Hebron, Sansana, South Hebron Hills, Wed 10.10.07, Morning

05:30 – 09:30 

Sansana CP: We arrived at 05:30. We saw workers coming out on the Israeli side, and at the Palestinian side, approx. 150 people were lining up outside the installation. Each time a batch of 10 people entered the “sleeve”. The inspection posts worked efficiently. The checking of each one did not take over a minute. At 7 o’clock all the workers passed. But the whole atmosphere, even when the inspections are quick and efficient, is depressing. The place looks more like a prison, with its fences, pillbox and guns all over.  The young soldiers exercise their power, domineering over the Palestinian workers, who have to suffer silently the rude behavior; after all they have to earn bread for their families. The soldiers yell at us: “If you don’t leave the CP, we shut the passage!” The Palestinians, on the other side, mutter: “Why don’t you come everyday and earlier and afternoon? You don’t help at all.” I think to myself, that at least I show my solidarity by protesting against the manifestations of the occupation.

Roads 60, 317 and 356All the barriers, the dirt heaps, the cement cubicles are in place along the roads and at the entrances to the villages and towns. There were no people, not in the fields (waiting for the first rain), not on the ways, perhaps because of the early hour or because of the Ramadan. Tomorrow is the eve of the Eid el Fitr feast.

Hebron
Harseena Hill: Children go on foot 2 km each day to and from school. The road that leads to their homes is an apartheid road. A Palestinian vehicle is forbidden from moving from H1 zone to H2. BP soldiers inspect our Ids and in the meantime we go and visit the family whose house clings to the BP base. We wish them a Ramadan Karim. The camera that B’tselem gave them protects them and the young girls are not harassed sexually anymore by the soldiers.
Pharmacy CP: The children run through the CP to the Ibrahamiya School. The soldiers let a handicapped child in a wheelchair through a side passage. A military jeep arrives with food for the soldiers. They eat their food not in front of the fasting passers-by. Ramadan. We appreciated the humane gesture. 
Tarpat CP: The female teachers pass the CP from a side entrance. The children pass through the installation without problems. We noticed, and the Principal of the Cordoba School confirmed, that fewer children arrive to the fully occupied side of Hebron. The “willing” transfer, through constant harassment, succeeds, and more and more families abandon the area.
Tel Rumeida CP: Passage without problems.
Pillbox near the Jewish Cemetry: We gave the grocer, at the nearby grocery, our phone number, in case of arising problems. “It’s a ghost town, inhabited by the devils”, remarked our driver, Mounir.

Cave of the Patriarchs CPs: No detainees