Hebron vol.1

I read an article in the news paper, the Mainichi Shinbun (JPN). It said " Israeli government permit for the people to settle in Hebron, West bank Palestine, after 15 year suspending "Basically the settlements should be only in Israeli territory. However, in the real world, those are settled in Palestinian territory(PT) too. The settlement HarHoma which I mentioned once here is one of them. The mega settlement is newly constructed in East Jerusalem of PT. On the other hand, there is another type of settlement. Which is Palestinian people's town itself change to Israeli settlement. The Palestinian residents is forced to moved out and the Israeli settle in the quarter. Hebron is the latter.

It's almost 7 years ago when I visited Hebron. But I clearly recall the picture of the settlement when I read the article. I had a heavy security check at the gate, then stepped into the area. It's so quiet compare to the outside. Stores along the street were all closed. The metal shutter was rusted, seems like it had closed for long time. Only Israeli soldiers with automatic rifle were patrolling on the deserted street. A young guy, foreigner I think, was singing an anti-war song being watched by soldiers from both side. I felt someone in the houses. If some Palestinian residents were still there? Or Newly settled Israeli?

The article solved all my question. The deserted town was caused by Israeli government didn't permit to settle there in that time. So what I felt someone there was Palestinian residents still there. The 15 year suspending is now ended and settlement will be started. There is a plan the old quarter will be reconstructed for the new residents. The last Palestinian residents gotta move out from the quarter, their home town. They are bewildering. The article describe like that.

Jerusalem and Bethlehem were visited by many foreign tourists. So the resident's face were slightly soften, in my impression. However I felt severe situation in the face of people in Hebron. Some tourist told me he look around the settlement with Parestinian guide getting a rubber bullet warning shot by Israeli soldiers.
For me, I was thrown stone by Palestinian children on the back street. Then I came back to the old market. I stopped by a commodity store for getting water. One Palestinian boy came in and took a cupped coffee jelly. He grasp and took it out in front of my camera. Then stuck the thumb into the lid. The coffee jelly was splashed and covered on my camera. I really got angry and tried to tell him some. But the store owner who had seen everything came up and told him instead of me. "What are you doing for my customer?" He said so, I guess. The boy thrown the cup there and run away.