Violence and Non-Violence in Tel Rumeida.

Hani Abu Haikel told us a story about  the prophet Mohammed when we visited  his home in the Hebron neighborhood of Tel Rumeida. The story goes that Mohammed once had a nasty neighbor who threw trash over the wall into Mohammed's yard every day. But on one occasion, no trash came over the wall for three days. Mohammed then prepared food and took it to his neighbor. When his puzzled neighbor asked why, Mohammed said, "Well, when you didn't throw trash over the wall for three days, I thought you must be sick and needed food."

Hani's own commitment to non-violence began some years ago after he had been in an Israeli prison for six months under a procedure called "administrative detention" in which Palestinians can be imprisoned for six months with no charges made and no trial held. After six months are up, another six month sentence can be imposed.  Hani was at home celebrating his release from prison with friends when they saw images on television of a man sitting in the middle of a street in the old city of Jerusalem holding a big sign saying "Stop the occupation." The police detained the man for a few hours and then let him go. Hani's friends laughed at the man thinking him foolish, ineffective and even cowardly, but Hani didn't. He saw how the man's action had embarrassed the Israelis, brought wide attention to the issue, and could not be used by the Israelis to justify more oppression of Palestinians, in the way that violent acts of resistance are used. Palestinian violence also helps  maintain support and sympathy for Israel in the international community. As Hani said, "Violence is the oxygen of the Israelis."

Israeli settlers and Palestinians live right next to each other, cheek by jowl, in Tel Rumeida and other parts of Hebron.  Settlers, do all they can to expand their territories and push Palestinians out, so there are many opportunities for creative non-violence. Some years ago the settlers cut the water pipes to Hani's house. The Palestinian municipality of Hebron  agreed to bring a tank truck with water to Hani's house to fill his home tank. But when the truck arrived at the street below Hani's house the soldiers at the check point would not let it through.  So Hani got all the members of his family and many friends to walk down the street with an assortment of pitchers and other water containers and bring back water to Hani's tank. After this went on for a while and was filmed, the military became embarrassed and let the water truck go to the house.

Unfortunately, violence against Palestinians by settlers is common in Tel Rumeida. Hani's father was beaten to death by settlers, a settler drove his jeep over Hani's foot breaking the ankle. His grape vines have been burned and his almond trees have been bulldozed for a settlement. Hani was once shot at  by a settler from a nearby house, and Hani showed us bullet holes in the steps made at the time of the shooting.  But he is not leaving, showing once again the steadfastness ("sumud") of Palestinians' and their ties to the land.

Abdul pointing to bullet holes in stairway 

The Peruvian Nobel Prize winning novelist, Mario Vargas Llosa, visited Tel Rumeida in 2005. He was struck by the resilience of the 50 Palestinian families who had managed to remain in Tel Rumeida in the face of 'a ferocious, systematic persecution by settlers'. The latter: "throw stones at them, toss rubbish and excrement on their homes; organize raids to invade and devastate their houses, assault their children as the latter return from school while Israeli soldiers look on with total indifference. No one told me about this: I saw it all with my own eyes, heard it with my own ears from the mouths of the victims themselves. I possess a video which shows a hair-raising scene where the boys and girls of the Tel Rumeida settlement hurl stones and kick Arab students and their schoolmistresses."

I have known about the settler harassment of Palestinians for some time, but I have also wondered if there might not be some settlers who don't like the conflict and would like more  friendly relations with their neighbors. So I have asked many Palestinians here about that possibility.  The answer in Hebron at least is largely no. They told me that you just can't talk to the settlers here.  One Palestinian told me that he once asked a settler if they could just be normal neighbors, but the settler told him "No, I will only be your neighbor when you move to Jordan or Egypt or Syria." Hani did tell us that  he once had a pleasant exchange with a settler  when  they talked about their families and gardens. But after that one exchange he never saw that settler again. 

Hebron is divided into two parts H1 and H2. H1 is where about 400,000 Palestinians live and is controlled by Palestinians. H2 has about 30,000 Palestinians and 150 to 800 Israeli settlers. H2 is controlled by the Israeli military and border police. All of the Hebron settlements are in H2. One has to go through military checkpoints to enter or leave H2. Tel Rumeida is in H2. I'll say more about H1, H2, checkpoints and the militarization of Hebron in a future blog. 

Checkpoint into Tel Rumeida

Note the cameras above the turnstiles