Email from Hebron

In While Europe Slept the author noted how not only are Europeans frequently reluctant to confront radical Islam, but they actually extend sympathy to the religion and its pet causes. A case in point is Israel, with is widely demonized in Europe for its treatment of the Palestinians. The backlash against Israel's construction of a wall is a good example -- despite its success in reducing terrorist bombings.

Its with this in mind that I read the following email from a Norwegian girl I know:

My first Saturday in Hebron

This summer I am volunteering as an Ecumenical Accompanier in Israel and Palestine. I arrived on May 4 and will complete my term at the beginning of August. As part of the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI), headed by the World Council of Churches, I will perform various tasks that all have the purpose of accompanying Israelis and Palestinians in their efforts to end the occupation of Palestine (for more information about the programme go to http://www.eappi.org/).

I have been placed in Hebron, a Palestinian city south of Jerusalem and Bethlehem with approximately 150 000 Palestinians and 4-500 extremist Israeli settlers that are protected by about 1500 Israeli soldiers and police. As an EA here in Hebron my principal task has been protection by presence (until the end of May when the Qortoba School closed for the summer).

My three team members (Dudu from South Africa, Joshua from Kenya and Brian from Sweden) and I have accompanied Palestinian girls, ages 6-16, to school to make sure that the Israeli settlers, who live on the opposite side of the road from the Palestinian school, do not throw stones at the children. After school we would also accompany three kids home (Jeanette, Sundas and Ashmad) as they have to cross razor wire and pass by the homes of some of the most extremist Israeli settlers, including the household of Baruch Marzel, the former leader of the outlawed Israeli terrorist organization Kach (labeled a terrorist organization by Israel, Europe and the US! – yet there is no 'war on terror' here-- apart from the arbitrary arrest, abuse and harassment of Palestinians). For more information on Kach and its former leader, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kach.

The following link contains photos and a report – written by a volunteer from the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) -- of the incident that marked my first encounter with the extremist Israeli settlers of Hebron.

http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2006/05/22/how-many-escorts-does-
take-to-get-3-children-home/

I appear in the first two photos, wearing a beige vest and a black sweater. I was close to the screaming settler woman and the frightened Palestinian children who tried to get through the razor wire to go home. Appeals (by both ISM and us) to the soldiers proved useless, despite telling them about the Israeli court order that allows the children to pass on that particular path to go home. In the first photo I am talking on the cell phone with the children's uncle (also on one of the photos). He is one of our main contact persons in Hebron and I called him to ask him to come by because I knew he was with a delegation of UN officials somewhere in the area. Luckily nobody was hurt this time, but the daily struggles of the Palestinians in Hebron (and elsewhere in the Occupied Palestinian Territories) continue.

I wish you a wonderful summer and await your comments and questions w.r.t. my stay and experiences in the West Bank.

On the one hand perhaps she is performing a useful task, and I have no doubt that there are abuses and disagreeable practises by both the Israeli army and settlers. On the other, I wonder where the volunteers are to escort Israelis on buses, or in the cafe, or disco, where they are in danger of being blown up by Palestinian suicide bombers. Or, failing that, simply where's the outrage against such acts?