rivervision

from al jazeera:
60 years of division: Bethlehem strained under occupation

A golden crucifix reflects the Church of the Nativity, where according to tradition Jesus was born, during the traditional Christmas Eve procession in Manger Square in Bethlehem [GETTY]

As groups of pilgrims and tourists slowly walk down the old stone steps leading to the birthplace of Jesus Christ, Issa Rizikalla sits at the entrance of the Grotto of the Nativity Church of Bethlehem.

Originally Greek Orthodox, the 28-year-old Palestinian converted to the Armenian Apostolic Church for his Armenian fiancé, who he first met in Manger Square, and now oversees the Armenian altars in the Nativity Church. For Rizikalla, getting this job he says he was a blessing. “It is very hard to find a good job here that pays you well … marriage is not cheap,” Rizikalla told Al Jazeera.

Occupation’s forceful hand

Tourists and pilgrims entering the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem [Linda Haddad]

Rizikalla, who is from the town of Beit Jallah in Bethlehem, considers himself luckier than most Arab Christians living in the city under Israeli control. He says other Christian Palestinians struggle to find jobs which pay well in Israeli-occupied territories. Unemployment, a dwindling tourism industry due to violence and life under occupation have seen many Christians choose to leave their ancestral homes in Palestine.

In 1948, when Bethelehem was part of British-mandated Palestine, Arab Christians accounted for 75 per cent of the city’s population. According to Andrea Pacini, an author on the socio-political and community dynamics of Arab Christians in Jordan, Israel and Palestine, Christians comprised just 33 per cent of Bethlehem’s population in 1998.

Today, 75,609 Christian Palestinians live in all the occupied Palestinian territories, making up two per cent of the population, according to the latest population estimates from the Palestinian Central Bureau of statistics. The Bureau says Christians accounted for 20 per cent of the Palestinian population in 1948.

Christian exodus

Batarseh: The stress of occupation is the main reason for the “Christian Exodus” [Haddad]

Bethlehem’s mayor explains that the worsening conditions under the Israeli occupation are the main reasons for the “Christian exodus”. Victor Batarseh says that the Christians are leaving because of the stress of occupation, the lack of jobs and worsening economic situation in the territories, the constant fear of war and military incursions and the continuous building of roadblocks and the wall.

“It is much easier for a Christian Palestinian to get a visa to a Western country than a Muslim Palestinian,” Batarseh said. “So because it is easier they are able to leave.”

A Zogby International poll in 2006 interviewing 1,000 Palestinians from Bethlehem showed that 79 per cent of respondents believed the difficulties of living under occupation are the reason for Christians leaving Palestine. But Rizikalla believes that the difficulties of living under Israeli occupation were made even more difficult when Hamas was elected into power. “We all believe that we are Palestinians first, but when we have Islamic groups like Hamas in Gaza taking control, the rest of the world thinks Palestinian liberation is an Islamic cause,” Issa said. “This is wrong. We are all Palestinians first.”

Batarseh agrees that Palestinian nationalism is shared by Christians and Muslims in the oocupied territories. “While I do not back the Hamas-led government in Gaza, our movement is a nationalistic one and it will always be about freeing Palestine of this horrendous Israeli occupation.”

Tourism improves slightly

Christian shop owners say Israelis are diverting commerce away from them [Haddad]

Meanwhile, despite the emigration of Christian families from the city, tourism in Bethlehem has improved compared to a few years ago, according to the Bethlehem Municipality. According to the Palestinian ministry of interior, more than 80,000 tourists visited Jesus’ birth place in March, and nearly 100,000 tourists visited last month.

Sharon Cickburn, a retired teacher from Canada, says she and her husband finally found the time to travel, and made sure to visit Bethlehem. “We came with a tour group and if we like the sights we are shown then we will definitely come back more often,” she said. While the numbers of tourists have increased over the last few months in the town of Bethlehem, store clerks selling Christian memorabilia near Manger square say business has not been great.

