One of the things that impressed on me indelibly were the faces of the many, many Palestinian children I saw during my stay there. I am an amateur photographer who has a little bit of an eye for a good shot,but beyond that, no skill and I am also impeded by an intrinsic shyness that makes me ever aware that my pointing a camera might offend. In spite of my shortcomings, I managed to get a few shots of children who captivated me for a moment – albeit blurry and probably not well framed. My goal in posting this, however, is to underscore the beautiful resilience and optimism of the Palestinian people in the face of decades of oppression.  Oh yes, the Palestinians have a much higher birth rate than their occupiers, much to the consternation of the latter. I had a Jewish friend who argued that the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians would not be so entrenched if the Palestinians didn’t “breed like rabbits.” Her point was that the refugee camps stemming from those who were expelled from their homes and villages in the mid-1900s have only exacerbated the problem by continuing to reproduce. Oh, and that was punctuated by her contention that the neighboring Arab countries should have given them homes; never mind the fact that they did to the tune of refugee camps in Syria holding some 500,000 Palestinian refugees, roughly the same number in Lebanon and a whopping 2 million plus in Jordan. But, those naughty, naughty Palestinians kept just popping out babies. This idea has become entrenched in an alarming trend of racism in Israel.  An Israeli politician recently referred to Palestinian children as “little snakes” in a blood curdling diatribe.   http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/07/07/israeli-politician-declares-war-on-the-palestinian-people.html

Well, I’ve already posted some pictures of beautiful Palestinian baby bunnies. The grandnieces  of my dear friend Hiam in Aboud totally enamored me (see my post Everyone Has a Story), but every time I walked the streets and backroads of Hebron, Bethlehem and the surround, I saw so many more beautiful, bright, happy, optimistic children, and these are the lucky ones. My heart breaks thinking of the children of Gaza.  A 14 year old there has witnessed 3 major assaults, financed in large part by Uncle Sam,  and is now living in a desolate, bombed out area(beyond the imagination of any of us Americans), whose reconstruction is impeded by Israeli occupation, apartheid policies (all in the name of their own, 1st world, high living standard security of course). By the way, of the 2.3 million Gazans, approximately 43% are children.  Does it take a brain scientist to surmise that this relentless bombardment and devastation of Gaza is going to impact these young minds in a negative manner? Is it any wonder that terrorists are born of this sort of strategy?

God save the children. So many beautiful children who are just getting by in the West Bank and who are totally traumatized in Gaza.  God bless them and save them from futures of violence and retribution. I am afraid, however, that this will only come to pass if the world recognizes that Israel must be condemned for its callous disregard for their human rights and its misguided perception that it can gain security with sheer military might. Fortunately, much of the world has already done so, but the US is the last bastion of unilateral support of Israel, and carries the largest coffers. It really rests, therefore, on our shoulders as US citizens to say, “enough.” End the occupation, end the oppression – yes, Israel we have your backs, but only if you do as South Africa did and embrace truth and reconciliation over the decades of wrongs you have done to the Palestinians.

Both of these are shots from the walk up the hill to my apartment. I loved this little street. It was very much in the city, but had the lovely country landscape where children were free to roam and play freely, sort of like kids did when I was a kid.

This was the little playground in the center of the apartment complex where I lived in Bethlehem.

This beautiful little child was sitting in the seat in front of me on my bus ride into Jerusalem.

Children in the old city of Hebron near the Hebron Rehabilitation Committee where I worked.

Although there was always some trepidation in the eyes of these children who already faced many abuses at the hands of the radical Jewish settlers and soldiers protecting them, once they knew you were friendly, they were usually all smiles.

This was at the excavation site near the home of Feryal Abu Haikal whom I wrote about in an earlier post whose home and family land is under threat of confiscation under the ruse of an archaelogical dig and upcoming Jewish biblical theme park.

I need to dedicate a couple posts to some of the other lovely people I chanced to meet during my month in the West Bank. Hijazi is a Palestinian guide whose specialty is walking tours of the West Bank. My group last year had done a day trip with Hijazi, but he often takes groups on tours of a week or more, with overnights in a variety of places, including hotels, Palestinian families and in Bedouin camps. He lives with his family in a village near Bethlehem, but he keeps an apartment in Bethlehem to accommodate guests. This was the apartment I rented for my month in Bethlehem. As my previous posts have indicated, I did a tremendous amount of walking in Bethlehem and Hebron, often getting lost in the process, but always discovering new and interesting things. Walking really can’t be beat when it comes to becoming intimately familiar with a place. If you should have the good fortune of travel to the West Bank, and if you want to experience the beauty and serenity of some of its most beautiful, natural spots (or the history of the cities and villages for that matter), I couldn’t imagine a better guide. https://hijazih.wordpress.com/ He will be able to take you and give you all the information you need and to make sure you are well fed and housed along the way. Part of the deal in my renting the apartment was that there would be a few nights in which I would be sharing it with some of Hijazi’s guests which turned out to be an added perk for me.

