Hebron, South Hebron Hills, Wed 23.5.12, Morning
Translator: Charles K.
Armed soldiers next to the pillbox at the junction near the Tarqumiyya grocery, watching trucks crossing to Area A. A surprise at the Shayukh-Sa’ir junction: the crossing is open! Many vehicles going through, in every direction. Boulders still block access to the west.
(Why, after many years, has it suddenly been opened?)
Farther on, a huge sign: “Judea and Samaria – Every Jew’s story.” And: “Beit Haggai – You’ll feel at home.”
At the entrance to Hebron we discover our radiator is leaking and drive immediately to the local garage. While they’re replacing hoses we stop at a grocery, and then visit Azzam (to order a table for friends…)
More signs near the Cave of the Patriarchs: “My flame will burn until the Messiah comes;” “The time of redemption has come; we’ll continue our acquisitions…”
It’s relatively quiet today. A few tour buses, the tourists in the Cave of the Patriarchs…
Camouflage netting on the roof of a building opposite the Worshippers Route, soldiers looking down.
Golden fields all along the road – people reaping with sickles, bundling and tying sheaves, just like in the days of Ruth and Boaz. (“And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.”)
We’re detained once again at the Tarqumiyya crossing, and when Raya demands that they stop treating us this way, the excuse is, “She’s a new inspector.”