The store clerks, who are mainly Christian, do not blame politics for the lack of business, but instead they blame tour groups hired by Israeli travel agencies who guide their groups to purchase from Israeli or Jewish-owned businesses in Jerusalem instead.
 

Batarseh said that while a good number of tour groups come through Israeli travel agencies, a larger number of tour groups book their travels through travel agencies from other countries, like Italy, Poland, and Russia – countries with big Catholic communities. “But we need to remember, Muslims and Christians live among each other [in Bethlehem] and other Palestinian areas peacefully … and not one of our guests was ever treated in way that shows they are not welcome to Bethlehem,” he said.

But one store owner, who wished to remain anonymous, said the majority of tour groups she sees come from Israeli travel agencies. “The Israelis now not only occupy us, but they run things … they want to take our business,” she told Al Jazeera. “Can anyone blame us for wanting to leave?”

Rizikalla says he has no plans to leave and believes that the Israeli occupation and the politics of it have become new facets of life for the Palestinians. “The occupation is part of our life whether we like it or not, so we must find the beauty in the simple things life has to offer us,” he said. “For me, working where Jesus was born is my way of handling the occupation.”

Continuing the tradition

Since Hamas came to power it has not reversed three tenets instituted by Yasser Arafat, the late Palestinian President:
- Mayor of Bethlehem is always a Christian
- Minister of Tourism is a Christian
- The Palestinian Authority head attends Christmas mass (Arafat started this tradition and it was adopted by Mahmoud Abbas, the current president)

del martin died today. this is a picture of del (right) and her partner phyllis (left) lyon at their recent wedding in san francisco. del and phyllis were together for 55 years. they were founders of the daughters of bilitis, which is considered to be the first lesbian rights organization in the usa. i first read del’s name back in 1995 as i was learning queer history. a girl can’t learn about queer history without learning about del martin. anyone who is lgbtqi, or who loves someone who is lgbtqi, or is an ally to someone to lgbtqi owes a ‘thank you’ and a ‘we’ll miss you’ to del. the thought of people like del and phyllis in the world always gives me hope that things can get better, that things will get better. it brings me sadness that she is gone. godspeed del, thank you for all that you did. i guess this really means that people like me do have to step up, eh? i hope i’m ready.

from the national center for lesbian rights, her obituary:

Dorothy L. (Del) Martin (May 5, 1921 – August 27, 2008)

Died on Wednesday, August 27, 2008 at UCSF Hospice, San Francisco, California. Survived by spouse  Phyllis Lyon, daughter Kendra Mon, son-in-law Eugene Lane, granddaughter Lorraine Mon, grandson Kevin  Mon, sister-in-law Patricia Lyon and a vast, loving and grateful lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender family.

An eloquent organizer for civil rights, civil liberties, and human dignity, Del Martin created and helped shape the modern lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and feminist movements. She was a woman of  extraordinary courage, persistence, intelligence, humor, and fundamental decency, who refused to be silenced by fear and never stopped fighting for equality. Her last public political act, on June 16, 2008, was to marry Phyllis Lyon, her partner of 55 years. They were the first couple to wed in San Francisco after the California Supreme Court recognized that marriage for same-sex couples is a fundamental right in a case brought by plaintiffs including Martin and Lyon.

Born in San Francisco on May 5, 1921, Dorothy L. Taliaferro, or Del as she would come to be known, was salutatorian of the first graduating class of George Washington High School and went on to study journalism at the University of California at Berkeley. At 19, after transferring to San Francisco State College (now San Francisco State University), she married James Martin and two years later gave birth to their daughter Kendra. The marriage ended in divorce.

Del Martin met the love of her life, Phyllis Lyon, in Seattle in 1950 when they worked for the same publication company. They became lovers in 1952 and formalized their partnership on Valentine’s Day in 1953 when they moved in together in San Francisco. In 1955, they bought the small home that has been theirs ever since.

