Silence team calls Hebron as the ghost town. How come the center of the second largest city in the West Bank is a ghost town? "When you enter the city center, the Palestinians disappear from the frame. We'll barely see Palestinians today." Isaac continues to talk about the separation, settlers and the tactics on the ground. Curfew is one of them, which is mostly applied to Palestinians. Isaac says because of the amount of curfews from 2001-2004, the unemployment rate in Hebron reached to %75 today. He goes, "35,000 Palestinians used to live in the H2, in the Israeli controlled part of the city. Those were the numbers in 1997 when the city was divided. Today, no one knows the exact numbers of how many Palestinians still live there. The latest figures we have are from a survey done by the B'Tselem and ACRI-The Association for Civil Rights in Israel-, the two of the biggest human rights organizations in Israel, in 2007. The maps we gave you were published after the survey. The conclusions they came to are, we're talking about %42 of Palestinian families from the area have left because they couldn't continue any kind of ordinary life. ... There are three categories of reasons as to why this happened, to why Hebron became a ghost town. First and most important one is the IDF strategy. How you protect today 800 settlers in the city center of a 180,000 Palestinians? An the answer that the IDF gives to this question is by creating sterile buffer zones between both communities."

Apparently after the establishment of Qiryat Arba, the IDF was worried about a revenge attack by the Palestinians, so they apply a 2-month curfew on Palestinians to prevent any attacks. "The main street, a-Shuhada Street, was closed down for Palestinian transportation. What used to be the meat market of Hebron and the vegetable wholesale market around it, right in front of the settlement of Avraham Avinu, all of these places were announced as sterile buffer zones where Palestinians are not allowed to enter anymore. And since the beginning of the Second Intifada we have three levels of sterilization in the city. First, and the very basic one is the areas you see in the map in purple."

Quoting from Isaac again. "Purple areas, Palestinians are not allowed to drive their vehicles. Palestinians live on these roads, but the only way to get to their house is by foot. Only non-Palestinians can drive on these roads, and the concept is very simple. Less Palestinian cars mean less Palestinians, less Palestinians mean less friction, less friction means more security to the settlement. And as you get closer to the settlements, the sterilization is higher. The next level is the yellow roads. On the roads you see yellow and purple. These are roads where Palestinians are not allowed to open shops. And the highest level of sterilization you see are the red roads you see on the map. These are sterile roads. These are the roads that not only Palestinians cannot drive their vehicles, not only they cannot open shops, they can't even walk on them. OK? Pedestrian Palestinians are not allowed to walk on sterile roads. Sometimes Palestinians live on a sterile road. And most of the times when they live on the road, their front door would be sealed up. Their way to get in and out of the house is climbing on the roof taking ladders in a back way. So that's one of the reasons why Hebron became a ghost town."

"Between the settlements Qiryat Arba and Givat Arbo we have private Palestinian land owned by the Jabarri family, and that's where we have the outpost of the vision of David. You see the white tent? The settlers built this synagogue, no one really prays there, once a week they come. It's a way to take over the land and connect. The vision of David is removed already for 38 times by the army, and every time built again few hours after. I personally took it down twice. It's part of the game here."

Isaac showed us the Prayer's Road from Qiryat Arba down to the Tomb of Patriarchs. "On this same road, in November 2002 during the Second Intitada, one of the most lethal attacks happened. 12 Israeli soldiers and the security forces of the settlements were killed. After that attack, Israel added a plan to built a secure path between Qiryat Arba and the Tomb with demolishing around 32 Palestinian houses. Israeli human rights organization who appealed to the Supreme Court were said that only two and a half houses were demolished. After the Prayers Road attack in Hebron, Palestinians were in a curfew for 6 months straight." Once in four to five days, the curfew is opened just so that people could go out and get supplies and then go back. No school, no work."

While passing by a Palestinian neighborhood right after Qiryat Arba, Isaac starts talking about how the IDF soldiers have to make their presence felt in Hebron. And it means during the night shifts, your commander picks up a house. "What does the military do on a day to day basis to maintain order in an occupied city where the settlements are in the heart of the city?" "You barge in, wake up the whole family, men in one side, women on the other, search the house, get out. Then throw some stone grenades, make some noise, invade another random house in the same road, go out and send some bullets in the air, know on some doors, run to the other corner of the old city, invade another house, and that's how you spend your night to make your presence felt." I was thinking, I heard the same thing from soldiers and veterans of Iraq, and the Vietnam veterans in the documentary film Winter Soldier. I can't see these routines as a mean to a rightful end. At that moment Isaac says we're in the city center. It does look like a ghost town, hard to imagine here as the center of anything that pertains to human life. All shops and cage houses (I'll explain later why they're called the cage houses) are empty. The city center is right by the Tomb of the Patriarchs. Here's how the city center looks like, just to give you an idea:

We got off at the Tomb and started our walk. Right across from the Patriarchs, you see open tourist shops on both sides of the road. One side Arab, the other Jewish. Very touristic of them in terms of representing the irony here. This is the old city and it's in the H1 part. Isaac stopped us to make sure we know where we are on the map. Also he gave us some curious information about how the visits to the tomb are arranged. "Since the Goldstein massacre of 1994, the tomb is completely divided to two. But not according to nationality, according to religion. One part is a mosque, one part is a synagogue." Muslims and Jews have different entrance points and they cannot use the door assigned to the other group. "You cannot cross from one side to the other inside the tomb. There is an agreement with the Waqf, the Muslim authorities that each religion gets both sides for themselves for ten days a year. If you are none Muslim, non Jewish, you are allowed in both sides." We entered the tomb, but Isaac was not allowed to go in. They said he is political. As if the settlers are not but they're inside. Anyway, after that explanation, we started our walk towards Tel Rumedia.

