Hebron: A Palestinian City with a Whole Lot of Politics

Welcome to Palestine!

Although the sign certainly appears ominous, I have only one reaction upon passing these signs: excitement. These are a fancy little addition Israel has added along the streets of Palestine warning when the streets enter "Area A" territory. Sorry for the quick history lesson, but it's important. After the Oslo II Accords Palestine was separated into 3 types of territories: Area A (only 3% of the West Bank) is under full military and civil control by the Palestinian Authority. Area B contains land which is under Palestinian civil control but under joint control by both the Israeli and Palestinian militaries. Area C, which is a majority of Palestine, is under full Israeli civil and military control. Passing those red signs warn that I'm leaving the jurisdiction of Israel. Frightening for my university, parents, and government, but by all personal accounts it's one of my favorite parts of "Israel".

This past Saturday was my second time entering into such territory. However despite going with a tour guide (for my own safety) this was much less tourist oriented than my first time crossing into Bethlehem. I was off to Hebron.

I went through an alternative tourism group who pairs travelers with locals who show you around the city. I was joined by a 30-something Austrian embassy worker from Tel Aviv and his mother. The three of us walked around the Old City of Hebron, through the market, and just enjoyed spending the day in Palestine along with our local guide who is a school teacher outside of Bethlehem during the week.

This is a picture of myself, the woman traveling to Hebron with me, a local shopkeeper, and our guide for the day.

The main site in Hebron is the Abraham mosque/church/synagogue. It's the city where Abraham lived and the mosque/church/synagogue is located on his tomb. Locally Hebron is called الخليل which means "friend" in Arabic because Abraham is considered the 'friend of God'. The building has gone through different phases historically between being a church, mosque, and synagogue. Now it is split between the Muslim and Jewish communities in Hebron.

The Muslim part of the site. Israel has created a checkpoint which you can see on the left where Muslims have to get checked before they can go into the mosque to pray. For "safety reasons" I'm told.

The synagogue side of the structure. On the left you see two IDF soldiers who stopped us from going any closer since we aren't Jewish.

Inside the Abraham mosque. Behind me is the mihrab and to my right is the minbar where the imam talks from on Fridays. It was originally Saladin's minbar.

After the mosque our guide briefly left us on our own so we could enter the kilometer or so of street that Israel had seized from the Palestinians. They welded all the shops shut and threw out the locals so that a few Israeli's could move into a settlement there. It was one of the most surreal moments I've had while traveling. The streets were deserted and there was Israeli propaganda posted everywhere amongst the few remaining signs and buildings that hinted toward the Arab life that used to exist there.

The empty Israeli controlled street in Hebron.

Standing in the deserted streets.

One of the shops the soldiers welded shut with Jewish graffiti next door.

What was even stranger is when a Jew did decide to walk outside they were accompanied by flocks of soldiers. In the photo below there are at least 13 soldiers just to accompany two Jews who were walking in the street. It's just a really weird thing to observe and wrap your head around. Also, Hebron is supposed to be Area A where it's illegal for Israelis to be, but yet they're controlling certain parts quite significantly.

I'm aware that settlers are not representatives of all of Israel or of the entire Jewish population. That would be like saying the Westboro Baptist Church represents Christianity or Americans. I don't mean to point fingers at anyone in this post, merely express what a strange situation I observed while in Hebron. What was even harder for me personally is that most of these extremist settlers in Hebron are actually Americans. Hearing a Palestinian tell me that I'd get to meet my fellow people while walking around was such a painful thing to hear. The fact that a part of my identity overlaps with these people despite feeling so polar opposite from them made it harder to accept their behavior.

The soldiers accompanying the two men walking around.

For lunch we visited a local Palestinian family who cooked homemade Arabic food for us. They had been living on a specific piece of property for years when a settlement decided to set up right on the edge of their property just uphill of them. The settlers blocked off access to their house, blocked their water supply, and in general tried to make life as tough as possible for the family living there. There was no shortage of horror stories of violence toward the family.

The IDF stopped us and interrogated us when we tried to walk near the settlement to get to the Arab man's house for lunch. A soldier collected our passports, asked us a bunch of questions, and just seemed obscenely suspicious of our desire to eat a home cooked meal. On our way out of the neighborhood the same solider had the audacity (knowing I was an American due to obtaining my passport) to tell me he'd be interested in a green card. 

The Palestinian family who provided us lunch is in the house on the lower left. The bright orange building is the settlers' apartments.

Despite the hardships and the tension in Hebron the locals are incredibly friendly and welcoming. It's hard to walk around without being welcomed into a shop for tea or coffee and the locals are bilingually chatty. They were amazingly good about putting up with my basic Arabic speaking skills and both encouraged and corrected me along the way. The driver who took us through the separation barrier checkpoint was so pleased with my conversational skills he even offered to drop me off in my neighborhood so I wouldn't have to catch a cab on Shabbat!

One of the most interesting locals I met was Abed Abu Muhammad. He is one of the few shop owners left near the Abraham mosque and near the Jewish settlement. Despite being offered lots of money he refused to leave his shop and home. He was literally born inside those walls and over Arabic coffee and conversation he was keen to tell me to look at the stone beneath our chairs. "See that rock?" he'd knock on the ground, "The stone is tough. Palestinians are tougher." He has been there so long Israel refuses to grant him permission to leave Palestine for travel because he attracts so many visitors. The locals refer to the Israeli checkpoint near his shop as "Abed's checkpoint".