In what would prove to be an act that would change history, Martin, Lyon, and six other lesbians co-founded the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB) in San Francisco in 1955. DOB, which was named after an obscure book of lesbian love poetry, initially was organized to provide secret mutual support and social activities. It became the first public and political lesbian rights organization in the United States, laying a foundation for the women’s and lesbian and gay liberation movements that flowered in the early 1970s and continue today.

Del Martin used her writing and speaking talents to challenge misconceptions about gender and sexuality. “We were fighting the church, the couch, and the courts,” she often remembered years later, naming the array of social and cultural forces early activists confronted when homosexuals were treated as immoral, mentally ill, and illegal. As the first President of DOB, she penned stirring calls to arms. “Nothing was ever accomplished by hiding in a dark corner. Why not discard the hermitage for the heritage that awaits any red-blooded American woman who dares to claim it?” She was the second editor (after Phyllis Lyon) of  DOB’s groundbreaking monthly magazine, The Ladder, from 1960 to 1962 and ushered in a new decade of political engagement and media visibility for the nascent gay rights movement. The Ladder grew from a mimeographed newsletter in 1956 to an internationally recognized magazine with thousands of subscribers by 1970, and thousands more readers who copied its contents or circulated it among friends and coworkers. Martin’s many contributions to The Ladder ranged from short stories to editorials to missives: one of the most famous is “If That’s All There Is,” a searing condemnation of sexism in the gay rights movement written in 1970. Due to Martin’s influence, The Ladder provided one of the few media outlets confronting misogyny in the decade before the rebirth of women’s liberation.

In 1964, Del Martin was part of a group that founded the Council on Religion and the Homosexual in order to lobby city lawmakers more effectively to reduce police harassment and modify the sex laws that criminalized homosexual behavior. In later years, Martin was also a founding member of the Lesbian Mother’s Union, the San Francisco Women’s Centers, and the Bay Area Women’s Coalition, among other organizations.

As an early member of the National Organization for Women (NOW), Del Martin worked to counter homophobia within the women’s movement – fear of the so-called “lavender menace.” She and Lyon were the first lesbians to insist on joining with a “couples’ membership rate” and Martin was the first out lesbian on NOW’s Board of Directors. Their efforts helped to insure the inclusion of lesbian rights on NOW’s agenda in the early 1970’s.

Lesbian/Woman, the book they co-authored in 1972, is one of Martin and Lyon’s landmark accomplishments. The book described lesbian lives in a positive, knowledgeable way almost unknown at the time. In 1992, Publishers Weekly chose it as one of the 20 most influential women’s books of the last 20 years.

For many years, Del Martin was a leader in the campaign to persuade the American Psychiatric Association to declare that homosexuality was not a mental illness. This goal was finally achieved in 1973.

Del Martin’s publication of Battered Wives in 1976 was a major catalyst for the movement against domestic violence. Martin became a nationally known advocate for battered women, and was a co-founder of the Coalition for Justice for Battered Women (1975), La Casa de las Madres (a shelter for battered women) founded in 1976, and the California Coalition against Domestic Violence (1977). She lectured at colleges and universities around the country. Martin received her doctorate from the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in 1987.

Martin’s keen political instincts and interests extended her influence into the mainstream Democratic Party. She and Lyon were co-founders, in 1972, of the Alice B. Toklas Democratic Club, the first gay political club in the United States. Martin was appointed Chair of the San Francisco Commission on the Status of Women in 1976 and served on the committee until 1979. She worked as a member of many other councils and boards including the San Francisco Commission on the Status of Women. Throughout the years, many politicians recognized their stature as community leaders and sought advice and endorsement from Martin and Lyon.