Standing in the middle of what used to be the fruit market before the 2. Intifada, Isaac gives us few words about the history of the roads that lead to the market. "1994, the vegetable market is sterilized right after the Goldstein massacre, this market (fruit) is still functioning. March 2001 (A Hebrew name I can't understand but as far as I remember, the victim was a Jewish infant) is murdered by a Palestinian sniper. The settlers come, destroy the market, the army comes, barb-wires on both sides, this road is announced as a closed military zone where neither Palestinians nor Israelis allowed to enter. A year and 3 months after, June 2002 a settler is stabbed here in this square. 2-3 days after Israeli bulldozers come, clear the left overs of the market and the place is open only for the settlers. This is also part of how the dynamics in the city work. After every terrorist attack against the settlers, the way to calm them down is closing another road and opening it only for them." Then he points at the line of closed shops behind us and says, "The story of the wholesale market shops is one of the best stories to understand, I think, the bigger picture of what we're seeing around us. If you put yourself into the seats of Hebron Brigadier General, he's the military governor of the place, controls everything south of (Ushid Zion??) half a million Palestinians, 35,000 settlers. What is the story here in Hebron? He got the worst job in the army as a career general, the most politicized, problematic job that you can be appointed to: the Hebron Brigadier General. He cannot say no. What he wants? He wants to swim through these years and hopefully with no harm, continue his career. So how does he do this? He needs a peaceful situation, he needs quiet. How do you create quiet? The answer is around you. Palestinians, you push aside, no one will come after you for that. Settlers do something, you don't  confront them because confronting them, the next day you are called to the parliament, ministers, media.. Who needs this headache? Now what I'm saying is not just an analysis from outside. It's basically something that comes very clear out of the story of the wholesale market. And I'll go into details."

Up until here, this is a little too speculative with regards to the Brigadier General's real intentions. Although not so unbelievable, there is no way for me to prove Isaac right or wrong, unless I talk to the Brigadier and trust my guts in the end. Anyways, he continues his story:
"March 2001, when (same Hebrew name he refers to) is murdered, 9 settler break in to 13 Palestinian shops here. Junes 2001, Israeli Supreme Court issues out an eviction orders announcing this invasion as an illegal invasion. Settlers are taken out only in February 15th 2006. What happens between June 2001 and Feb 2006? Very simple. Supreme Court sits down in 2002, asks the IDF, 'What's going on? We just  ruled a year ago, you have to evacuate these families, why aren't you doing it?' And there's a special committee in the IDF that sits down and gives a position paper to the court saying, 'That's very simple. Look guys, there's too much terror in this town. We cannot deal with it. We have limited resources, we have to devote our resources to fight terrorism.' You know what? I do agree, I can accept this. I was here in that time. Tough times in Hebron, a lot of security problems, makes sense. You have a group of soldiers, you cannot bring too much. There is a Second Intifada all over. 2003, the same scene again. The Supreme Court asks what's going on and the position paper is 'We're sorry. We need to devote our resources to terrorism.' Fine, I accept. 2004 comes, the Supreme Court sits down. 2005 comes, the Supreme Court sits down. 'What's going on?' You know what the official answer of the committee from the IDF is? 'Look guys, finally the city is quiet, give us a break. Who needs to start it all over again? Who needs this mess?' So the Supreme Court says, 'February 15th, 2006, that's a deadline. Not one second after.' The time of the disengagement, the settlers with the orders of the Israeli society you are allowed to do to them things that you weren't allowed to do before. According to Israeli law, in order to evict a person form the property that he invaded into, he must give him a warrant 30 days in advance. So he has time to appeal against it. So January 2006 the army and the police come here, put the eviction orders, few officers are wounded by the settlers, suddenly Israel wakes up, 'Whoops, we have settler violence in Hebron, what should we do?' It was the first time people spoke about doing a closure, not allowing settlers from outside to come in and resist. A lot of talk. Everybody was expecting here a fight. February 15th comes, sun rises in the morning, around 2-3 nights before settlers left with no struggle. No one understand what happened. How come? Just for the orders? What's going on? Amos Harel, the military reporter back then of the highest newspaper (Haaretz) broke out the story. Yair Golan -we're not talking about a puppet- Yair Golan was back then the division officer of all IDF forces in the West Bank, signed a secret agreement with the settlers. 'You will leave now peacefully, in few months we'll allow you to return.'"

