Voices of the Holocaust and Hebron

7/3/22

Today was another museum day! Today was the day for Yad Vashem, the holocaust museum. Orel, one of the guys that works at the hostel, was coming with us, along with Joey. We grabbed breakfast from the local bakery and then got the tram across town.

Interestingly the museum building itself was built to show life getting darker throughout WWII and then getting lighter at the end. I learnt a fair bit more about the lives of Jews pre, mid and post war and heard some recorded stories from holocaust survivors. Afterwards, we went to a memorial for the children that never grew up. Frustratingly, we waited 35 minutes to go in, because some Italian officers who arrived at the same time as us had blocked it as they wanted to do a talk outside it. This meant two school trips were not able to go at all and we (Lena, Joey and I) waited a long time while Orel had to leave. The memorial was very well done, but it only took two minutes to walk through!

Afterwards, we got the tram back and headed to the local market for burgers. Then we picked up Eva and Orel from the hostel and headed to the Austrian Hospice (now a hotel and cafe run by Austrian and German staff) for a drink and a rooftop sunset view. We bumped into the boys on our way through the old town before making it and ordering mulled drinks – mmm! 😋 The rooftop was pretty with views across the city including Temple Mount and the Church of the Sepulchre.

There was a loud bang and I was unsure of what it was, as was Joey, who used to be in the military – it sounded like an explosion. Below is, we noticed Israeli army running and then sirens began. We stayed on the roof, hoped for the best and admired the view. It later became apparent that it had been a fatal gunshot we had heard echoing through the old town, after a Palestinian refugee had stabbed two army members. Awhile later, the calls to prayer washed over us from the minarets of Jerusalem. We did five minutes silent meditation (mad for me I know) on the roof led by Eva before we headed back. One of the gates to the old town was blocked by a car and military, so we walked to another, where luckily for us, they were letting people out of the old town, but not in. We made it back to the hostel in time to see some blues dancing – anyone else not heard of this as a thing?! Sadly, we missed the class, else I may have been an expert by now! 😂😂😂

8/3/22

Today we smashed our early morning, leaving the hostel at 8am to catch the bus to Hebron. We got the bus and arrived around 10am. First, we went to the site where Abraham, his wife and his kids were buried. The site was owned and managed half by Jews and half by Muslims. As tourists, and ‘Christians’, we were able to visit both sides of the physically separated site. Afterwards, we wandered through the old town, which on first inspection was just like the old town in Jerusalem, with perhaps a few more closed shops.

We wandered down an alley towards a traditional baths, to find it closed. A guy came and told us that it was closed for International Women’s Day, a public holiday in Palestine. He also said that he worked for an NGO, but could hook us up with a local guide and lunch if we wanted. All six of us were game, so we set if with the guy, Ayman, as he introduced himself. He started telling us about the market – it was no coincidence that many of the shops were closed, nor was it covid-related. Israeli settlers, or Zionists, had moved into the old town and had made the lives of locals nion-impossible. On one side of the market (a long, narrow corridor), Palestinians lived, while the other, settlers had moved in after forcing out Palestinians. Then they had thrown rocks, needles, and rubbish down onto the markets and stall holders. The Palestinians built a mesh covering over the market to try to stop the settlers actions affecting their lives and livelihoods. Some Palestinians had to give up work as they couldn’t take it anymore. Some battled on. Ayman, our guide was a lovely guy, who believed in peaceful protest only and he said the best act of defiance was to continue living in Hebron, claiming their space. The settlers then changed to throwing liquids instead, sometimes very very unpleasant ones.

Ayman had previously been arrested for ‘terrorism’ multiple times for almost nothing – nothing on the wrong side of the law. As a Palestinian, if someone (a settler or the army) do something bad to you, you will be the one who ends up getting arrested for it. Because life ain’t fair.

We continued on our tour and stopped at various stalls to meet people that had kept the shops against the odds. We stopped by an old sesame mill before walking through an old market square that had completely shut down due to settlers inhumane behaviour. A few days before we were there, settlers shot four local people in the market. I asked Ayman if he thought the stabbings in Jerusalem were linked to this, but he did not. He said the two stabbings in Jerusalem were essentially lone rangers from the refugee camps and not associated with anything bigger.

Abandoned Palestinian homes made unliveable by settlers

There were two main sections of Hebron, one which was controlled by Palestinian ‘government’ with limited powers and the other was controlled by Israelis. Palestinians and settlers can not go to all parts of Hebron and there are various checkpoints for people, regulated by soldiers with a crazy amount of ammo.

It was interesting to see the different views of different people serving in the army. One guy was pretty chilled – he was 19 and just waiting to finish his (mandatory) army service before he could get on with his life, while another guy was very defensive when Tom asked what he thought and you could clearly see his hatred for Palestinians. He believed they had no claim to the land and was doing his bit for a bigger cause – to claim back all of the Holy Land.

We walked by a hospital clinic, which Ayman had helped set up and a youth centre before having lunch in his NGO centre. It was quite a spread! Then everyone sat round together and we had tea and shisha. We met a powerhouse of a woman who was another nurse/midwife combo who had dedicated much of her life to helping Palestinians and protesting for their human rights.