Tel Rumaida checkpoint (Photo: Reham Alhelsi)
This is the checkpoint at the entrance to the Tel Rumaida neighborhood in the old city of Hebron. This section of Hebron used to be the center of Palestinian life in the city. It is now effectively ethnically cleansed. This entrance is only for Palestinians. Palestinians are not allowed to drive cars in Tel Rumaida, only settlers are allowed to drive cars within Tel Rumaida.
Grafitti on a Palestinian shop (Photo: Reham Alhelsi)
This photo shows a door with two stars of David painted on them. This grafitti is just near the checkpoint at the entrance to Tel Rumaida, which means the Israeli military watched, and as usual did nothing, as the settlers painted this and wrote "Fuck Palestine" on the Palestinian shop. Or, it is possible that the soldiers themselves wrote it themselves.
Inside Tel Rumeida (Photo: Reham Alhelsi)
This is of a street in Tel Rumaida, lined with the empty Palestinian homes and shops. The settlers live in many of the houses, which are marked by Israeli flags. You can see the Israeli flags almost everywhere in Tel Rumaida.
Next door neighbor to the settlers. (Photo: Reham Alhelsi)
This is of the door of the family living closest to the settlers. Their "neighbour" is no other than Baruch Marzel, leader of the Zionist “Jewish National Front” and was also head of the secretariat of the Kach terror organization. The JNF is the one behind the "gas the arabs" and other racist grafitti.
The owners of this house said the settlers often come at night, make noise, throw things at the doors and the windows, bang at the doors, and at one time they left this star. There are also visible gun shot marks on the walls of the house. The settlers banged one door, and when the owner wanted to get it repaired the Israeli military refused to let the handyman into Tel Rumeida because the equipment needed for the repair is not allowed into Tel Rumeida (this of course applies only to Palestinians).
The settlers, whose building is a bit higher than the Palestinian house, throw their garbage in the frontyard of the Palestinian house, they even threw an old washing machine and a huge rock. (I have pics of this and was able to take a few pics of the settler building. The palestinian friend was afraid that the settlers, especially Marzal, might see us, and asked me to take pics quickly. I could clearly hear the fear in his voice. He later said that the land nearby where a few olive trees stand belongs to him and that the settlers dont allow him to harvest the trees, so one time a group of activists came to help him with the harvest, and the settlers attacked the activists and prevent them from harvesting the olive trees claiming they belonged to them.)
Grapevines (Photo: Reham Alhelsi)
These are grapevines cut into two in the middle and hanging in the air. The owner said the settlers living just behind his houses did this to his trees.
A tree with messages from the settlers. (Photo: Reham Alhelsi)
This photo shows a tree, where the settlers cut the branches and tied messages in Hebrew to the dead branches. The Palestinian living near the settlers said they were threatening messages that told them to leave the area. There were many of these messages.
Below is a close shot of one of these messages. It says: "Its all your fault, friend" (meaning it’s the Palestinisn family’s fault that they are getting treated like this).
Israeli settlers in Hebron tell Palestinians "it’s all your fault." (Photo: Reham Alhelsi)
Reham Alhelsi is a Palestinian regional planner who was born, grew up and educated in Jerusalem but is now prevented from entering the city by the Separation Wall. She blogs at avoicefrompalestine.wordpress.com.