At that point, a journalist looking guy from our group wanted him to repeat the name. Isaac said to him that if he google Amos Harel, Yair Golan and the wholesale market, he'd get the story. Well, I did, and below you can see some of the articles I was able to find. But Isaac continues his story. "Once the Attorney General heard about this agreement he said, 'No no no, Yair Golan, this is not nice. It's against the government policy, it's against the Supreme Court decision. We will not allow them to return.' But of course, nothing happened to Yair Golan. Few months after when the settlers realized they're not allowed to return, two families re-invaded.  And a year after in February 2007, they were re-evicted. I don't know if you remember this. There was a big fuss in the media. 200 policemen were sent to evacuate two families. Some people saw this as a serious sign for law and enforcement. Others thought that this was just a political show, trying to come out to the outside world saying, 'Look guys, we cannot do anything. Look how much force it takes to evacuate families. Sorry.' I'm one of the persons who think this was a political show. I'll show you why. Look at these shops. These shops look like just other closed Palestinian shops we saw on the way here, right? Look at the yellow shop at the end of the road? They look the same, no difference, right? Let's take a close look now." And we walk there. And here's the thing, I missed what he had to say about this yellow shop because I was distracted by the demolished part of the market, and when I went to hear Isaac, he was already finished. And I didn't have the time to ask him to repeat the story for me. :(

This is about the attack of the settlers:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3200187,00.html

This is a very detailed story of the surprisingly peaceful evacuation of the settlers from the Arab shops, very similar to Isaac's version of the story. It's worth reading the whole thing. And it is by Amos Harel:
http://www.haaretz.com/general/no-sorrow-no-pity-1.179075
Somewhere towards the end of the article, GOC Central Command at the time, Yair Naveh is quoted, talking about :
"A generation of frustrated children is growing up here with a distorted world view, and the rift between them and the state is deepening. These youngsters have ripped and burned Israeli flags." It is indeed sad. And I can't help but think about the contribution of the negligence of the State and how it allowed these people to settle there in the first place for the sake of their own "peace of mind". It breaks my heart to see 10 year-olds throwing stones and plastic bottles to Isaac and most possibly to their Palestinian peers and IDF soldiers. I can see on the boy's face when he cringes right after he throws the stone, worried that he might hurt Isaac. Is he going to cringe when he is 15? Does he cringe when the person he's throwing a stone at is Palestinian?

This is written by 3 journalists, including Harel, about IDF denying the secret agreement with the settlers:
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/mazuz-denies-deal-between-idf-and-hebron-settlers-1.178852
Though I'm not sure what it is that they're denying. Those were Arab shops, and you are promising that you'd renting them out to the settlers? How is that not a compromise? Why did you evacuate them? Why didn't you just ask them to pay the rent instead? Has anybody asked Palestinians if they're OK with this deal?

And then the promise is being kept:
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/israel-ends-lease-with-hebron-for-wholesale-market-1.61898
The Palestinian merchants will not be allowed to return to their shops in the market. And they were taken out of there because of a massacre committed against them. And the army overlooked the settlers invading the shops during the Second Intifada. This cannot be in the name of security. You don't place extremists in an area of controversy and expect peace to settle in. And I'm not even sure if IDF is primarily to blame for this, since they had limited resources and enough trouble during the intifada. It is State's responsibility to provide the army with enough resources to deal with the issue and prevent any future conflicts, and they failed. I feel disappointed. And I fear that these are the things that are casting a shadow over the rightful acts of the IDF.

It seems like the settlers are still in those shops today. (http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/palestinians-petition-high-court-to-evict-hebron-squatters-1.326634) And here is a recent article that involves quotes from the spokespersons of the settlers there which apparently are becoming a serious 'threat' to Netanyahu's coalition, published in Der Spiegel:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,719203,00.html

Move on to the next post: Hebron 2

Day 16: Random people, productive day

This title explains my day quite accurately. From today on, I started decided to train after work, around 3:30pm at the SFP premises. On my off days, I can enjoy parks and maybe the sports center or even the beach! But today, which was exceptionally hot (30C), for the first time I trained at SFP. It's the foyer of the workshop building. Quite wide, nice looking, with wooden columns and a wooden roof, of the four walls one overlooks the beautiful garden with palm trees. Pretty, indeed. But before that, the whole day I worked on a report we needed to send to Germany. A foundation from there financially supported a project that the Humanitarian Aid Organization of the school had initiated with the organization we visited this week in Nablus. If you remember, I met the director, Ahmad, of the Future Generation Hands Association. So this project, called the "Child Victims of War" aims to provide children who suffered war-imposed injuries the medical treatment they need. So far they initiated help for 3 young Palestinians who got physical and psychological damages and varying levels of injuries during the Second Intifada.

So while I was working on the report, I had to retrieve information from FGHA's website. Luckily it's all in English. But a broken English. So I asked Halim if he could ask Ahmad what he thinks if I edit the whole website, for free of course. He told me to go ahead even before talking to Ahmad. So now I have another thing to work on this week. Yael also asked me if I could film the whole conference! I said, yeah! On one condition: you're going to allow me to interview people. And she said YES! I can see a documentary taking shape.. :) Well, I hope.