It is difficult to separate Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon and write about only one of them. Their lives and their work have intertwined and their enduring dedication to social justice has been recognized many times. In 1979, local health care providers established a clinic to give lesbians in the San Francisco Bay area access to nonjudgmental, affordable health care and named it Lyon-Martin Health Services in their honor. In 1990, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Northern California awarded the couple with its highest honor, the Earl Warren Civil Liberties Award. In 1995, Senator Dianne Feinstein named Martin, and Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi named Lyon, as delegates to the White House Conference on Aging, where they made headlines by using their moment at the podium to remind the 125,000 attendees that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people grow old, too, and must be included explicitly in aging policies. The Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality gave Martin and Lyon their Outstanding Public Service Award in 1996. They are among the most beloved figures in the LGBT community and have served as Grand Marshals at Pride marches across the nation and been honored by every major LGBT organization in the country.

Del Martin identified her own legacy in 1984 when she said that her most important contribution was “being able to help make changes in the way lesbians and gay men view themselves and how the larger society views lesbians and gay men.” She had the courage to be true to herself when the world offered only condemnation for lesbians. Martin showed all of us how to have what she called “self-acceptance and a good sense of my own self-worth.” Del Martin never backed down from her insistence on full equality for all people and, even at 87 years old, she kept moving all of us closer to her ideal.

Gifts in lieu of flowers can be made to honor Del’s life and commitment and to defeat the California marriage ban through NCLR’s No On 8 PAC at www.nclrights.org/NoOn8.

A public memorial and tribute celebrating the life of Del Martin will be planned in the next several weeks.

from the Palestine Monitor

Underground lifelines
Al-Ahram Weekly
25 August 2008

It was only when the taxi driver made a sarcastic remark that he realised that his shirt was inside out. He took it off, pulled it the right side out, and put it on again. This resident of Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza had just received a phone call from a pharmacy in Rafah notifying him that now they had received a supply of the medicine used to treat his daughter’s nervous disorder. He knew he had to get there before the stock ran out, so he snatched whatever clothes were closest to hand. How indescribably happy was this man when finally he returned home with the medicine for which he had been scouring every corner of Gaza. He probably would not have found it in Rafah either had it not been for the tunnels through which vital supplies — including medicine — could be smuggled into Gaza from Egypt.

Ghassan Hussein, 44, a schoolteacher in Al-Maghazi Refugee Camp in the centre of Gaza, told Al-Ahram Weekly that thanks to the tunnels his summer hardship, too, had come to an end. For months he had been unable to sleep until an hour or so before dawn due to the intolerable heat. Due to the Israeli blockade, there was not a fan to be had in Gaza. Fortunately, he had come across one in a store on the Gaza side of Rafah after it had been smuggled through one of the tunnels.

Israel has long been trying to convince the world that any tunnels running between Gaza and Egypt are being used to smuggle arms. According to one tunnel operator, who spoke to the Weekly on condition of anonymity, this picture is totally inaccurate. More than 90 per cent of the tunnels are being used to smuggle in essential goods and medicines for civilian use, he said. His tunnel was dedicated to medicines and some foodstuffs, and his partners on the other side verified the contents of all packages before sending them over. His method of operation is very simple and straightforward. He calls up distributors of pharmaceutical supplies in Gaza, asks them what they need from Egypt and conveys their shopping lists to his partners on the other side. Sometimes, however, the pharmaceutical companies in Gaza contact suppliers in Egypt directly and these send the necessary medicines to his partners in Rafah. For each “shipment” he and his partners receive an agreed upon commission from the pharmaceutical supply distributors.

He added that the number of tunnels has increased tremendously since Israel tightened the blockade following Hamas’s seizure of power in Gaza. He estimates that there are now around 900 tunnels and that they are used primarily to bring in medicines, milk for children, foodstuffs, automobile spare parts, fuel and clothes. He also estimates that more than 1,100 people are engaged in tunnel digging operations, for which work they receive $2,400 a month. The salary is not exorbitant, he insists. “Those men are risking their lives,” he said, adding that seven had died when a tunnel collapsed on them when they were halfway through completing it. Most of the tunnels are owned by families in Rafah, for whom the tunnels are their only source of income.

