Protest in Hebron

In 1994, an American-Israeli gunned down 29 Muslims praying in the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron. The next year, the mosque was divided into two armed halves; during the following years, Palestinians’ use of the market street running to the mosque was chopped up by Israeli settlements, checkpoints, and military restrictions.

“Open Shuhada Street” has become the rallying cry for an annual “action” that our host group, Youth Against Settlements, sponsors on the Friday beginning the anniversary weekend of the Mosque Massacre. We had an opportunity to participate or observe that action Friday.

Our delegation’s co-leader, Palestinian-American Huwaida, is a veteran activist for Palestinian rights. She briefed us Thursday evening about the event’s history and its plan to march to Shuhada Street for prayers and speeches there. She went into some detail about the possibilities for Israeli police or military response —arrests, tear gas, and concussion grenades — and how to minimize their damage. She outlined ways to keep track of one another and in phone contact to protect our safety during the action. And she emphasized that Eyewitness Palestine did not want any of us to court arrest or injury, but that each of us was of course free to choose whether to participate, or document the event from inside the march, or observe from the edges, or remain in our comfortable hotel over a mile away.

Best of all, Huwaida made clear that all these roles were legitimate, and that simply our presence would provide valuable international support to the Palestinians, who have so little local leverage to pursue their human rights. So I did not feel judged by her — nor by any other delegation members — when I chose to be an observer. That left me free on Friday to keep a comfortable distance from the action, to follow my own interests in watching the actors and any Israeli reactions, to photograph whatever appealed to my eye, and to be aware of my own feelings.

First, I felt pleasure in the positive spirit and community that participants brought to the Ibn Rushd Square staging area — including a man who brought his small son, declaring the his son had a right to be there and to see what happens, in response to a German human rights observer who asked if he was afraid for his son.

Second, I felt gratitude as a group of ultra-conservative Jews entered the staging area wearing their distinctive long curls, dark dress, and tallit ropes, and carrying signs insisting that Zionist Israelis do not represent all Jews or Judaism. Their presence supported my conviction that support for Palestinians is not inherently anti-Semitic.

Third, as the march proceeded, I felt inspired by an older Palestinian woman sacrificed social poise to run waving a flag through the marchers, rousing them by yelling her irrepressible desire for full citizen’s rights in her homeland.

Fourth, I felt vindicated in my belief that President Obama’s much-ridiculed “leading from behind” was indeed a sign of strength, not weakness, as I saw “our” Huwaida and long-time Hebron activist Issa Amro walking together behind the first several rows of marchers, waving their own flags and chanting in rhythm with those in front. Huwaida’s return with us to the US and Issa’s likely prison time in 5-6 months when a court case against his protest work is adjudged mean they need to encourage new leadership by stepping back so others can lead — and following them.

Fifth, I felt the intimidating effects of seeing heavily armed Israeli soldiers watching the prayers and speeches from above — stationed at the iron-grated windows of a settlement residence, at a well-flagged stockade office building, and at a checkpoint tower surrounded by barbed and razor wire. But the 200-250 Open Shuhada Street activists were apparently too few for them to try to restrain or disrupt, even during a brief fracas when a half-dozen teens ran at the press and “international” yelling that their/our presence would make the Israelis fire teargas at true Palestinians like themselves. A few Palestinian adults turned them back quietly.

Finally, I felt pride even in the protest’s moderate success. Not asserting a Palestinian presence on this important anniversary would have conceded too much to Israeli Apartheid. Although the Shuhuda market shops remained closed up and the street empty alter the protest, the activists had continued to insist on their rights and dignity in the face of overwhelming Israeli power. They — we — had been there.