Then this lovely Jewish family from the UK came into my office asking for help. They wanted info and brochure for the primary school here. I took them to Howard Shippin, the Communications Coordinator, and had a nice chat with them on our way to the public relations building. They work at another "unique" primary school in the UK and they were looking for some kind of an affiliation with the one here. Then I met Emma at Ahlan Cafe, while waiting for my delicious lunch. Emma is around 8, lives in Cincinnati, Christian, is in Israel for holiday with her family. She was so surprised that I speak English so well and not from an English-speaking country. She was sweet, maybe I see her in Jerusalem tomorrow.

I like it when I meet people like that, at random, on a sunny day like that. Anyways, the school was already empty around 3:30 so I decided to lock down our quarters, and move to the workshop building for some capoeira. It was good training but I have to figure out something about the dryness of the weather here. Because of that my feet are so dry, and it makes it even more slippery for me on a stone floor. Mop it, says Sean. We'll see about that. I also had a bizarre, awkward and funny encounter there. So I was training, upside down, minding my own business when these elder, conservative looking Arab and Jewish men walked in. At first I thought they're walking by, because you can walk through the foyer to get to the garden and the shack where they sometimes host events. But they didn't. They stopped, started staring at me, looked puzzled like you have no idea. So, I had to get up and well, face them with my dirty outwear (white Chuvisco shirt, and my dark red abada). I asked if I could help them. No answer. I said, "Do you speak English? Because I sure can't speak Arabic or Hebrew." Nothing. They kept on staring at me, not sure what to do, where to go. So I stood there, smiling, not liking the fact that I'm cooling down. Finally though, one of them said something about a meeting, or a workshop they're supposed to have here tonight. So I directed them over to the shack.

Good Training, a nice walk back home and what do I see at the volunteer house?! A GIANT, NEW fridge and again a brand new washing machine!! Mouna was trying to fit in everything we had in two of our broken fridges. She's doing a pretty damn good job. So I helped her peeling the potatoes while she cleaned the kitchen. And I'm proud to say I don't have even a small cut in my hands. She's going make spiced baked potatos with garlic-yogurt-mint sauce. Mmmm. I have to get ready for the bed soon tonight because tomorrow I'm going to be a person at the bus stop in Neve Shalom, hitch-hiking for either Latrun (where I'll take the bus to Jerusalem) or even  better for Jerusalem. I"m very hopeful by the fact that every single person I met here told me how normal and common it is to hitch-hike here, so I have a strong feeling that one of the good sirs or ma'ams of Neve Shalom / Wahat al Salam will give me a ride. I'll be at the Breaking the Silence tour in Hebron, and then striding through the city of JE-RU-SA-LEM! So excited. :)

Day 15: What's going on...

in Neve Shalom / Wahat al Salam?
Nothing particular, as far as I'm aware of. There was a brief power outage around 3 or 4pm. We had a lovely meeting, me, Jacky and Halim and finally agreed on the final version of our application. Jacky will submit it tomorrow. Found out from Yael that there's going to be a very cool conference here next month where several journalists, academics and activists get together. I'll do my best to find my own personal translator but I'm sure I'll meet interesting people and hopefully make good contacts. Also this week (Friday) there's going to be facilitators training and an encounter workshop with teenagers. Not that I'd be able to understand what they speak but who knows, maybe I get lucky and someone translates it for me, some parts of it at least. It seems like a quiet night, and it's really warm which is why I'm hanging out in the common room. Mouna cleaned the whole place, thoroughly, so I'm comfortable for sure and I'm determined to have everyone -including myself- keep it that way! Grrrr.

So that's all about the village, as far as I know. As for me, I think I need to be much more active and productive than this. I fear that this wake-up-train-go-to-school-go-back-to-the-vol-house thing becoming a routine. The first two parts are fine and will stay that way but I need to explore more. For instance why haven't I still been to Tel Aviv? I'm not sure where to go but isn't that the point? I might do that next week. Wednesday I'm going to explore Jerusalem. :D First time!

I think I'm ready to start the capoeira classes. I'll meet the yoga teacher this Friday and ask for her support. We'll see how that goes. Yoga might be nice, if I get a reasonable discount.

I started reading a book called "Missed Opportunities for Peace: U.S. Middle East Policy 1981-1986". I plan on sharing some excerpts from it in the following weeks. Third Monday is over.

Day 14: Getting there..

Folks, it's almost been 2 weeks. We're going to celebrate the end of first month. Today was quite productive. Couldn't train because I had to rush to school. I worked on the UN document. At the end of the day, Jacky asked me to write the gender consideration part. That's why I made it home later than normal. Made mushroom soup. Tasty. Did I tell you that Nammur gets so upset when I point to him how fat he's getting? He leaves the room when I call him fatty. Then tonight when I wanted him to leave the room with me because I was going to lock the door, he scratched me!

