Hebron, Sansana, South Hebron Hills, Tue 2.12.08, Morning

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Observers: 
Zipi Z. Hagit B. (reporting)
Dec-2-2008
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Morning

06:30  10:30 

Hebron
Today, we've been able to experience first-hand what the Palestinians experience daily, hourly, nightly – the violence of those who say they've come to live in the house of "Peace" namely, the House of dispute (in Hebrew, more literally: quarrel). And all this, with the blessing of the fresh settler – the MP Nissim Ze'ev of Shas, who was there, saw it, and kept quiet.

At 7:50am we drove towards Hebron city's CPs – the Pharmacy CP, Tarpat CP, Tel Rumeida CP, the Patriarchs' Tomb Cave CPs; but we never reached any of these today. Being MachshomWatch observers, this is our permanent, fixed route. To arrive at these CPs, we cannot but drive through the only road leading from Kiryat Arba to Hebron – as is well known, this is an apartheid road: Palestinian cars are not allowed nor, as we've just discovered, leftists.
As we drove through, we could see a cluster of settlers standing on the road, and three soldiers right next to them. On the side of the House of Dispute, there were scores more settlers, some of whom walked around with black masks or long hats drawn over their faces, some armed with ammunition of the primitive, stone-age kind – i.e., a big stone tied to a string and its likes.
On the sign leading to the House of Dispute, new posters have been pasted – girls' pathway/boys' pathway. The road is the boys' part. The road itself is covered with glass and stones. A, our driver, stops the car – he's worried that the wheels might be punctured. So I got off to check if we could get  through. I barely got to the road, when a salvo of stones was thrown at me. The menacing settler, Ofer Ohana, arrives with a camerainfo-icon, I could see MP Nissim Ze'ev (Shas) and other rabbis standing among the settlers clustering on top. They did nothing to prevent the stone throwing.
I hastened back to our car and got in. The only soldier who got near me mumbled 'please leave quickly'. The salvo of stones continues, Zipi kneels down in the transit (car), A' reverses quickly, in order to escape Hebron.
Then, all of a sudden, a white Fiat Punto arrives, the driver is David, the English-speaking spokesperson of the Jewish settlers in Hebron. He drives right at us and literally drives us away with his car. All during that time, the salvo of stones continues – at least 20 big ones. We managed to U-turn and flee.
We didn't file a complaint with the Hebron Police, as it is positioned on the Patriarchs' Hill – another settlers' neighborhood: the great settlers' lord, Itamar ben-Gvir, lives there, and we would have surely been treated to yet another salvo of stone.

The mental anxiety caused by such brutal incidents only intensifies with time, and the shame, too. The terror those people exercise is so incredibly brutal and cruel. During the drive, we contacted Ra'aya and, through her, whomever we know in the media.

On our way back home we stopped at the Zif junction grocery – we told the owner what we'd been through – we were totally shaken… to which he retorted, "we experience this all the time" – we, at least, go back to a place where we can repress this all…Fortunately, the transit was hit only slightly, and only rather superficially – no glass was broken. Before we got back home, we stopped at the towns' police-station to file a complaint. That's it.

Sansana-Metar CP
6:45 – There are no workers here. On out way back, at 8:45, the six buses, with the prisoners' families, had not yet left. The workers passed through smoothly, but checking 6 busloads takes plenty of time. Sand is being downloaded from the trucks smoothly.