The first group came from Grenoble France. Pascale, Marie, Pierre and Joel were returnees to the West Bank and big proponents of Palestinian rights. They had not only toured previously with Hijazi, but he had spent some time visiting them in France. They were such good sports, struggling with English to accommodate my complete lack of French. They were there for a couple of evenings, and I felt a little lonely when they left. We exchanged contact info and I chalked it up to one of those “hope our paths will cross again” encounters. Well, our paths crossed again much sooner than any of us expected.

When I was in Jerusalem on my last Saturday before going home to meet with the lawyer from Diakonia, I spent some time after the meeting getting lunch and then wandering around East Jerusalem to enjoy the sights. I had written earlier about finding some quietude in Lutheran Church of the Redeemer. After I left and was trying to orient myself toward the bus station, I was walking past an outdoor café and out of the corner of my eye, I saw a person I recognized. On second glance, to my complete surprise and delight, I realized it was Pascale. They had left the apartment in Bethlehem a couple of nights earlier, and here they were sitting in Jerusalem, the day before departing back home to France. We all had a huge laugh over the complete coincidence of my running into them so randomly. Somehow, I failed to snap a picture of them, but Marie shared this with me.

The second set of guests was a group from Wales and England, Janet, Paul and Monica.

They only spent one night at the apartment, but we had a fun time scouting town for beer and good eats (a break from my routinely uninspired cooking for one) on the evening of their stay and I got to tag along with them the next day for a hike to Wadi Qelt and for a float in the Dead Sea. The extra perk here was that Paul is the most accomplished birder I have ever met apart from my brother-in-law, Dan Peak. I have a sneaking suspicious their paths will cross one day. Although I was inited to tag along on a couple of hikes, this was the only one I managed because I was so busy with work in Hebron.

Wadi Qelt (Wadi means valley which is an understatement here as it is an enormously, deep gorge) is itself a worthy destination for a hike in its magnificent natural beauty. But, it is also the location of the St. George’s Monastery nestled into the cliffs about halfway down the gorge.

Approaching the monastery.

A cave down in the gorge. This area is full of caves and they were inhabited by monks through the centuries who were hiding from their persecutors.

These two pictures are looking down on the easy approach to the monastery that starts from a parking lot.  The ant-like size of the people gives perspective of how deep the gorge is.

A couple views of the monastery from on the premises.

Looking out a window from inside the monastery

We had to crawl through this little door to get into the monastery. As we were leaving, this group was trying to get in.  They did give us berth to leave. Good thing, because it was quite a huge group.

Beautiful views along the way as we were walking toward Jericho

The remains of one of Herod’s palaces

Both groups, the Brits and the Francos, were here because of a shared passion for Palestine. It is really good to know that so many people are taking the initiative to try to spread awareness of the reality of the occupation. Israel is a country of remarkable accomplishments and has much to be admired, but  its 48 year old occupation and domination of some 5 million Palestinians is a downward drag. Until it reckons with this, it will never be secure and it is quickly gaining the status in the world of a pariah state. Yes, there are some Palestinian terrorists.  When you consider that a 14 year old in Gaza has experienced 3 full-scale, devastating, infrastructure-obliterating,  inescapable wars, is it any wonder? In spite of this, the overwhelming majority of Palestinians simply want the freedom to live normal lives and support and educate their families.

I had promised earlier to talk a little more about the work I was doing at HRC. Several months ago, I had answered an online ad seeking an intern to do legal research. After a Skype interview with Nicole, a lawyer from the legal department, I committed to work for them for a month. My initial assignment was to research venues within Europe and possibly the U.S. to bring claims on behalf of Palestinians in Hebron whose human rights were violated. Prior to my arrival, Nicole let me know that the focus of my work would change a bit a to bringing claims in the U.S. There were two primary areas I was asked to research: challenging the tax exempt status of organizations which fund the settlers on the basis that the settlers are committing so many illegal acts against the Palestinian residents.