Yup, that's how my day turned out to be bloody. Tomorrow morning will start with early training and meditation at the Silence Room. Then, school and more work on UN. I am very curious about the Breaking the Silence tour this Wednesday. So long.

Day 13: Nothing day episode 2

My blog titles are beginning to look like Mwod, I like it. I am determined to make it a hundred and something. Can't give you a specific number because I don't exactly know when I will be returning back to Istanbul. And next week, I shall break this vicious cycle of empty Saturdays. Well not exactly empty because...

I had a very good training this morning. Mouna filmed some parts of it, so that I see my mistakes and well, ideally, as to correct them, in time.

Then, I had lunch, chatted with Mouna and Timo, worked on some stuff, read my books... Oh, fed the cats,  caught them on camera doing funny stuff such as hanging out on a tree. Tomorrow is work day. I am going to read and get ready for tomorrow.

By the way, I booked a tour called Breaking the Silence. (www.breakingthesilence.org.il) It's an "organization of veterans who served in the Israeli Army during the Second Intifada (since Sept 2000) and have taken upon themselves to expose the Israeli public to everyday life in the Occupied Territories, a routine situation that is never reflected in the media. B.T.S. ... bringing forth the voices of the soldiers who had previously remained silent." They take you to Hebron, a city that bears cultural, national, historical and religious importance for both Muslims and Jews, introduce you to some families there. Hebron, apparently, is the second largest Palestinian city in the West Bank, "and the only one that harbors a Jewish settlement in its midst. This is the only city where Jewish and Palestinian families share adjacent house walls." Interesting, right? I'm not sure how exactly they explain their own stories, I mean the veterans. This is one of the hardest locations for the soldiers. On the booklet it also says, "All the testimonies we publish undergo meticulous research, including cross-checking facts with additional eye-witnesses and/or archives of other human rights organizations who are also active in the field. So I guess we'll see how that goes on Wednesday. I'm planning to be a good cameraman and a journalist that day. AND YES they said I can bring my camera, so ha!

Day 12. Nothing really happens in Shabat?

Well, so far yeah, nothing. I mean, I'm sure if I get to catch one of the only two buses from Neve Shalom to Ramla and then to Tel Aviv, something will happen. And something interesting, I bet. And yet, I had a calm, sort of productive Friday yesterday. Woke up around 8. I trained a little, and then called my friend Iris. I was supposed to meet her around 10 at a refugee rights protest where she was going to be drumming.  But me and Timo were supposed to do the groceries and booked the village car yesterday which, at the time I spoke with Iris, apparently, I forgot about. Anyway, I had to cancel on Iris.

Shopping was nice, it was bright and sunny and warm. We went to this town called Ben something -still bad with Israeli names- to a bigger supermarket. It actually looked like a mall since it has other shops and stores adjacent to the grocery section. We got lots of stuff for about 410 Shekels. The road was so pretty, pretty trees and nice roads, and I saw so many bikers. I have to talk to Raida and ask her to email the village to see if anyone wants to rent me their bikes or give me one for free, temporarily of course. :) Then we came back home. Mouna baked potato for us, with her special spice recipe, and garlic yogurt. Delicious food. Timo and her were invited to a xmas party / dinner. Actually I was too but too lazy and in fact too busy with work to join them. Despite the very promising idea of a xmas dinner, and the probability of interesting conversations. So I stayed and worked. Nothing in particular to tell. Tomorrow I'll start my serious capoeira training. It was just some kicks and drills this past week but now I'm going to add sequences. Sunday I'll talk to the director of the sports center and see if I can use the space for my own training.

Day 11: Aylin's in the West Bank!

So what happened today? Went to school in the morning for the meeting mainly. Which ended up being much more productive than the first one. We're certainly getting somewhere. The previous Future Visions document was produced by the High Follow-Up Committee and the National Committee of the Heads of the Arab Local Authorities in Israel, and it mainly focuses on "affiliation, identity and citizenship of the Palestinian Arabs in Israel." Topics like "legal status, land and housing, economic and social development, educational vision for Arab education, Arab Palestinian culture and the political and national work of the Palestinian Arabs in Israel" are covered. It comes up with important points that need to be agreed upon by the Israeli Arabs and Jews. In terms of defining issues, it is an important document for it has never been done before by the Arab leaders in the country. However, to me, it lacks the inclusion of the Israeli Jews, or rather their reflections on the document. Although in terms of Arabs talking about these things among each other is also a significant step. Now, with our proposal, these issues and some more will be discussed and a final document will be proposed at the end of a 2-year period of intense meetings, discussion groups, lectures, independent and academic evals by the Arabs and Jews. So it will be a joint agreement at an optimum level. Halim thinks if they can meet in the middle in 7 out of 10 issues, that should be considered a great success. Then they can begin to promote the document in their own communities or even higher places, wherever their social and political statuses can take them. Now I don't know if it will work or become a legit, reliable academic resource that people cite. I hope so. But it's worth the effort.

