Riot on Tel Rumeida Street

Riot on Tel Rumeida street

by Aaron Zanthe

Nov 26th 05

Hebron, West Bank

"Hey Arab", three members of a Jewish settler militia

had cornered a young man walking home from the

university. "You are not a man", they prominently

displayed the automatic weapons in their hands, "you

are a dog". The ranking militia member, wearing a

kippa, a checkered collared shirt and dark sunglasses,

continued, "and your mother is a [expletive] dog". The

Palestinian man, named Ra'id, backed off as the three

Israelis made threatening gestures at him. He

responded, "is that right? Am I a dog?". Myself and

two of my compatriots got between them with a video

camera and asked if they wanted to repeat themselves

on record. Of course not, they said, "it's for him,

not for the television".

This was Tel Rumeida early Saturday evening, a

neighborhood in the West Bank city of Hebron. A few

metres up the street there was a size-able crowd of

uninvited guests, a couple hundred Israeli fanatics

who were bussed in from their colonies on West Bank

land. The advertisements promoting the events of the

day explained that the people were coming to express

their support for the Zionist "pioneers" of Hebron on

the day that Abraham buried Rachel in the Jewish

tradition. On the street this came to mean a state of

siege in a Palestinian neighborhood, with all the dark

skinned residents locked in their houses. Many of them

observed from their windows and rooftops as pioneering

Israelis staged an all-out race riot.

My colleagues and I started escorting Ra'id to

his home amidst the provocation of members of the

settler militia. We moved quickly because having a

Palestinian man out in the open air was attracting a

lot of attention, mainly glares and spit. I put my arm

around him to be able to stay close as we moved

through the crowd as fast as we could without running.

The group received a couple of comments along the

lines of, "oh, the poor baby needs to be walked home,

eh?". We had been accompanying Palestinians to walk

home safely all day, but it wasn't until we were in

the middle of the crowd that I realized that the

situation had escalated. The settlers began chanting

something that I now understand to be "death to Arabs"

and their eyes were set on us.

I was doing my best to separate the settlers from

Ra'id when a settler man charged at me and started

kicking and shoving us towards a wall. The Israeli

army had cordoned off a part of the area and one of the

soldiers came and held back the aggressive settlers

long enough for us to make our escape. By the time we

were on the other side of the soldier line the

settlers had taken over the entire top end of Tel

Rumeida street. The Israelis were throwing stones at

the Palestinians in their houses and banging on the

green doors, some of them mocking the Islamic prayer

call and making sheep noises. A group of settlers

positioned themselves next to the checkpoint down the

street, yelling obscenities at the Palestinians

passing through.

Groups of fanatics, many of them with side arms

and automatic weapons, were running around to the back

ends of Arab homes, throwing stones through people's

windows and threatening to kill them if they go

outside. I took a picture of the hostile mob and some

forty of them surrounded me and threw stones at me. "I

hope god burns all the Arabs in hell", somebody

screamed in my direction, "[..] don't take another

picture or we'll kill you". The settler mob surrounded

and besieged various housing complexes on Tel Rumeida

street, shouting and throwing objects. Military

police, including a special forces unit, had been on

patrol in the area throughout the day in heavy

numbers, but they pulled a disappearing act during

most of the actual riot. The police took one young

settler away in handcuffs and the army blocked off a

single street, but for the most part, Israeli

authorities neglected to control their citizens.

Settlers broke into a house on shuhaddah street

and attempted to break into several others. Visited

the house the next day and spoke to a man named Issa

al-Bayat and his family. His wife, Fawziyyah, brought

out sage tea and the couple explained that the door to

their home was forced open by six early

twenty-somethings.

Issa was away from the house at his

construction job and Fawziyyah was home with two small

daughters. They said that they were very scared and

that the settler youth remained in the house for

fifteen minutes, breaking things and screaming in

Hebrew and broken Arabic. I asked them about what kind

of things specifically the settlers were shouting and

Fawziyyah replied evasively, "very bad words". Issa

elaborated that they were Muslims and could not repeat

what the settlers said to them precisely, but that the

Jewish colonists tried to order the family out of the

house. The settler youth went back outside and within

minutes they were throwing projectiles through the

rear windows.

