Hebron, Sansana (Meitar Crossing), South Hebron Hills, Tue 25.6.13, Morning

Translator:  Charles K.

Meitar crossing

Today the large truck parking lot on the Israeli side opened.  “We were lucky” to see the heavy trucks arrive.  Otherwise all went normally. 

Highway 60 is the same.  The balloon at the base near Beit Haggai begins to rise.

Hebron

It’s summer:  many children in the street, with and without their mothers.

Abed, as usual, invites us into his shop opposite the Muslim entrance to the Cave of the Patriarchs.   He wants to tell us that for the past two months tourists haven’t been allowed to approach his shop following an argument he had with a Border Police soldier.  He said that Avi Biton, from the DCO, told the Border Police to allow him to receive customers as usual, but the Border Police soldiers ignore the instruction and block the road so the tourists must pass at a distance when they come and when they leave the site, and when they exit far from the shop they no longer have time to reach him, and his livelihood suffers.  That happened when a new commander of the Cave of the Patriarchs area took over.  And we ask:  why destroy even more the fragile fabric of normalcy?  The DCO has no reason to prevent tourists from reaching his shop, so why are the Border Police doing so?  Revenge?  Showing who’s boss?  Really brilliant.  They say no because they can.  We should contact the Border Police spokesperson for an explanation.

There we also met Shaker Tamimi who lives near the Gal farm and who, two months ago, had serious trouble when he was falsely arrested.  He says everything’s usually ok.  He can work his fields without interference.  Only that his donkey was stolen by settlers a few days ago and he had to spend 10 hours at the Kiryat Arba police station until it was returned.  In other words, continuing “minor” harassment.

No detainees at checkpoints in town.

“An ordinary weekday.”