Anyways, after the meeting, Halim asked me if I wanted to join him for a ride and a meeting at Nablus. Nablus is an Arab city in the West Bank. I was sort of worried, I must admit, but more so excited. Fun ride we had, talked about several things. Well, basically Halim answered my never ending questions. On the way we passed by a lot of settlements. I never though they would be this frequent.  They were on the way and in the West Bank. I don't think I get the idea here. Why give permission to settlements in a land where you said is an Arab land and you're supposed to recognize as part of another country that may be founded as part of a peace negotiation that you are supposedly so willing to start. Extending the land you already have doesn't feel like you really do want peace. It is my disappointment about Israel, a country I believe should exist. OK, moving on.

We passed 3 check points, two of which in the West Bank, right before you enter Nablus. The security was not strict, they let us pass probably because we had an Israeli car. These soldiers probably know which car to stop, most of the times at least. I tried to film the surrounding area and the car ride but can't say they're all good. I was shy, didn't want to disturb the people, camera may look pretty annoying sometimes. But if I want to have good footage, I better learn how to be a hard boiled camera person. But according to my observation, I can say that it was a typical Middle Eastern town. It reminded me of some cities I visited in Iraq. A very superficial comment on my part though, I'm aware of that. Most buildings looked unfinished, in concrete grey. So many store signs, all in Arabic, sometimes with an English version underneath. I would say in the downtown area, we met Halim's friend Ahmad. He doesn't speak English and since it was a business trip, they were engulfed in their Arabic NGO business talk, I got the time to observe and write on my journal. I saw girls wearing hijap but there was a significant number of them not wearing it. Halim says there was less conservatism, as in covering the hair, 10 years ago. Fundamentalism, religiousness is a growing trend for so long. But the situation in the West Bank cannot be compared to what goes on in Gazza.

So we went to this bank called the Bank of Palestine. A fancy building, close to the Ministry of Tourism.  The life looks up and running despite the apparent underdevelopment, the necessity of further infrastructure. I looked at the city with my ignorant eyes, not knowing what I'm looking for. After the bank, we went to a restaurant to have lunch. It looked like a second class Istanbul restaurant and I hope I don't sound condescending, it's just an observation, a simple comparison. The food though, was incomparable. Several kinds of humus, babaganush, pita bread, fresh cucumbers and tomato and pickles, lovely mint tea. Oh and falafel, of course. There were so many young people, having lunch, smoking hookah... Ahmad, Halim's friend, strikes me as a fella with ants in his pants, hyper active, if you will. He is so excited about his projects and apparently can't wait to show Halim his reports at the office. As soon as I finished my tea, we drove to his office.

I could see how attentive he is, of his office, of every detail, clearly proud of the pictures on the walls of this small apartment, showing kids in his workshops. I suppose they have been conducting encounter workshops as well. And also he's involved in some serious empowering the women activities. According to what Halim told me later on, he did some pretty good jobs and he is frustratingly hard working and smart person. Inside the elevator on our way up to his offices, I saw his key chain with a picture on it. I thought it was him and asked if it was so. Halim said it was his brother. At that moment, I felt something odd. I can't explain it but I almost knew what happened to the brother. Found out later from Halim that Ahmad's brother was killed during the second intifada. Not that he was a militant or anything, but Halim said everybody was fighting, involved in it somehow, on the street. So Ahmad's brother was shot. I don't know the details. But Halim says, this is one of the reasons he feels it's so important to support this guy's work here in Nablus. He truly believes in what he's doing, he believes that he can change some things, for kids, for women, for whoever he works for. He needs to do something. According to Halim, people like Ahmad, with the energy, the motivation, the passion they inherently have, it might be so easy to slip to the bad side, the bad side and style of resistance. If I'm being clear enough. I appreciate Halim's sensitivity. It is indeed important to show people like Ahmad that these amazing things they've been trying to achieve under such uncomfortable circumstances, do actually mean a lot, that it is possible to change things, in the long run. I can see that.

Well, these are only some of the things I had in mind for the blog, but I most certainly intend to write about my intense but very informative talk with Halim. Not now, but maybe tomorrow.

Day 10: Christmas party at NSWAS

December, 22nd 2010 Wednesday

December 22nd has started all sunny and warm, and pretty. Can't say I slept well, but overall I don't feel too tired. Took a hot shower and then trained on the terrace, with the cats. The kittens are getting used to being around me. I saw their secret spot over on the neighbor's roof top garden. Or rather, they let me saw it. After training, I packed some food for breakfast and lunch and went to school. Generally I worked on the materials for tomorrow's meeting. Had a nice chat with Zekeriya and Halim, sipping on the Arab coffee. The weather is so beautiful that you just don't want to stay inside.

Adan came in the afternoon and he wanted to play capoeira. I was just too busy and by the time I was ready, he was too sleepy! I guess we'll have to wait until tomorrow. AND I still haven't started working on the library. That will also  have to wait until tomorrow. In the following days, I'd like to give you some details about the UN project, but it's just too early right now. What made today different happened after I got back home to meet Timou to go shopping. Unexpected, random goodness feels much pleasant than a well-planned one. For instance...

