Arrived Safe in Hebron
Greetings from Hebron !
I arrived safely into Tel Aviv on Tuesday night. I was anxious about Israeli immigration because I had heard that all internationals were getting short visas; only as long as they said they were staying. They used to give a 3 month visa to everyone whatever you told them so I normally tell them I am staying in Jerusalem for 2 weeks to visit the holy sites and pray. If I tell them I am staying more than 2 weeks and that I don’t have a return ticket then I would get pulled aside for the more intensive questioning. In the event she took one look at my suit and collar, asked me what I was doing and didn’t ask how long I plan to stay. She gave me a moments panic when she asked me my father’s name and then told me to wait while she went off. I thought she had gone to get her supervisor but she came back with a pile of cards, stamped 3 months in my passport and gave it back with a card. As I hurried away I looked at the card to find that the Ministry of Tourism are assuring me that “Israel Loves Me” in a nice heart design. I’ll have to show it to the soldiers as they sometimes forget !
I stayed overnight at Ecce Homo in Jerusalem, prayed the early morning prayer in al Aqsa and came on to Hebron in the morning. Arwa was delighted to see me and I am very glad to be back with her again.
In fact my first encounter with a soldier was a difficult one. They change
regiments every 3 months or so and I had heard that the new batch of soldiers is one of the worst we had had for a very long time, the Golan Unit. Arwa had been complaining of arbitrary detentions for every one. We were going home from her parents house just before 10 and we got stopped and asked for ID. I showed them my passport but refused to let go of it. We were detained and had to empty every item out of our bags. I knew they were just about to go off duty at 10 so I figured they could not hold us for long but then one of them asked us to follow him
to the checkpoint and they detained us again there. Lots of people we knew came through the checkpoint so we had a grand social time meeting old friends which annoyed the soldiers no end. In the end one of them gave Arwa her ID back and we made our escape through the checkpoint. One of the women we had met on our way down
the hill told us that soldiers had invaded her house at 2am causing a nuisance.
I was rudely awoken very early this morning by a soldier yelling at someone in Hebrew and cocking his gun. I hurried to get up and grab a camera but by the time I had my clothes on there was no one in sight and all was quiet again. They often now set up flying checkpoints in the square outside our house and stop everyone coming into and out of the Old Market.
A few days before I left England Arwa called me to tell me we had been broken into again. This time 4 men were in the house for a long time and took most of our furniture, all our electrical items, all our wedding gifts and a lot of other stuff. All the internal doors were smashed. Arwa had been out at her parents for a party and had stayed the night. When she came back and found the mess she was quite distraught. They had left cum on the quilt, taken all her makeup and love tokens and drawn an offensive picture of her on the white board in the kitchen. The problem is that most of the thieves in the Old City are also believed to be collaborators and are protected by the Israeli army and police. It is hard
for the Palestinian police to take action against them and our neighbours are mostly afraid to speak out for fear of retaliation. There are boot prints on the roof from the burglary, which may indicate that soldiers were present.
Arwa stayed with her parents until the doors were fixed. Now that I am back with her she is calm again. We have been offered a house in Tel Rumeida but we will try to stay here if we can. I'm not sure the soldiers will give us much peace in Tel Rumeida anyway but there are no thieves there. I'll go see the Hebron Rehabilitation Committee tomorrow and hassle them about the fence on the roof that they promise us 4 months ago.
