Hebron

We entered through Tarqumiyya this time also.  Few people were there at 10:00.  We continued to Hebron.

Hebron

Many children in the streets.  M, our driver, says it’s probably because teachers in public schools are striking (salaries?), and it’s also exam time.

Other than the children, everything else was pretty quiet along our route.  There weren’t any tourists today at ‘Abed’s shop near the Cave of the Patriarchs, just three representatives of the International Solidarity Organization from Quebec, Italy and Yemen(?).  One asks what we think about what’s going on here and about the settlers living here.  He feels they’re filled with hate.  ‘Abed’s son adds:  “You refer to them as ‘people’?”

We decided to visit the Jaber family after not having talked to them for a long time.  We called and sat with ‘A’ata Jaber in his courtyard; he told us about the help he’d received from Avi Biton, the head of the Civil Administration, who told him to stop construction of the cistern he was building in the courtyard because a stop-work order had been issued, and that he (Biton) would try to help and deal with it.  Jaber wants his land back; he gave all his documents to an attorney, including maps a surveyor had prepared and for which he paid thousands of shekels, repeatedly.  They’re waiting for the court hearing; he doesn’t know when it will be held.

After residents of Kiryat Arba came with their children to uproot hundreds of vegetable seedlings from ‘A’ata Jaber’s land, Avi Biton provided security and the settlers haven’t returned.  We sat in the courtyard next to a house in an initial stage of construction – it belongs to ‘A’ata’s son, but they’ve stopped because they don’t have any money.

We’re glad we’re not harassed on the way back – we go through Tarqumiyya smoothly.