Holding Down the Fort

Our 5 person delegation made the trek to Tel Rumeida today on our own because our Palestinian CPT team is not allowed over on that side where there is an Israeli settlement with some 150 settler families. After the checkpoint, we walked in the pouring rain along the ghost town of Shuhada St. with all its closed shops. We followed a google map on our way to our destination, Youth Against Settlements (YAS).

We managed to miss the little alley that led to our destination and ended up walking through some soldiers into an Israeli settlement area. We were lost and called our contact person at YAS for directions. While standing there, we were approached by an Israeli woman who asked if she could help us. We knew not to tell her our true destination, so we told her we were meeting a friend who was going to show us the archaeological dig that we were standing next to. When she asked where we were from and what our friend’s name was, I felt we were being sniffed out. Fortunately, our YAS person was on the line at that point telling us where to go and we walked away, trying to be friendly. 

Soon, at YAS, we were listening to tales of how the settlers who lived where we had been were attacking not only the team at YAS, but any activists who were discovered coming to visit them. So we breathed a sigh of relief to have not raised any real alarms up there in settler world.

The settlers are mostly from Brooklyn, NY and are fanatic in their belief that Hebron belongs to them and that they are the rightful owners of the YAS house (and everything else in Hebron). They say that those working with or allied with YAS are “lefties,” a curse in Israel. Our YAS spokesperson said he and his circle are not lefties, righties, or anything on the political spectrum. They are Palestinians fighting for their rights.

Settlers here are funded by rich American Jews and the ultra-Zionist Hebron Fund. They use phrases like “Free Israel,” and “Free Palestine from Hamas" to promote themselves. Of course there is no Hamas here on the West Bank, but that doesn’t stop them from using such propaganda.

YAS gets attacked by these settlers on a regular basis, almost daily, sometimes twice a day and especially during Jewish holidays. The attacks entail throwing stones, using pepper spray, brandishing guns and sometimes shooting them, being verbally abusive. Our spokesperson has had his phone stolen. Settlers fly drones overhead to surveil the house and monitor visitors. “We are always in danger,” he said.

The YAS house, called Sumud House, is owned by YAS. It is the center for a number of activities focused on:

• Strengthening the presence of Palestinian people in Tel Rumeida and advocating for them. Families can easily feel that they are here alone;
• Raising awareness about what is going on here and in Hebron for the world to see, exposing the ongoing violence;
• Producing media and documents for others to use that may also provide a kind of protection;
• Working with children and youth, having fun, learning English, watching films, and so on. All the kids are traumatized, our guide said, and need a safe place.

The situation here has gotten even more dire since Oct 7 than it had already been. The checkpoints are closed much more often, restricting freedom of movement. This has some very serious consequences, preventing injured people from getting ambulances, kids from getting to or from school, and volunteers from coming to work at YAS.

There is more violence, both from settlers and the IOF. Electricity and water get cut off more frequently and for longer durations. Lately, soldiers have been seizing and searching phones and using intimidation more often. 

As we finished our meeting at YAS, our guide had someone else lead us back to the checkpoint. We wondered if it was because he didn’t want to be seen in public with internationals, which might make him even more a marked man. We privileged white people walked on out, through the checkpoint and back to our Palestine friends at CPT. 

Youth Against Settlements is holding down the fort in very hostile territory. We were grateful to be able to slip in and out to meet them, listen to them, and express our love and solidarity.

Friends of Hebron is a good place to send them some money, if anyone feels so moved.