A walk in the Souq and Tel Rumeida

We went for a meeting this morning with Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) and Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) to discuss the current situation and see how everyone is doing. EAPPI and CPT reported harrassment of Palestinian worshipers near the Ibrahimi Mosque, as well as a beating of a Palestinian young man by soldiers, near the Kiryat Arba settlement. These are areas that will be worth checking out more.

Things at the Souq had been quiet, with no problems reported in the last while. The reason for the quiet is that many Palestinians have stopped coming there after Ramadan. The reason that has been expressed by many is fear of the Army. We walked down it today, there were less people shopping than usual. Business has already often been a struggle for the shopkeepers, now it is worse.

Afterwards, we walked into Tel Rumeida, and were allowed in. The people living there, though the Closed Military Zone had been officially lifted, still need to provide numbers to soldiers in order to enter and exit their own neighbourhood. We heard that some who live there try to avoid leaving their homes to go shopping and see friends, since they don't know how long it may take before they are allowed back in.
We were able to walk into our former apartment. No one had been there for the past several months, and outside the window is a checkpoint where we saw soldiers searching people. We could not interfere since there is a very high risk that if we did, we would be denied all entry to the neighbourhood. There is a possibility we may be one day allowed to move back in, so we did some cleaning. For now though, in that area. it is necessary for us to keep a low profile.

A walk in the Souq, where many have stopped coming after Ramadan.

Graffiti

Just a few blocks down, where the Army for the most part doesn't go.

Checkpoint 56, one of the checkpoints diving H1 and H2.

A close up photo of the checkpoint. New security has been installed, so when a person goes in through one set of gates, he goes into a small room where he or she is alone with a soldier or soldiers, before being allowed to leave. No one aside from the person in the room and the soldiers inside can see what is going on.

Tel Rumeida.

View from the roof of the Abu Shamsiya family. They built a mesh around their yard, since the settlers who often go on their roof have thrown things down from it onto their property.

The Abu Shamsiyas are very involved in documenting and exposing the crimes of the soldiers and settlers, and face a lot of intimdation and harassment.

Our former apartment, where ISM used to live in Hebron before being evicted in November.

The soldiers who evicted the ISMers in November broke in both through the front door, as well as through the roof. This hole in the wall was made by them.

View from our window at the former house of soldiers stopping Palestinian women.