I met Timou over at the volunteer house around 5, but there were some issues regarding us taking the village car and the money blah blah blah. We needed to talk to Raida, our coordinator to sort things out. We found out that she was going to be at this party, which happened to be a xmas party, and decided to go there. It was held at the Pluralistic Spiritual Center. Abdulsalam and some kids were getting the courtyard ready for the party. Timou and myself rushed in to help them. There was a very interesting.... thing there and Abdulsalam told me it was the ecological xmas tree. Hah! Looks superb! It's made out of plastic glasses, bottles, papers, cardboard and wire fence, I think? Here's what it looks like. Later on people started to show up, with many many many kids, and puppies and dogs! On the background there were xmas songs, in Arabic! As in, jingle bells in Arabic. That was something! I filmed a lot but not all of them are good, so I'll just share a few of them with you. I played with the kids, and the puppies but the food! Man, the food was priceless! There was a huge turkey, but for vegetarians like me they had the best cinnamon rice, Mediterranean salads, home made babaganush, cookies, cakes... you name it. Towards the end, Raida collected fresh lemon grass from the garden and made tea. Sooooo good. As you might imagine, people were cheerful, all smiling, happy, joking around, ignoring the cold. I've had some fun talks with people. Some christian Arab women were my favorite though. They thought I was 19.

I have to admit, I caught tears in my eyes as I was watching the people and the kids laughing and playing and offering food to each other. Kids playing pillow fight, talking in both languages... Is it really possible that one day they may grow up and hate each other? I wish not. I also don't think that it's fair to say this village is an exception, this peace can only be achieved in a small community, not in the whole country. I acknowledge how hard it can be, but certainly not impossible.

By the way, I made a very cool friend at the party. His name is Ramiz, the owner of the little puppy, Buddy. I believe he's around 10, with glasses, kind of skinny but his eyes are piercing you with smartness, also very cute. He's fluent in English. While I was filming the pup, he came up running and went, "What are you doing? Give me 5 Shekels." Apparently I wasn't supposed to film the dog, nor pet him. I was taken my surprise, but it took me a second to join the game. We started negotiating, and then, because he liked me, he reduced it to 3 Shekels. Our gave continued on until a friend of his came and literally lifted him up and took him away from the scene. We made jokes about this the rest of the night. His dad says Ramiz is going to be a very good businessman, I can't help but agree with him. Apparently we're neighbors, so we'll be seeing each other quite often. There's so much to tell about this night, but it's so hard to describe the joy. I'm going to try to select some footage of that night. Unfortunately they're not that good.

Tomorrow we have the meeting for the UN project at SFP. Speaking of which, I have a short video about the School for Peace.


Nammur gets upset when I call him a fatty, I think. Because he leaves the room immediately after! Go figure.

Day 9: Thinkings and same deeds

I thought of simple things today, that when you think about them long enough, they may become these fathomless, acute puzzles in your head? Not quite sure how best to describe them.

Thought about how strange life is. Simple enough. That small and seemingly insignificant encounters define the very path you may decide to take.

A person you meet, just randomly, becomes the most important person in your life, for a short period of time, or until the day you die.

Meeting some significant people may have a bigger effect that you could ever be ready to accept, an effect as to where you are going to be, physically and mentally. In the most funny and perhaps unreliable way you might have felt the importance of not letting go of these people, or not.

Cheesy, perhaps. OR could have been written in a more complex language and sounded less superficial. If then.

As for the rest of the day: I woke up early, didn't train and I don't know why, perhaps because I couldn't sleep well and perhaps this whole thing with Mouna made me a little more uncomfortable than I thought.  I really hope she's all right.

Anyway, I went to school and started getting ready for the meeting with Halim and Jacky. It was, I think, a very productive session, through which we came up with most of the proposal for the United Nations Democracy Fund. We seem to have a pretty good project but there are some very important parts of it that Halim needs to work on. Jacky and I were worried that what we have written so far was too vague and needed more tangible, envisioned results and suggestions. So I'll be working on the previously accepted cases and how they had been presented. We'll meet again this week on Thursday.

Nothing special about tonight. The weather is gorgeous, and I need to make plans to visit Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and Haifa. I have hopes as to where this journey will take me, but I need to be much more productive and focused.

Day 8: Firstsss

First fresh basil, mint, green pepper and eggplant picked from the small organic garden, and while doing that I discovered some very cool areas to train parkour,

First time looking at the view from the top of the library building which should be a secret since it's forbidden to hang out there, Whoops.

First assignment, or rather first participation in a team for a grant application. It's the United Nations Democracy Fund.

First meeting will be tomorrow morning at 10AM, at the SFP premises. :)

First time Nammur tried to bit me playfully and pawed me by accident, just like Leo always does. (Miss you, Monsieur Leo.)

Before and after these first-times I trained a little, worked on some documents that will be helpful for tomorrow's meeting, had fun, had not-so-fun stuff and fed the cats.

Mouna is acting really weird and I'm worried about her. She has back pain ever since I got here and she claims that Raida didn't get her prescribed painkillers. It's so sad that she's suffering from all these. She was supposed to be back in Germany couple of days ago but her flight was canceled due to weather conditions in Germany. So now she has to wait, I don't know for how long.

