From absurd to tragic - EAs reflect on their first week in Hebron
Suha Haddad holding up a photo of her 10-year old son, Ahmad.
EAs visit the Jabari family in the Wadi Hussein area on the outskirts of Hebron.
After just a little bit more than a week in Hebron, what has made the biggest impression on the team is the families we have met, and the stories that they have been willing to share with us. The two families presented below are only a few of those that we meet every day, and that struggle hard for a semblance of an ordinary life under conditions that range from absurd to tragic.
The Haddad family
One of the families we have met is the Haddad family: Abd Al-Karim and Suha and their six children. They live in a house in Tel Rumeida, a beautiful green area on top of a hill overlooking Hebron. The family moved to the house a couple of years ago, because living expenses are less in Tel Rumeida than where they used to live. The Tel Rumeida area is heavily populated by settlers, and the Haddad family have had constant problems with harassment, threats of violence and actual attacks since they moved in, especially on Jewish holidays and festivities. The worst incident happened two years ago, when one of their sons, Ahmad, was severely beaten by settlers. Ahmad, who was ten years old at the time, was playing football outside of the family's house, when a group of teenage settlers came up to him. They started throwing stones and beating him, and finally pushed him to the ground. The boy had to go to the hospital for treatment for wounds in his head and to his arm. His arm is still not well after two years. On other occasions, the house has been bombarded by stones, and in wintertime with snowballs.
Recently, the family has had many worries about one of their younger sons, the seven-year-old Qusai. He has to pass an area with a well ("Abraham's well") that is considered holy by the settlers, and the latter often come there to bathe themselves. Passing the well on his way home from school in the afternoons, Qusai has had frightening encounters with settlers and the Israeli army. On several occasions, these encounters have scared him so much that he has run away and not returned to his home until late.
In order to improve the family’s ability to record the settler aggressions, the Israeli human rights organisation B’tselem has included it in its campaign "Shooting back." In this campaign, families are given video cameras, and are encouraged to use them to document any hostile action from settlers. The family tells us that the video camera has increased their sense of security since they received the camera one year ago.
The Jabari family
Another family that we have met is the Jabari family in the Wadi Hussein area. Wadi Hussein lies on the outskirts of Hebron, and is a mainly rural valley that is surrounded on two sides by the Kiryat Arba and the Givat Ha'avot settlements. The families living in the valley have to endure different kinds of settler aggressions. Recently, the settlers have taken measures to expand further into the valley, by taking over several buildings and land belonging to Palestinian families. On land belonging to the Jabari family, settlers have constructed a temporary tent synagogue. The police have been to the area to remove the tent on several occasions, but it has been rebuilt every time.
Karam, Nadi and Hani Al-Jabari, three of the members of the large Jabari family, have told us about the difficult circumstances under which the family lives. Their houses are very close to a relatively big asphalted road. However, the road has been closed off for several years, and no Palestinian cars are allowed to pass through the area. The entrance to the area is sealed off by a checkpoint adjacent to the new Beit Ha-Shalom settlement.
One of the Jabari brothers is working on an extension to his house when we come to visit him. He tells us about the difficulties in bringing in construction material, due to the closure of the road. Instead of cars, horses and carts have to be used. Apart from creating practical and logistical problems of this kind, the closures also make the family feel trapped and enclosed.
The Jabari family have many examples of incidents of harassment at the checkpoint. Recently, one 20-year old member of the family was detained while returning home from work in the afternoon. He was taken to a police station at a considerable distance to the Wadi Hussein area, and was only released the morning after. He was never given any explanation to why he was detained and held in custody.
One of the Jabari brothers tells us that families in the area have been offered large amounts of money to sell their houses to settlers. On a few occasions, house owners have actually accepted the offers, then leaving the area quickly for fear of retribution. The Jabaris, however, he adds, would never abandon their land, regardless of how much they were offered or how much harassment they would have to endure.
Stories such as those described above are good illustrations of the resilience of the Palestinian community in Hebron and their devotion to their homes and their families. We, as an EAPPI team, feel honoured to work in close cooperation with the Hebronite community, and hope that our support, however small, will be useful to them.