Nevertheless, there are certain goods that cannot be smuggled in. Articles made of glass are one. As another tunnel owner put it, “glass has become like gold. But it’s almost impossible to smuggle it in because of the danger of breakage during transportation.” As a consequence, the prices of kitchen utensils made of glass have soared incredibly. Half a dozen crudely manufactured glasses now cost 25 shekels as opposed to five shekels before the blockade.

Mohamed Abu Musaed, 27, an art teacher in Deir Al-Balah, told the Weekly that when a group of colleagues came to congratulate him on his newborn son, he had to offer them fruit juice in six different shaped glasses. When he distributed the refreshments he offered a mock toast, “Here’s to the boycott.” He laughed and added that he was afraid of more than six people calling on him at once because he would not have enough glasses to go around.

Abu Musaed is better off than Abdul- Rahman Al-Awwad, 46, a merchant who supports a family of 11. His family does not have a single glass cup left and have been reduced to using plastic, even for guests. The lack of glasses and other items manufactured from glass has become one of the most salient features of the blockade a month into the truce agreement in accordance with which Israel began to permit the entry into Gaza of goods apart from those Israeli authorities claim can be used to manufacture missiles and explosives. Those stores that happen to have some glass items in stock have affixed price tags on them out of all proportion to their original price and, of course, people’s economic circumstances. As a result, most Gazans have stopped buying glass and resigned themselves to plastic.

After more than a month into the truce, there are still severe shortages in fuel. The quantities of fuel that Israel allows into Gaza are still so small that the government there has had to issue special coupons to taxis and minibuses enabling them to obtain 30 to 40 litres of gas every other day. According to a minibus driver who works the route from Gaza City to central Gaza this amount is barely enough for a single day’s work and he is therefore compelled to buy gas smuggled in from Egypt at black market prices. Given the higher fuel costs, taxi and minibus drivers have raised their fares and cram their vehicles with more than the legal maximum passenger load.

Meanwhile, private vehicle owners have a right to 10 litres of gas every two weeks, but only if they are up to date on their licence fees. This is not the case with most car owners who have turned to filling their tanks with cooking oil, which has only exacerbated the fuel crisis in Gaza. The Ministry of Interior in Gaza, which is sensitive to this problem with the month of Ramadan approaching, has issued a prohibition against the use of alternatives to gas in cars. Unfortunately, it is one of those rules that have little chance of being put into effect since drivers have little choice but to break it.

Gazans’ hopes that the truce would ease restrictions on the entry of building materials have also failed to materialise. The amounts of cement that Israel allows into the Strip fall far below construction needs. Osama Daabsa, 49, a resident of Birkat Al-Wizz to the west of Al-Maghazi Refugee Camp in central Gaza, had hoped to be able to complete the upper storey of the house he was building for one of his sons. He told the Weekly that he had to abandon the project. Not only is the amount of cement that Israel allow into Gaza insufficient, but also the quality is too poor for building purposes.

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/911/re2.htm

btw, if you haven’t yet checked out ‘the quaker agitator‘ maybe you should take this chance to go spend some time at quaker dave’s website.  this morning he’s got an excellent post up about katrina’s children.  go read it now, i’m sure your boss will understand why you need to take a bit more time to read blogs this morning if you show her this post.

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i guess i’m really missing being in palestine right now.  over at body on the line, marcy newman has an excellent post on obama / biden on palestine.  if you have any sympathy at all for the cause of the palestinians this should enrage you.  and it’s yet one more reason why i cannot take an active role in obama’s campaign.   here’s a snippet:

I don’t know how to explain how dreadfully he betrayed not only the Palestinians in Illinois with whom he supposedly has deep relations, but also Palestinians here when he chose to visit the 1948 destroyed village of Najd (known to Americans as the Israeli colony of Sderot) and not go to Gaza.

and in his own words she quotes him:

