Sunday, November 25, 2007
Back from Hebron
Hey!
I just returned from a trip to Hebron, where Abraham is buried. Partly due to his grave it is t
he second holiest site for Muslims and Jews after Jerusale
m. That is the "reason" why there are several settlements IN and around the city.
Some of you migh have heard or read about the trouble in the old city, where 20000 Palestinians and 500 settlers live. The Israely army protects the settlers and sometimes even the Palestinians against the settlers.
Since 1997 a team of internatinal observers (http://www.tiph.org/, invited by Israel and Palestine) is present to monitor the situation and violations of human rights. Some streets in the old c
ity have a fence above them to protect the pedestrians from garbage and stones being thrown at them by the settlers occupying some of the houses. And that although Hebron seems to belong to one of the A zones in the Westbank, which are supposed to be completely under Palestinian authority. Due to the special situation there an agreement exists that puts the city under Israeli jurisdiction. (This sounds so confusing that I am not sure if I understood it correctly)
Freedom of movement: After two security controls I visited the mosque, then went back, passed through two other controls and went to the synagogue. Both are in the same building, but unreachable for the other religion. It is so silly that I have more freedom of movement than the local people here.
On the way back we were in a large traffic jam for half an hour. Coming closer to the big checkpoint to Jerusalem, Qalandya, we heard that the che
ckpoint is closed. The checkpoints to Israel were closed from 11 am on. This is done in case of warnings of an attack, suicide bombing.
So I was dropped and more or less followed others who were on the way to Ramallah, passing under a fence down a slope and into a street, where already some taxis were waiting to take us to the Palestinian side of Qalandya. There we took another taxi to Ramallah. Kind of a normal day in Palestine...
I just returned from a trip to Hebron, where Abraham is buried. Partly due to his grave it is t
he second holiest site for Muslims and Jews after Jerusale
m. That is the "reason" why there are several settlements IN and around the city.Some of you migh have heard or read about the trouble in the old city, where 20000 Palestinians and 500 settlers live. The Israely army protects the settlers and sometimes even the Palestinians against the settlers.
Since 1997 a team of internatinal observers (http://www.tiph.org/, invited by Israel and Palestine) is present to monitor the situation and violations of human rights. Some streets in the old c
ity have a fence above them to protect the pedestrians from garbage and stones being thrown at them by the settlers occupying some of the houses. And that although Hebron seems to belong to one of the A zones in the Westbank, which are supposed to be completely under Palestinian authority. Due to the special situation there an agreement exists that puts the city under Israeli jurisdiction. (This sounds so confusing that I am not sure if I understood it correctly)Freedom of movement: After two security controls I visited the mosque, then went back, passed through two other controls and went to the synagogue. Both are in the same building, but unreachable for the other religion. It is so silly that I have more freedom of movement than the local people here.
On the way back we were in a large traffic jam for half an hour. Coming closer to the big checkpoint to Jerusalem, Qalandya, we heard that the che
ckpoint is closed. The checkpoints to Israel were closed from 11 am on. This is done in case of warnings of an attack, suicide bombing. So I was dropped and more or less followed others who were on the way to Ramallah, passing under a fence down a slope and into a street, where already some taxis were waiting to take us to the Palestinian side of Qalandya. There we took another taxi to Ramallah. Kind of a normal day in Palestine...
