Muhanned Qafesha, a resident of Tel Rumeida in Hebron, takes Mondoweiss through the arduous journey some residents of the city have been subjected to since Israeli forces made the town a closed military zone in November.
Following the establishment of the closed military zone Israel implemented a new number system in the area. Each household within the zone was given an ID number which is now necessary to be able to access Tel Rumaida. Anyone without a number is barred from entering the town.
Instead of being subjected the military checkpoint, many residents and visitors alike have instead chosen to take a footpath through the muddy back hills of Tel Rumeida to get home. The Israeli checkpoint used to be the most convenient entrance to their town, but now can take hours as Israel “heightens security.”
While the footpath is dangerous, and non-residents taking the path are doing so illegally, Qafesha said many choose to take the alternative entrance out of protest, while others take it because they have no other choice.
Video: Sheren Khalel and Abed al Qaisi
Music: Bakr Khalifa
Editor’s Note: Mondoweiss editors Philip Weiss and Adam Horowitz recently visited the same Israeli checkpoint in Hebron and conducted this impromptu interview with a Hebron resident attempting to return home.
Long live Palestine and her people! BDS FOR THE ZIONIST STATE! DOWN WITH THE UGLY SETTLEMENTS! END THE OCCUPATION!
Thank you for these videos –
Thank you for the video clips. One can easily imagine how it would be to have some arrogant, sellf consumed fanatics stealing your land that the international community recognizes as belonging to you a Palestinians and your family. Not hard to imagine why Palestinians try to defend their homes, land and families through violent means. The Israeli military and government hh as and continues to be completely complicit in these human rights crimes.
The settlements should be emptied of these arrogant, self consumed, evil illegal settlers and the buildings should be blown into rubble.
Since everyone knows that is not going to happen. folks should continue to do everything they can to push for one state. Israel has left no other choice.
Why Israel’s Netanyahu has no standing to accuse UN Sec. Ban of inciting Terrorism
http://www.juancole.com/2016/01/why-israels-netanyahu-has-standing-to-accuse-un-sec-ban-of-inciting-terrorism.html
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – –
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon spoke out this week in an address to the UN Security Council against Israel’s policy of stealing Palestinian land in the West Bank (allotted to Palestinians in the 1947 UN General Assembly partition plan that Israelis celebrate so fiercely), and of building ever more squatter homes in occupied Palestine. Ban went on to say that it is natural for Palestinians to resist this assault on their basic human rights. That is, Ban described the Palestinians as wronged and as rational actors:
“Palestinian frustration is growing under the weight of a half century of occupation and the paralysis of the peace process.
Some have taken me to task for pointing out this indisputable truth.
Yet, as oppressed peoples have demonstrated throughout the ages, it is human nature to react to occupation, which often serves as a potent incubator of hate and extremism.
So-called facts on the ground in the occupied West Bank are steadily chipping away the viability of a Palestinian state and the ability of Palestinian people to live in dignity.”
The Hasbara Goon Squad appears to be at a loss for words after this video reality check on the pulse of the street.
And the tide is turning…
@Marnie
“When we see Jews leaving Europe… and attacks on Jewish centers from Mumbai to Kansas; when we see swastikas appear on college campuses, we must not stay silent. “When any Jew anywhere is targeted, we must all respond as if we are all Jewish… we must all do what we can… we have a responsibility, and as president I will make sure the U.S. is leading the fight against anti-Semitism,” the president says.”
Agree that this is absolutely disgusting. Until now I had given Obama the benefit of the doubt if only because of the feeling that he was playing the Washington game in terms of trying to secure a further term for the Democrats.
It has truly sunk now in that when it comes to confronting the evils which Zionists and Zionism have inflicted and continue to inflict on the Palestinian people he is an abject coward and just as bought and bent as all the Israel firsters in what I used to respect as the Land of the Free.