Ensure a Strong U.S.-Israel Partnership: Barack Obama strongly supports the U.S.-Israel relationship, believes that our first and incontrovertible commitment in the Middle East must be to the security of Israel, America’s strongest ally in the Middle East. Obama supports this closeness, stating that that the United States would never distance itself from Israel.

and on his name:

It is not just Palestine that is the issue. It’s also the way he is unwilling to take on comments about his middle name–Islamophobic references that are racist. Why can’t he just say, “I am Christian, but what would be so wrong if I were Muslim?” Or what of the way in which the people of Kenya seem to be elated about one of their own possibly inhabiting the White House and yet he’s never said a word about Kenya–even when it was spiraling into violence several months ago?

thanks marcy for that post.

from Ha’aretz Daily

Twilight Zone / ‘Tossed out like a dog’
By Gideon Levy

In the lawless South Hebron Hills, things are wild as usual: The settlers continue to attack shepherd children with clubs and stones, to steal their sheep and to make their lives miserable, while the Israel Police continue to abuse anyone who tries to file a complaint against the settlers.

Mahmoud Abu Kabaita, whose children and flocks were the targets of settlers from Beit Yatir and Susia, was left outside the Kiryat Arba police station in the burning sun for four hours, until they even allowed him to enter. The members of the Abu Awad family, some of whose children suffer from a serious skin disease, have already been victims of a cruel pogrom by the settlers of Asael, as described here three weeks ago. Relatives waited outside the police station for two hours, and left without filing a complaint, after being attacked once again last Shabbat. That is how the Israel Police enforces the law here.

After writing in this column about the Abu Awads, all of whose meager property was destroyed and looted by the rioters from Asael, some readers offered to help the penniless family. One prominent figure, who is well known in the political establishment and not necessarily from the left, and who wanted to remain anonymous, gave the family a personal financial contribution which is considered huge by local standards. There was great joy in the miserable encampment, but it was short-lived: Last Shabbat the children and their sheep were attacked once again by the Asael people. A wonderful way to welcome the “Sabbath bride,” as is customary every week.

The Abu Kabaitas, whom Israel decreed would have to live outside the separation fence, along with and adjacent to Beit Yatir, were not very fortunate either. They were also attacked by rioters from the neighboring settlement. They were also abused by the Israel Police, which are supposed to protect them.

Thus there exists, with a distance of an hour and a half from Tel Aviv, a region with its own rules: The settlers rampage as much as they please, and the police don’t lift a finger and even treat the victims of the violence rudely when they want to complain. In the past weeks, as everyone knows, the rioting has mounted, for some reason, but for the police it’s business as usual.

Opposite the new checkpoint and among antennas and wind turbines, lives the Abu Kabaita family. There is a mother, a father, 13 children and two grandmothers, one of them 97 years old, and of course the sheep and goats. They have been here since 1948 - Palestinians who live in a poor, but relatively well-kept compound of lean-tos, tents and stone structures, some of which have been demolished by Israel.

In the shade of a date tree are several plastic chairs; one of the children is picking dates and serving them together with small cups of sage tea. The father Mahmoud is relating the story of his tribulations. He is 40 years old, born here on the private lands registered to his family since the days of Turkish rule. He does not keep the official documents in the compound; he already knows that the settlers and perhaps even the police and the army are liable to confiscate them. Wearing a baseball cap backward on his head, speaking fluent Hebrew, he looks like an Israeli. A new Ferguson tractor is parked within the compound, but he has to leave his private car, an old Subaru, on the other side of the separation fence and the checkpoint on the slope, several hundred meters from his home. He is forbidden to bring it any closer to his house. Israel built the fence in such a way that Beit Yatir will remain in Israeli territory, along with some of its Palestinian neighbors.

It may be good for the settlers, but for the Abu Kabaitas the new checkpoint has only heralded more troubles: The children must pass through it every day on their way to school, as does Mahmoud on his way to buy feed for the sheep or to sell one of his herd, to bring a gas canister or other goods. Sometimes the soldiers allow him to pass, sometimes they don’t. When he wants to take sheep to sell in neighboring Yata, the soldiers allow him to take out only two at a time. That’s just how it is. Every crossing by he and his children depends on the good will of the checkpoint soldier: If he so desires, he’ll let them pass; if not, he won’t.

