Hizma, Qalandiya
Qalandiya and Hizma
Three days of closure
in the West Bank - with simple calculation – make four days of closure (Saturday, New Year’s Eve and the two days of Rosh Hashana/New Year’s).
This year, the two days of the Hebrew New Year happen to fall precisely on the two days of the Muslim New Year, and while the Jews traveled and celebrated and visited family and friends, the neighbors on the dark side of the wall – could not.
At the village of Hizma.
The concrete slab barriers have disappeared and the way in and out of the village is now open again.
Not so the soldiers: rather than disappearing, they have spread a shade over the village slopes and turned it into their position where they spend all hours of the day and night (on the lower left side of the photo).
Nor have the army’s harassments of the inhabitants disappeared. The latter tell us that “sometimes the soldiers put up a checkpoint at the entrance to the village and write down every person who enters”.
And there’s – as always – the mantra “this is where stones are thrown”, repeated by woman first-sergeant as she disembarked from a vehicle with army license plates but painted in civilian colors, with the inscription on its side: “Ram battalion/ the fighting family”.
Perhaps it’s just me, but the two words “fighting family”, taken from another century (20th) and days of other terrorist activity (Stern Gang/Lehi/Irgun) give me the shivers.