I’ve talked in previous posts about the horrendous situation in Hebron in which the main street for commerce, Shuhada Street, has been shut down to accommodate just 500 or so illegal Jewish settlers who are trying to reclaim the old city of Hebron. I’ve posted some pictures of the Palestinians shops with doors welded shut by the Israeli authorities. I’ve talked about the devastation to the economy of Hebron and the displacement of 100s of Palestinian families. This was all a result of the terrorist attack by  Baruch Goldstein, a Jewish extremist at the Ibrahimi Mosque in 1994, in which he sprayed machine gun fire in the mosque, killing 29 Muslim worshippers. Israel’s response? Rather than protecting the residents of Hebron, they cut off Shuhada Street, the main commercial area of the old city to create a sanctuary for the radical Israeli settlers, and if that was not enough, they divided the Mosque so that one half is now a Jewish synagogue. Mind you, this mosque has been there as an Islamic Mosque, in a city that has been predominantly Muslim for more than 800 years. But, such is justice under Israeli occupation.

HRC is one of the organizations that has tried to make a difference in this imbalanced equation, fighting for the rights of the Palestinians citizens in the face of a brutal, US-financed occupation. Their primary objective has been restoring buildings in the old city for the use of Palestinians and by doing so, helping to restore the economy  which has been so devastated by Israel’s sequestration of the area. They are funded by many sources, the government of Norway being a major donor. They have done a remarkable job at restoring many buildings in this amazing old city, by many accounts, the oldest city in the world. So they are doing the double duty of preserving antiquities and preserving living and working space for the indigenous population.

On Sunday, I came into Hebron to drop off my work: two memos on the two different areas of research. Nothing was really scheduled to this end, so I was expecting no more than to just print them out and hand them to someone in the main office who would pass it on to the general director, Emad Hamdan. As it turned out,   Emad was there and was eager to hear about my work. We had a brief meeting, and he expressed great appreciation. The general vibe I had gotten throughout my month there was general incredulity that I, a professional with an office in the US, would take time off to come and do volunteer work in Palestine. I met this with my own incredulity that this could be perceived as such a sacrifice. I felt and feel so very honored to have been able to work in this beautiful place amongst these dedicated, resilient people who are working every day, years on end against such incredible odds. By comparison, what I had done is such a tiny drop in the bucket.

Emad presented me with a beautiful book that HRC had commissioned called “Old Hebron: the Charm of a Historical City and Architecture” which will preserve my memories of this charmed and beleaguered place and grace my coffee table for years to come.

I also want to express my warm wishes to some of my HRC cohorts. Unfortunately I did not get a picture of Tawfiq Jashan, the permanent, local staff attorney.

However, here is his secretary Lama who graciously brought me wonderful Turkish coffee on many cold mornings.

I had previously mentioned Sami, (Zbnek Wojowski), the general coordinator guy. Sami is from the Czech Republic and and has been there for seven, going on eight years. He has made himself rather indispensable. He is one of the few fluently English-Arabic, bilingual staff at HRC, in addition to knowing all of the inner workings of the organization. He translated for my initial meeting with Tawfiq during which Tawfiq praised Sami effusively, noting that he  was sure that Sami would someday be the president of the Czech Republic. When I mentioned this later to s0me of the others, they  laughed about how Tawfiq likes to butter people up, but the message regarding Sami’s value to the organization was clear.

So, here is a picture of Sami, with my office mate Samantha. Samantha is from Canada and is in the legal department doing a volunteer stint helping out on some reports about the local conditions. She provided some good laughs and respite from some heady work.

And finally, Nicole Trudeau is the lawyer from the US who hired me via a Skype interview. I didn’t see a lot of Nicole during my month, as she is out in the field and doesn’t usually work at the HRC buildings.

This is a pic of our initial meeting at one of her favorite hangout places, Q Candy (along with Samantha – they are roommates, btw) which is a kilo or so from the Old City and serves great coffee in any style imaginable for a fraction of what Starbucks charges. Nicole is another attorney who had a left behind a lucrative career as a litigation attorney in Rhode Island to work for a fraction of the pay at HRC.  There is something about Palestine that really captivates the soul of many of us internationals.

And then another picture of our final meeting on Sunday for farewells. The young gent is Stephen, also a lawyer doing volunteer work. He is from Bulgaria.

So, in closing, I just want to share some more pictures highlighting the beauty of the old city of Hebron which HRC is so diligently working on to preserve for its indigenous, Palestinian residents.  (Keep in mind that you can click on pictures to enlarge them for better viewing.)

These are examples of the narrow streets, and passageways and little staircases leading up to homes one sees throughout the old city. 

Looking upwards at a couple of buildings

These two are from the breezeway of the legal unit. I spent a good amount of time here  catching sun on some of the cool days wen the stone of the office retained the cold from the previous night.

An example of a building that has been left to deteriorate.   

Some artifacts in a cubby in the main HRC office.