Update from Hebron-August 11, 2009 letter

 I’ve always been involved in education: elementary, secondary, in the parish, in the retreat center, and among  people from the streets who haven’t had the opportunity for classroom education.  Here, from Hebron, Palestine, I’ve seen an urgent need to put  my “teacher” hat on again and  alert people  in Northwestern Ohio about what is really happening  in this contentious area of the West Bank. 

Previous articles I’ve written for the newspaper have dealt with checkpoints, restricted travel, unrestrained settler violence, and harassment on the Palestinian community.  I’ve challenged the reading audience to SEE with different eyes that which is not  often printed in  the United States.  Though the Palestinians had NOTHING to do with the Holocaust of the Jews, though the Palestinians and pockets of Jews had lived peacefully together as neighbors here in Palestine before 1948, it has been the Palestinians who have had to surrender land , who have  endured confinements behind the WALL, who have foregone educational opportunities, medical services, familial ties due to the “security” needs of Israel and due to the spinelessness of  Western nations in holding Israel  accountable  to International Law. The is truly camouflage verbiage used by the Israeli government in regard to “natural” growth in the settlements, in its insistance and “need” for Hamas  to stop its qassam rockets (Homemade weapons which have killed  7 Israelis in the last 4 years compared to several thousand Palestinians killed by the IDF), before the Israeli government will talk Peace, This curtain of “security  needs” which  Israel hides behind is meant to “pull the wool over” the American people and others.  When people throughout the world see the truth, there is danger that their  national governments will no longer  pump funds into Israel for continued land confiscation, settlement building, demolition of Palestinian homes, construction of  the WALL. 

This past week the effects of this Israeli Occupation came to my neighborhood again in zoom-like fashion.  Each day, young boys sell trays of sweets throughout the Old City of Hebron.  As Ahmad, a 13 yr. old Palestinian boy, called out his chant for people to buy, a soldier at the Ibrahimi Mosque held his fingers over his lips and said “Shh.”  Ahmad continued to chant. This enraged the soldier who then chased  the boy at full speed down the road toward another checkpoint.  Here he caught the boy and  beat him with fist and boot/knee. Other soldiers pulled the  soldier off the boy,  while he continued to scream  at the boy.  The Palestinian  boy crouched against the checkpoint barrier, crying for help. Shopkeepers gathered , examined the boy’s  injuries, and asked CPTers to alert the police.  Both a policeman and the Captain of the soldier examined the boy, and heard both his  and shopkeepers’ testimonies. The boy then went for medical attention.

Like other peace groups, we publish this information on our website  CPT.org, hoping that people like yourselves will take the time to learn of the  misery the Occupation inflicts upon Palestinians.