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After walking down from Tel Rumeida, we passed through a checkpoint from al-Shuhada Street to meet our guide for the Palestinian area of the Old City of Hebron.
Although we were still in the Israeli-controlled H2 sector of the city, there was an immediate change of scenery. The restricted access area before passing through the checkpoint was a virtual ghost town, while the Palestinian side was a bustling city full of traffic and pedestrians.
Lunch
The original plan was for the group to have a home-cooked lunch at a Palestinian home, but our guide, Mohammed, had to change plans. Earlier in the day, Israeli soldiers went to the home and threatened the residents, warning them there would be trouble if they welcomed any foreigners into their home. Instead, Mohammed took us to have shawarma at a local fast food restaurant.
Human Rights Defenders
After lunch, we visited Human Rights Defenders to meet with a local activist. We walked into a run-down building near the checkpoint we had passed through earlier and crowded into a small room, each taking a seat at a desk.
The activist talked about the problems Palestinians have faced since Israeli settlers and troops entered Hebron. He also spoke about programs that have been implemented in order to peacefully resist the occupation.
Souq
After thanking the activist, we walked through the souq, which is just west of the historic Old City. It was a crowded covered market with shops selling mostly clothing and accessories.
Once we got closer to the Old City, many of the shops were closed. We still enjoyed the pleasant walk between historic buildings.
Old City
When we reached the entrance to the UNESCO World Heritage listed Old City, Mohammed showed us the checkpoint that let to the Beit Romano and Beit Hadassah settlements we had passed by a few hours earlier. From there, we began to walk through the narrow alleys of the Casbah past several shops.
Although most of the shops were closed, the owners desperately tried to get our group to enter. Unfortunately, we were on a tight schedule and didn’t have time to browse. We did walk past a few of the glass shops for which Hebron is famous.
Barrier
Walking through the alleys, we passed a barrier that separates the Palestinian side of the Old City from the Avraham Avinu settlement. It’s literally a wall of concrete set in the middle of a corridor.
Protective Net
Next, Mohammed stopped in front of a shop to show the group the protective net above the Casbah. The net was placed there to protect Palestinians from garbage thrown at them by Israeli settlers living in apartments in the Avraham Avinu settlement above the shops.
One of the shopkeepers said that almost every day, settlers throw something down on the Palestinians. A few of the group members were skeptical, pointing out that the garbage looks old and the nets seem to do a good job of protecting the Palestinians. The shopkeeper said not all of the garbage is old and sometimes settlers dump urine, bleach, or other liquids from their windows.
At that point, a group of Israeli soldiers standing nearby approached Mohammed and told him we had five minutes to leave the area. They claimed that they wanted to secure the Casbah for a visiting dignitary, but Mohammed believes they didn’t like what they heard him telling the group. We then hurried through the rest of the Casbah, losing some of the other important points of interest Mohammed wanted to talk about.
Q&A
Mohammed took us to a parking lot just outside the Hebron Rehabilitation Committee, which has a small mosaic of Yasser Arafat (1929-2004) at the entrance.
The group then sat around Mohammed, who lectured about a few more issues he wanted to cover during the tour. He finished lecturing and opened up the group to a question and answer session in which he was very open and honest about the difficulties living under apartheid. He also stressed the majority of Palestinians believe they can live peacefully with Israeli settlers if the situation would be handled differently.
While he spoke, the group was entertained by two children taking bricks from a recently repaired wall along the parking lot. It was somewhat symbolic – as the Israelis are building walls to separate themselves from the Palestinians, these children were taking one down.
End of the Tour
With the tour winding to a close, Mohammed had to find a way to get us back to our Israeli guide, Eliyahu. Normally, he would have us meet Eliyahu at the Tomb of the Patriarchs but it was off limits to non-Jews that day. Instead, we had to walk through some back alleys to find a meeting place that wouldn’t violate Mohammed’s restricted movement through the area.
On the way, some curious Palestinian children began to follow our group, asking for pictures. They all had smiles on their faces and laughed when we showed them the snapshots we had taken. The children were a bright spot on the tour, reassuring the group that even though they were growing up in a place with such a bleak outlook on life, there was still plenty of room for laughter and enjoyment.
After finding Eliyahu, the group posed for a photo and said goodbye to Mohammed. We then followed Eliyahu to the bus for our ride back to Jerusalem. Although it wasn’t a “normal” day with the “normal” tour schedule, it was still one of the most eye-opening tours we had ever taken. It helped us better understand the complicated situation between Palestinians and Israelis from both perspectives, and the major flashpoint caused by the division of Hebron.
