This past Saturday on July 30th, I visited Palestinian activist, Hashim Al-Azzeh, who lived in the settlement of Tel Rumeida in Hebron with his family. His neighbor is Baruch Marzel, the head of the Jewish National Front. There, we had tea with him as he told us of the constant settler violence/harassment that is committed against him and his family for refusing to leave the area. When it was time to go, myself and another international volunteer from England decided to use the main road (the shorter route) to get back out through the checkpoint. As we were heading towards there, Palestinian children warned us about going through. However, I had been there a couple of Saturdays before without problems and plus Israeli soldiers had cleared my entry at the checkpoint which meant I had every right to use that road.
We were a good distance from the road when Israeli settler children who looked no older than 13 years old started screaming at us and pointing at me. Wearing hijab, I look Palestinian for all intents and purposes, not just a random international. Then they surprised us by picking up rocks and throwing them at us. I froze where I was in complete shock at what was going on. My friend was standing a few feet ahead of me asking them if they spoke English and why they were throwing stones at us. I couldn't speak. I could tell my friend wanted to continue forward but I was frozen. I pulled out my camera to video so the kids hid behind a wall and started throwing from behind there. Part of me wanted to continue forward anyways. It was humiliating seeing children half my size on a power trip. In the corner was an Israeli soldier watching. However, I decided to turn back. With only a few days left in Palestine, I didn't want to get hurt and possibly have my name taken down which would have no doubt prevented me as a Syrian America Muslim woman from ever coming back. Perhaps, the British volunteer with me would have gotten away with it but not me. When it comes to settlers, the cards are always stacked against you even when you are most obviously in the right as we were in this situation. As we turned back the soldier that was standing there was approaching with his gun cocked. I'd like to think he was approaching to stop the kids but it was more likely he was coming to tell us to go back.
The video I took can be seen here:
In the beginning of the video, you can hear a Palestinian youth that was standing way behind us (one of the ones that warned us about going down) saying "ta3ali huneh...irja3i ridi" which means "come here...turn around come back." Clearly he was frightened for us and wanted us back. It was obvious from his warning that this was not the first time this has happened. Indeed, there are plenty more videos and documentation of settler violence committed against Palestinians in Tel Rumeida specifically.
When I stopped the video, my friend who was standing ahead of me continued videoing and you can see the soldier approach at the end:
After we headed back going around the long way, I approached the soldier that I thought was the one watching and asked why he had done nothing while it happened. Why he continued to watch. He just mumbled and said he'd call someone. He sounded American to me. Then I interrupted two of the soldiers at the checkpoint who happened to be in the middle of a conversation with an international explaining to him that there was no such thing as settler violence to tell them some children had just thrown stones at us and the soldiers nearby did nothing to stop it. They asked me, "why didn't you call the police?" I responded with "I don't know the police's number" to which they started laughing, "how could you not know?" Then I continued with "the police were down the road anyways and why would I call the police when you guys were right there?" and the one soldier responded with, "we aren't the police" as if to say it's not our job to protect or stop random acts of violence. Then what is their purpose?
Just like our friend said who lived in this settlement, the soldiers only work to protect the settlers in almost all the case and it's always their word against yours. The last thing I want to comment on is that some may draw a parallel between the Israeli settler children throwing rocks and Palestinian children throwing rocks. A parallel should not be drawn, however. First, settlements and settlers are illegal according to international law. They have no right to be there. Tel Rumeida is on Palestinian land in the illegally occupied Palestinian city of Al-Khalil (Hebron). My friend and I were unarmed and just walking along doing nothing to provoke such a response. Those Israeli settler children, however, grow up with so much blind hatred. Ideally they should be taken away to an equivalent of child services in Israel.
Palestinian youth, ideally, should not be out in the street. They should be enjoying their childhood. When they throw stones, they are not throwing it at random unarmed civilians trying to walk down the street. Indeed, there have been plenty of openly Jewish civilian volunteers that have worked with Palestinians in the occupied territory. Instead they throw stones, a symbolic gesture really, against fully armed illegal Israeli occupation forces. A comparison cannot even be made and nor should it made between the two incidents.