Fawziyyah called the police and they told her on

the spot that they weren't going to show up. No big

surprise. Non-enforcement of the law on West Bank

colonists has been documented in detail by the Israeli

human rights group Bt'selem. Tel Rumeida in particular

is a heavily affected neighborhood. Tel Rumeida, a

small area, has only two main roads; Tel Rumeida

street and Shuhaddah street. There are five army posts

on these two streets that are usually manned and two

posts on rooftops which are sometimes manned. Anyone

who walks longer than a block in this community is

liable to be asked to show his ID, to be searched or

detained by soldiers at one of these posts on the

ground. At the end of Tel Rumedia street there is a

military checkpoint, painted to look like the bricks

on the surrounding walls, that residents must pass

through anytime they want to leave the neighborhood

and visit the rest of the city. But why the security

blanket?

The small neighborhood is also home to two

Israeli settlements blocks, called Ramat Yeshai and

Beit Hadassah, both of which enjoy a certain amount of

notoriety for aggressive behavior even amongst the

Israeli mainstream. Both colonies are entirely

subsidized by the state of Israel and their members

largely do not work to earn a living. Even the roads

in Tel Rumeida look like Apartheid. Only Israelis are

allowed to drive on the roads; Palestinians must walk.

In an letter to the international groups working in

Hebron, spokesmen for the settlements explained

themselves [News from within, September-October 2005].

"Divine justice has brought the Jews back to their

homes and property in Israel and here to Hebron", they

explained that "this act of G-D serves as a mighty

beam of light in the struggle of the free world

against Arab-Islamic terror". "The first target of

their murderous attacks is Israel, yet beyond Israel

stands their real target - the entire world". The

letter also refers to the children's school in Tel

Rumeida as "the Islamic Jihad school". Well said,

David Wilder.

The school in question, called Cordova, is

located across the street from Beit Hadassah. Kids

walking home from Cordova are frequently targeted for

assault by the settlers on the other side of the

street, as documented by the Tel Rumeida Project in

conjunction with the International Solidarity

Movement. Both groups make it a project to accompany

the Cordova children on their way home from school and

intervene in the event of settler provocation. It's

been an honor to live and work with these groups in

Tel Rumeida for the past week. My experience here has

been dramatic but it is only one example of the

pressure on Palestinians by the state of Israel to

leave their land. Today I spoke with Norwegian

journalist Thomas Mandal, who summed up the events of

Saturday beautifully, "It was a mob, the only

comparable thing that I have seen is a football riot,

it was that same kind of mentality, except that sports

was replaced by religion and that the mob had guns".