That's my day today.

Day 7: First day of the week, Sunday? Meh.

It's been almost a week! Time flies. Here I was in Miami enjoying my routine and my time with Sean and his family, only to find myself flying back to Turkey in November, filled with worries, and now I'm in Israel, trying to be as productive as I can, take good advantage of living in a Mediterranean village, spending winter as if it's spring time, meet as many people as I can, and build my way back to the States. Is it going to happen? I don't know.

But it's Sunday, and on Sundays people start working here. It's the first day of the week. If I don't think about what it is, I think it's going to work for me as well. Because I went to bed late last night and because of that I couldn't wake up early enough to find time to train before going to school. So, I rushed to get to SFP and finish up the Turkish brochure I was working on. I did, finally, and then worked on some videos and pictures I took. Yael said she would love it if I take more pictures in the future. I think this is or will be a good opportunity for me to propose my idea of making a film. She also showed me the library of the school. Amazing books in they have in there! Most importantly, the majority of the books are in English. Books on International Law, Women's Studies, Arab-Israeli conflict, conflict resolution, peace studies and many more. I took the liberty to give myself an assignment of reorganizing the library. In the mean time, I'll become more familiar with the books there and this way I'll get into my own research. While I was planning the rest of the week, Adan came in. With him he had Marva, Fatin's daughter whose English is very poor but she made it very clear to me that she wanted to train capoeira. :) I don't how many times she repeated the word: capoeira. All right, I said, let's train a little bit. So we did, then I appointed Adan as my assistant (hehe) and had him teach Marva how to do the ginga. He took very seriously, which he should have! ;) After Marva and her mom left, Adan and I worked on his quixadas and armadas. He's talented, smart, and flexible. This last one could be because he is only 7. As long as he is interested and willing to learn more, I think it's a great age to start. Again when he was having trouble explaining himself to me, we used the online dictionary and papers. He likes writing down some of the words he utters in English. I realized that since his Hebrew and Arabic are his two primary languages, he tends to write from right to left, in English as well. Not just that, but he inverts the letters too. I did showed him the right way to write in English though.

Sooooooon after I went home and couldn't help but washed all the dishes in the sink. It was gross. I told everybody that it'd be better if we wash whatever dish we use as soon as we're done instead of piling them on the counter. We'll see how that works. Anywho, I fed myself AND the cats. So good that they stopped yelling at me. :) I love them. Gotta get to bed early tonight so that I can wake up early, train, and go to work, and not be a lazyhead.

Day 6: nothing day

This is the best way to describe today. Nothing, and not in a bad way. Maybe it's because it was shabat, or because it was Saturday in a village. Woke up late, around 9AM. Trained, but I was feeling too tired and I don't know why. So I took a walk in the village, and ended up at Ahlan. Had some mint tea and read my book on minorities in the Middle East. The cafe was  busy today and as more people started walking in, I felt like I shouldn't be occupying a table for just a cup of tea. So I decided to leave. I'm no guest after all.

I was planning to explore more of the "pluralistic spiritual center" and it seemed like the best day to do it. I was still feeling sleepy and tired, could be the weather. On the way I saw Zekeriya doing some kind of a construction job next to a house. Apparently it was his friend Voltaire's. Yes, you read it right. Voltaire is not French, and he doesn't look like "Voltaire" at all. I asked about the cars that were parked along the road. Apparently there was some kind of a gathering at the spiritual center. Then I remembered Timou telling me about it. This happens once every month. People from Neve Shalom and from different cities get together to celebrate all religions. I don't know how they do that because the doors were closed and I didn't hear anything despite my obviously failed attempt to eavesdrop. Whoops. So went around the first building and found my way into the room of silence. It's a round structure. Well it actually looks like a giant golf ball with small round windows on the ceiling, like an old Ottoman hamam. Because of its round shape, I'm assuming, every bits of sound, your foot step, the cracking of the straw mat stool you sit on, "tut, tut"... You hear EVERYTHING you do, EVERY move you make. You really have to make an effort to keep it down. I decided to come here every morning, whenever available, to meditate. It's much better than my room. If not for the sound features, it has a better view for sure. It was getting cold after a while in there, so I had to get out and sit on a bench, conveniently situated for a panoramic view. I was reading my book when some people started coming out of the first building with plates in their hands. They were not talking to each other and all preferred to sit and eat alone. Curious. I left after a while. Timou said there's going to be a bonfire at night. I might join them.

Nothing particular about the evening except for a nice dinner with roommates and a very interesting and intense conversation afterwards with my third roommate Sousant in her room on Islam, religion, women in Islam, women in all religions, believing in god and some more personal stuff. Sousant is Palestinian, very smart, pretty, and she teaches at the elementary school here for couple of years now.

Later on I joined some people by the bonfire. Had some unimportant, but pleasant talks. OK, let's call it a camp fire. Didn't stay there long though, I was very tired and it was kind of cold today. I have to get ready for my second week at work. Excited to hear how the Jordan workshops went this weekend.