Bits and pieces

• An amazing thing I’ve learned on this trip is that there is a swelling movement for non-violent resistance among the Palestinians here in the Hebron/South Hebron Hills area.  I do not know what it is like in the rest of Palestine.   We have talked with many people who believe that non-violent resistance is their best hope.  Violence simply helps the Israelis to justify what they are doing here.

• We must remember that there are different types of Israeli settlers.  A settler is someone living on land occupied by Israel after the 1967 war, land that according to U.N. resolutions belongs to the Palestinians.  So all settlers are problematic by definition.  However, only a small minority of the settlers carry out violence and other daily/direct harassment against Palestinians. 

• By law, Israeli soldiers in the Occupied Territory are there to protect Jewish settlers.  By law they may try to intervene when settlers attack Palestinians, but by law the soldiers may not use force against the settlers.   The reality on the ground is that soldiers often stand by and watch as settlers harass Palestinians.  Sometimes they coordinate with settlers.  Settler activity we have heard about this week:
• Between Hami and his sister, they have had 7 cars completely burned by settlers.

• In the village of At-Tuwani , we drank tea with a man whose brother was riding a donkey right by the house we were sitting in when a settler attacked, stabbing the brother and the donkey multiple times.

• In the Old City of Hebron, settlers have taken over the 2^nd floor above several buildings, above Arab shops below.  Shop keepers have put up nets and pieces of sheet metal to try to protect against the garbage and water settlers occasionally throw down on them and customers.

Settlement housing above Palestinian shops, netting to protect from things thrown from above

• In Hebron there are about 450 settlers and about 1500 Israeli soldiers.

• Usually Palestinians do not bother to try to file charges against settlers because 95% of cases filed with the Israeli government by Palestinians are dismissed.

• The U.S. government gives Israel $3 billion annually.  As a U.S. citizen, I am therefore complicit in what goes on here