Jennifer Loewenstein

amadea311@earthlink.net

	Jennifer Loewenstein Archive
	Riot on Tel Rumeida street by Aaron Zanthe Nov 26th 05 Hebron, West Bank "Hey Arab", three members of a Jewish settler militia had cornered a young man walking home from the university. "You are not a man", they prominently displayed the automatic weapons in their hands, "you are a dog". The ranking militia member, wearing a kippa, a checkered collared shirt and dark sunglasses, continued, "and your mother is a [expletive] dog". The Palestinian man, named Ra'id, backed off as the three Israelis made threatening gestures at him. He responded, "is that right? Am I a dog?". Myself and two of my compatriots got between them with a video camera and asked if they wanted to repeat themselves on record. Of course not, they said, "it's for him, not for the television". This was Tel Rumeida early Saturday evening, a neighborhood in the West Bank city of Hebron. A few metres up the street there was a size-able crowd of uninvited guests, a couple hundred Israeli fanatics who were bussed in from their colonies on West Bank land. The advertisements promoting the events of the day explained that the people were coming to express their support for the Zionist "pioneers" of Hebron on the day that Abraham buried Rachel in the Jewish tradition. On the street this came to mean a state of siege in a Palestinian neighborhood, with all the dark skinned residents locked in their houses. Many of them observed from their windows and rooftops as pioneering Israelis staged an all-out race riot. My colleagues and I started escorting Ra'id to his home amidst the provocation of members of the settler militia. We moved quickly because having a Palestinian man out in the open air was attracting a lot of attention, mainly glares and spit. I put my arm around him to be able to stay close as we moved through the crowd as fast as we could without running. The group received a couple of comments along the lines of, "oh, the poor baby needs to be walked home, eh?". We had been accompanying Palestinians to walk home safely all day, but it wasn't until we were in the middle of the crowd that I realized that the situation had escalated. The settlers began chanting something that I now understand to be "death to Arabs" and their eyes were set on us. I was doing my best to separate the settlers from Ra'id when a settler man charged at me and started kicking and shoving us towards a wall. The Israeli army had cordoned off a part of the area and one of the soldiers came and held back the aggressive settlers long enough for us to make our escape. By the time we were on the other side of the soldier line the settlers had taken over the entire top end of Tel Rumeida street. The Israelis were throwing stones at the Palestinians in their houses and banging on the green doors, some of them mocking the Islamic prayer call and making sheep noises. A group of settlers positioned themselves next to the checkpoint down the street, yelling obscenities at the Palestinians passing through. Groups of fanatics, many of them with side arms and automatic weapons, were running around to the back ends of Arab homes, throwing stones through people's windows and threatening to kill them if they go outside. I took a picture of the hostile mob and some forty of them surrounded me and threw stones at me. "I hope god burns all the Arabs in hell", somebody screamed in my direction, "[..] don't take another picture or we'll kill you". The settler mob surrounded and besieged various housing complexes on Tel Rumeida street, shouting and throwing objects. Military police, including a special forces unit, had been on patrol in the area throughout the day in heavy numbers, but they pulled a disappearing act during most of the actual riot. The police took one young settler away in handcuffs and the army blocked off a single street, but for the most part, Israeli authorities neglected to control their citizens. Settlers broke into a house on shuhaddah street and attempted to break into several others. Visited the house the next day and spoke to a man named Issa al-Bayat and his family. His wife, Fawziyyah, brought out sage tea and the couple explained that the door to their home was forced open by six early twenty-somethings. Issa was away from the house at his construction job and Fawziyyah was home with two small daughters. They said that they were very scared and that the settler youth remained in the house for fifteen minutes, breaking things and screaming in Hebrew and broken Arabic. I asked them about what kind of things specifically the settlers were shouting and Fawziyyah replied evasively, "very bad words". Issa elaborated that they were Muslims and could not repeat what the settlers said to them precisely, but that the Jewish colonists tried to order the family out of the house. The settler youth went back outside and within minutes they were throwing projectiles through the rear windows. Fawziyyah called the police and they told her on the spot that they weren't going to show up. No big surprise. Non-enforcement of the law on West Bank colonists has been documented in detail by the Israeli human rights group Bt'selem. Tel Rumeida in particular is a heavily affected neighborhood. Tel Rumeida, a small area, has only two main roads; Tel Rumeida street and Shuhaddah street. There are five army posts on these two streets that are usually manned and two posts on rooftops which are sometimes manned. Anyone who walks longer than a block in this community is liable to be asked to show his ID, to be searched or detained by soldiers at one of these posts on the ground. At the end of Tel Rumedia street there is a military checkpoint, painted to look like the bricks on the surrounding walls, that residents must pass through anytime they want to leave the neighborhood and visit the rest of the city. But why the security blanket? The small neighborhood is also home to two Israeli settlements blocks, called Ramat Yeshai and Beit Hadassah, both of which enjoy a certain amount of notoriety for aggressive behavior even amongst the Israeli mainstream. Both colonies are entirely subsidized by the state of Israel and their members largely do not work to earn a living. Even the roads in Tel Rumeida look like Apartheid. Only Israelis are allowed to drive on the roads; Palestinians must walk. In an letter to the international groups working in Hebron, spokesmen for the settlements explained themselves [News from within, September-October 2005]. "Divine justice has brought the Jews back to their homes and property in Israel and here to Hebron", they explained that "this act of G-D serves as a mighty beam of light in the struggle of the free world against Arab-Islamic terror". "The first target of their murderous attacks is Israel, yet beyond Israel stands their real target - the entire world". The letter also refers to the children's school in Tel Rumeida as "the Islamic Jihad school". Well said, David Wilder. The school in question, called Cordova, is located across the street from Beit Hadassah. Kids walking home from Cordova are frequently targeted for assault by the settlers on the other side of the street, as documented by the Tel Rumeida Project in conjunction with the International Solidarity Movement. Both groups make it a project to accompany the Cordova children on their way home from school and intervene in the event of settler provocation. It's been an honor to live and work with these groups in Tel Rumeida for the past week. My experience here has been dramatic but it is only one example of the pressure on Palestinians by the state of Israel to leave their land. Today I spoke with Norwegian journalist Thomas Mandal, who summed up the events of Saturday beautifully, "It was a mob, the only comparable thing that I have seen is a football riot, it was that same kind of mentality, except that sports was replaced by religion and that the mob had guns". Jennifer Loewenstein amadea311@earthlink.net