Sitting with Abed, one of the few shop owners left after he invited us in for coffee.

Hebron is clearly a city of polarities. As much as my post swings bipolarly between paragraphs so too did my entire day. It was an exhausting trip full of emotional stories and experiences but also really amazing locations and people. Maybe it's not where the adverage person would spend their free time, but I'm glad I got the chance to.

Eclectic Doesn't Even Begin to Cover It...

This Wednesday was pretty crazy for a school day. First off, I had to survive two different Arabic quizzes I had spent the better part of the first half of my week preparing for. After classes I was ready to go home, relax, and unwind. However, that just wasn't the universe's plan for my evening.

Theresa and I were walking back from campus when we noticed a large gathering of people and police at the top of the hill. Clearly, this was way too interesting not to investigate.

A view over Theresa's shoulder of the police at the top of the hill.

We soon found out that there was a student "tour" about to happen of Isawiya, the Arab neighborhood right next to campus that all of the recent drama has been occurring in. Confused as to why students would want to take a "tour" of a residential (and Arab) neighborhood so close to home, I realized by asking around that what was actually about to happen was a demonstration.

The part of me with common sense thought about turning back. However, I'm partaking in an Arabic immersion program. Here's not only an Arab neighborhood, but these people are literally my neighbors. And after all, when in Rome do as the Romans do... so, clearly my time in the Middle East wouldn't be complete without a little politically-charged activism. So Theresa and I decided to stand with the locals from Isawiya and the students from Hebrew University. And thus began our march....

The "tour" walking toward the roadblock Israel put up that blocks off the neighborhood from being accessible to the rest of Jerusalem.

Local residents of Isawiya hanging out and watching everything happen.

The interesting part of this picture is that balloon in the sky. First off, it's right next to my apartment. So I was literally under half a mile from my home. Those parachute balloon things hold 360-degree cameras that observe all of the things going on below in Jerusalem.

A picture I managed to capture of one of the soldiers walking off to the side to overlook Isawiya and the surrounding areas of Jerusalem from the top of the hill.

A video I took of some of the chants that were happening during the demonstration.

What was one of the most frustrating parts though was that as long as the university students were there, it was purposely unescalated. Don't get me wrong, I have absolutely zero desire to be in the center of violence and in close proximity to canisters of tear gas going off, but there was still something so disturbing about the situation. After a little over an hour the police commanded the non-locals to leave the proximity. Suddenly, being perceived as white, a student, and possibly Jewish, I had way more rights than my neighbors around me. I could walk through the military line without a second glance. I had the strange ability to assimilate to the Israeli crowd, the local Arabs, or float around with little fear for my safety. The local Arabs don't even have the same freedom I do, to walk down the road out of their village.

Additionally, once the students were evacuated, the police's weapons were no longer passive. As long as I had stood near they kept their guns open so that it would be impossible to fire. Now that students and local Jews were out of the way the guns were locked and loaded. Theresa and I lingered as long as we could, but it was starting to get seriously dark and we really weren't interested in making ourselves close range targets.

A view from behind the police line. The main line is down by the protest, but here behind it different officers walk around freely tending to yell at passersby.

 Upon returning home I still didn't manage to get to my restful night. Downtown there was an Indie music festival going on that most students around Jerusalem were showing up to. Three stages and hours of music and festivities. I guess I just hadn't fulfilled enough of my desire of standing in large, packed, and emotionally charged crowds for the night. So, Noah and I filed onto the train. Tonight the usual orthodox crowd was joined by a large number of people in skinny jeans and thick framed glasses packed amongst the train car.

In fact, the music festival was pretty cool. The streets downtown were absolutely packed. Other than Noah, who I had traveled into town with, the chances of finding any of our other friends seemed slim, however we'd later learn that wasn't the case.

Just a small portion of the crowd packed in front of one of the stages.

A cool panoramic Noah took at one of the street intersections downtown. You can actually see two of the performance stages from this spot.

After Noah took that picture our wandering was soon interrupted by him recognizing a friend from school. We went up to say hi and immediately after introductions his friend asked us, "were you on your way to the drag show?". Out of all of religiously pious Jerusalem, Noah and I would end up standing outside the city's gay bar. His friend Alex quickly explained he usually performs in drag at the venue but was taking this month off. Who were we to decline an inviation to be personally led inside?

Soon the Indie music playing outside was replaced with showtunes, ballads, and Israeli pop music being performed by a bunch of fierce drag queens. Easily the highlight of the night out was when I volunteered them to pull Noah up on stage. For nearly ten minutes Noah humorously bantered back and forth with the queens on stage much to the amusement of the rest of the club.

Noah on stage at gay bar.

I finished up a day full of quizzes and political demonstrations simply by having a blast jaming out with a bunch of guys rocking heels. Within hours I had gone from academics, to protests, to music festivals, and ended up at a drag show. If that doesn't show just how crazy eclectic life is here in Israel, I don't know what does. And when in doubt, just have a kiki.