Abu Kabaita: “I drive with the tractor to Yata to bring water. If the soldiers are nice they let me pass. If not, I have to travel three hours in the fields on a route that bypasses the checkpoint. It all depends on the type of soldier at the checkpoint.” He adds that his sister and other relatives who live on the opposite side are not allowed to visit him at all.

The path to the Abu Kabaitas’ private pasture land is also an obstacle course: It passes within the border of Beit Yatir. This is also the source of constant friction; the children of the settlers sometimes throw stones at the shepherd’s children when they traverse the settlement. Sometimes the settlers also try to steal the sheep or run them over, as happened on August 1.

The family has 200 head of sheep; they are now sprawled in their pen, resting in the summer heat. When Beit Yatir was established, in the late 1980s, the war over the land began. Abu Kabaita did not give in, embarked on an exhausting legal battle and remained on his land. Beit Yatir was forced to expand in a different direction, not into his lands, which are adjacent to the fence that surrounds the settlement, which is also of dubious legality, because it passes through his property. He and his children cross through an opening in the fence to the grazing area. The tin roof of the family home is strewn with small stones that the children of the settlers sometimes throw at it.

“We are not spoiled,” explains Abu Kabaita. “We were born in caves and we’re used to a hard life. We have no problem, we became used to it already from our parents and I also force my children to become accustomed to our hard life. Only the settlers disrupt our lives - they are destroying our lives. We grew up with this. We liked this situation, we like to be with nature in difficult conditions, except for the settlers who have inhabited our lands. They have disrupted things. All we want is to continue our lives. That’s all. And we hope that the settlers will stop causing us problems. They’re interrupting our lives.”

Now Abu Kabaita removes from his pocket a folded packet of documents, confirmation of the complaints that he has managed to file with the police against his neighbors’ attacks. “When I come to the police station they see me and close the gate. I waste my entire day there; if I go to file a complaint, I need to spend an entire day in the sun. That’s what happened the last time. I stood there, tossed outside like a dog. I push the buttons, speak on the intercom; they tell me I’ll be admitted right away, and nothing happens.”

The last time he tried to file a complaint, on August 4, after baking in the heat for hours, representatives of the Temporary International Presence in Hebron, came and complained that they were not letting Abu Kabaita in. That didn’t help either, and he remained outside. “At 2 P.M. they allowed me to enter,” he says. “I had arrived there at 10 A.M., and it took me until 5:30 P.M. before I could file the complaint. Even when I had already done so, I felt that the policemen were not receiving me properly and the investigator was not writing down what I said.”

The complaint number that time was 309765/2008. Among the large number of documents showing evidence of complaints, about which nothing has been done, he also has a photograph that he once took clandestinely, in which one sees a settler from Beit Yatir, who, according to Abu Kabaita, is the violent one - dressed in white, a large white skullcap on his head, with a long beard, covering his face with his hands so that he won’t be identified as he is fleeing.

Danny Poleg, spokesman and assistant commander for the Judea and Samaria Police District writes: “1. Mr. Mahmoud Abu Kabaita did register a complaint on 4.8 at the Hebron station. An investigation is under way. 2. With regard to the amount of time he waited, there is no factual evidence to substantiate his claims. It should be noted that the Hebron police conduct ongoing, careful surveillance of the gates at the station, also by closed-circuit TV, to determine whether there are complainants or others in need of their services. 3. At the entry gate where Palestinians are received, there is a telephone with relevant extensions listed and signs. 4. Despite all this, and in response to your request, the commander of the Hebron district has ordered a clarification of this subject among the staff. 5. The policy of the Hebron district is to provide professional, high-quality and especially prompt service to the area population.

