Welcome, Tuesday 06 January 2009, 06:27

Report from Hebron from ISM Member Think I owe you a good long Email by now but have been very busy. I'm living in the Old City part of Hebron in the south, which is very beautiful but unfortunately rather empty. Hebron is a unique case in the Occupation as there are Israeli settlements actually inside the city itself. The settlers get very violent and aggressive towards the Palestinians particularly on Jewish holidays when the Palestinians are put under curfew and the settler run amok in the street smashing shops up and spraying racist graffiti every where (Die Arabs, Run Arabs, The land of Israel for the people of Israel, Conquered etc and also lots of stars of David). Because of this and the prevalence of checkpoints everywhere, most Palestinians have fled the Old City. One of our plans at the moment is to do a paint action to erase this graffiti tied in with the anniversary of the massacre in Hebron's Ibrahimi mosque (the tomb of Abraham) in 1994 when a settler entered the mosque during prayer and machine gunned the congregation. The apartment itself is really cool, meter thick stone walls with domed ceilings but no shower so have to throw water over ourselves in a tub. Have been up on the roof also but far too cold at the moment, snow expected tomorrow. I also really like the rest of the group in Hebron and we work well together and have funny times, but my best friend left a few days ago to go home and have been missing her. Have been on lots of demonstrations in the area against the Wall and land confiscation for a network of settler road. Am getting used to sound bombs (things the soldiers throw that go bang as loud as a grenade but don't explode) although they are very disorienting and if you didn't see one come near you can leave you temporarily deaf. Have not had much bad effects from the tear gas as the wind has usually been in our favour and have not been fired at with bullets or rubber bullets yet. The scariest part of the demonstrations is when the soldiers are 'dispersing the crowd' and we are retreating. This is when the kids start throwing stones at the army and they are most likely to shoot but you have your back to them then. My friend and I used to hold hands during the scary bits (all of it) as we are supposed to "stay in groups'. Everyone goes on demonstrations, the theory being that if you're old enough to walk, you're old enough to demonstrate. Once in Eskaka (the place where the route of the wall deviates furthest from the green line - 24km) we stayed over the night before. The five year old boy from that family was going with us and his father, and his mum had packed his pockets with onions and lemons (you use these for tear gas when you can't breathe). The thought of a British five year old doing this is inconceivable but for these people its their homes, their land and their whole livelihood at risk so the whole village turns out even old men with walking sticks over the stony hills. Was really inspired by some women in Eskaka who at the tail of the demonstration turned back a Border police jeep that was trying to chivvy the demonstration beck to the village faster. We had just been shot at by a mad settler who was driving alongside us and these women weren't having it. It's nice not to be the only women at demonstrations as occurs more often in the South. Have also met a group of Israeli anarchists who come to the same demonstrations. They can read the situation better than us as they are more experienced and also translate the soldiers Hebrew for us. Last week near Hebron, Khaled Adar we were demonstrating and two of my friends were arrested. Another was arrested and beaten up a bit but at the time of putting on handcuffs he wasn't actually being held by a soldier and managed to walk away. My friend and I were warned by the Anarchists and had run away a safe distance by then, although I did manage to twist my ankle by running over rocky ground as fast as I could and trying to look behind me at the same time. My friends were released the same night and hadn't given anything away so I hope I could stay as cool under the same pressure. Spent last night in a town near Hebron called Beit Ommar, beautiful farmland of grapes and plum trees. Unfortunately they are facing dual threats of the Wall and a settler road across their land, one going basically left to right and the other from top to bottom as it was when looking at the aerial photograph of the region. (Sorry, best explanation I can offer ). Myself and another ISM member helped a men from the Municipality translate a pamphlet about this into English to spread awareness and stayed with a lovely family who gave us velour tracksuits to wear. Have written as much as I can although its about a 10th of what I've been doing. Am generally very well although got very upset last week about a baby martyr who was killed in the bombing of Hebron in 2002. The vast majority of Palestinians are wonderful people and are very kind to us. Hope to hear from you soon - well done in Exeter sounds like you've been having fab meetings lately!   Contact Webmeister: fuad@exeterpsc.org.uk All text and graphics © Exeter PSC 2003-7, and/or their respective owners.