Hebron

On Wednesday, May 13th, Bassem (the director of the PHRMG) and I picked up Thomas, an Irish photographer who had come to Jerusalem to try to visually convey the conflict that is taking place in this region.
You can check out some of Thomas' previous work by looking at:
http://thomasstruth25.com/index.htm
We also picked up Rachel, a student from Colorado studying at the Hebrew University who may also be interning at PHRMG this summer. The four of us drove to the city of Hebron in hopes of giving Thomas some inspiring material. I tried to document the experience myself via camera, and you may get a better idea of the trip by looking at the slide show labeled “Hebron.”
The city of Hebron was a bizarre experience. We couldn't get into the city by driving because only Israeli Jews are allowed to drive on the street that would take you into the depths of Hebron (I explain what it means to be an “Israeli Jew” In the blog entry titled “Classification.” I recommend you check it out because you'll want to be familiar with the lingo to understand what I'm talking about throughout the blog sessions). This required us to park the car on the outskirts of the city and to hike in.
Hebron is one of the only cities where Jews and Arabs are not separated. They have different neighborhoods, but the neighborhoods are right next to one another. Their ability to co-exist proved to be very poor here. When we were descending into the occupied area of Hebron, we passed through street after street that was deserted. At one point they housed Arab markets, but life was made so difficult for them by the neighboring Israeli community, that people took a few belongings and left to the next village over. Immediately thereafter, the houses and shops were boarded up by the Israeli forces. A few families stayed in the Palestinian quarters, but for the most part, it felt like we were walking through a ghost town.
In order to pass through the outskirts and gain access into the center of town required us to pass through various checkpoints. At one such such checkpoint we were stopped because the guard was not positive Bassem could proceed; I tried to figure out what the reasoning was, but it was unclear.
During the time when we were waiting for Bassem to get clearance, I managed to squeeze my way into one of the deserted houses (again posted online). The architecture in these old villages is something to behold, but it was apparent how quickly these buildings had been deserted by the condition of the rooms I entered. Belongings and furniture remained, the floors were covered in various items (clothes, books, papers, etc.). These conditions gave the place an eerie ambiance.
Eventually Bassem and the rest of our group made it through the checkpoint (see blog entitled Human for more details) and made it into the village market of Hebron. The market literally seemed to be built in a cave and there were small shops on either side, engulfed by wall. Many of the vendors here were even more pushy than in other Arab markets I'd been too; one person followed us almost the whole way through asking us to buy from him.
My favorite part of the trip was meeting Newal and her sister, two shopkeepers who invited us into their shop for coffee and conversation. They are the only female shopkeepers in the village and suffer harassment from both the Israeli guards and Palestinian men. They use their shop to sell goods, but their primary goal is to educate people passing through on what is happening in Palestine and about their struggle as women to gain respect. Their wears consisted of jewelery, scarfs and other materials that were contributed by women in the area who support their endeavors. You can learn more about what they're doing by looking at: http://palestinesolidarityproject.org/coop/