It was August 1, at twilight, and his two sons, Bilal, 11 and Sagr, 8, were on their way home with the sheep from the grazing land beyond Beit Yatir. A group of settler children was there, playing paintball. They teased the shepherd children and threw the balls of paint at them. That is how Mahmoud Abu Kabaita describes it. It was a group of young people from Susia, he explains, and some others from Beit Yatir. “They began to shoot those paint bombs at our children and our children got scared and fled,” says Abu Kabaita.

Bilal remained at a distance to watch over the sheep and Sagr ran home. Their father was in the family olive grove at the time. He dropped everything and rushed toward the flock and another shepherd boy who had remained behind. When he arrived he saw about 10 young people, who were holding onto several sheep. A white car was parked alongside the group. Five goats and sheep were already tied to trees in the woods.

“I wanted to approach, to ask them: Why are you stealing our sheep? But they are very fanatic people and they told me to leave the place immediately. I didn’t see Bilal or the sheep. Where was Bilal? Where were the sheep? I was afraid. I phoned the emergency number, 100. They didn’t answer. It started to get dark. We’re in the dark alone, they’re cursing and shouting, and I’m worried about my son and the sheep.”

He called the offices of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Hebron. They referred him to the B’Tselem human rights organization. B’Tselem’s research coordinator, Najib Abu Rakia, together with the organization’s district fieldworker, Musa Abu Hashhash, called the Israel Defense Forces and the police to come to the site. The IDF came, the police did not.

When the IDF jeep arrived the settlers fled, leaving behind the flock. The soldiers did not say a word to Abu Kabaita, however, and left the scene. He and Bilal untied the goats and sheep, and returned home with the flock late in the evening, tired but mainly frightened.

Bilal and Sagr have refused since then to go out by themselves to the grazing land beyond Beit Yatir, and their father must accompany them daily, in the hope that they will return home safely. He is now very concerned about the fate of his children and his flock. He also feels there has recently been an intensification in the violence on the part of the settlers.

Abu Kabaita: “I got the children used to not being afraid, and I hope that it won’t happen again. I don’t want to say that all of Beit Yatir is like that. Not everyone in the settlement is a thief and wicked. It’s important to say that. Only a few, and especially the one in the picture. In recent months it’s become worse and they’ve started to make a lot of trouble for us. I feel it. They try to steal sheep, they try to run over sheep, they throw stones at night and scare my children.”

Fortunately for him, the wind turbine built by the settlers almost on top of his house is often broken. The noise it makes at night when it is working prevents them from sleeping. “Every time it revolves - boom. It’s like an explosion at night.”

A turbine above their heads, one settlement spilling over into their pasture land, another on a nearby slope, and the threat of violence around them - that’s the safe and pleasant life enjoyed these days by the Abu Kabaitas.

i’m waiting to hear from cpt about the application i submitted. it’s been awhile, but that’s okay - they started a month of training right when i submitted my application. while i’m waiting to hear i continue my period of discernment- whether this is what i really want to do with my life for awhile after i finish this degree. so far all the answers that come back are yes. when i see pictures like this that yes answer is only reinforced. how can i not want to give three years of my life to do what i can to help the palestinians? (picture taken from at-tuwani online)

it’s the first day of school around here.  blech.  i’ve been dreading this all summer, i think.  just so much to do this semester, and next.  agh.  i’m in a crabby mood this morning, even though i had a great conversation with glbta services about something that i’ve been chatting with someone about.  anonymous.  i know.  anyhow.  i’m in a crabby mood, too much to do.  even though classes have started my life doesn’t really change, just that more people are around and being that i’m super crabby this doesn’t go over well with me.  :P

but bitterness and grumpiness aside.  this is what came across in verse and voice today:

Do not envy the violent and do not choose any of their ways.  ~Proverbs 3:31

The heart which has been made free with the freedom of Christ cannot be indifferent to the human longings for deliverance from economic, political or social oppression.  ~ Samuel Escobar, Peruvian theologian