Following on from Friday’s post about Hebron, I just got around to watching a documentary featuring one of the Palestinian families I met during my time there. In the Spider’s Web, in five parts on YouTube, is an accurate representation of what I saw in my brief time in the city.

The tension has ratcheted up in Hebron, with Jewish settlers being physically dragged away from a building they were occupying yesterday by Israeli soldiers.

I visited Hebron four times while I was in the West Bank and blogged about what I saw there a couple of times (here and here). One thing I didn’t get round to blogging until now was my final day in the city, when I met with a spokesman for the Jewish community who have been living there since shortly after the Six Day War in 1967.
I have reams of notes from my few hours with David Wilder. He failed to convince me about their position but it was fascinating nonetheless, and important for me that I heard their side of the argument first-hand.

As an aside, it’s worth noting what I had to do to get to Hebron that day. The city centre is divided into two zones, one of which is nominally under Palestinian control (although the Israeli army is still everywhere.)
I was staying in Bethlehem at the time, which is probably something like 20 miles away and is also in the West Bank. But because I was going to the Jewish part of Hebron (in the next street to where I’d previously been), I had to get up early, spend a couple of hours crossing the checkpoint and catching a bus to Jerusalem (seven miles from Bethlehem), then walk for 30 minutes to the main bus station and then catch an Israeli “settler bus” back into the West Bank. It had strengthened windows and took the so-called “sanitised roads” through the occupied territory (highways that Palestinian vehicles can’t use), using a route that passed through many illegal settlements before arriving in Hebron.

An American-born Israeli, David Wilder said many interesting things, but one that has particularly stuck in my mind is his thoughts on the children who grow up in communities like his. I’d heard many things – both from Palestinians and soldiers from Breaking the Silence – about the bad behaviour of settler children in Hebron. Raised with enormous bitterness and hatred for “the other”, they have frequently been witnessed physically attacking Palestinians, throwing stones, breaking into properties and generally being provocative. Indeed, the Independent report I linked to above describes how settler teenagers caused most of the problems this week. Local Palestinians certainly believe that they are often put up to it by their parents, because their age means they are likely to get away with it.

Anyway, David’s response made me laugh inwardly at the time, but he may well end up being right, since Israeli society and politics does appear to be moving even further to the right (not that the settlers think that. They seem label anyone who doesn’t agree with them is some kind of soft lefty).

“My impression is that the kids who grow up in places like Hebron are going to be the leadership of Israel in future generations,” he told me in all sincerity.

“They are living with such tension. Kids are very much part of life here and they usually understand what is going on and why we are here. They live their faith in the Jewish community of Hebron – they aren’t in an environment where it’s all about bigger bikes, bigger cars and drugs.

“These children have things I couldn’t dream of growing up as a child in the US. And they want to stay – my daughters have chosen to bring up their own children here in Hebron because they want to continue with this life and believe in it.

“Israel has to deal with enormous pressure on all sides from the US, the EU and Russia, as well as from the Israeli left. We need politicians who can stand up to these pressures.

“It can be very frustrating living here. Things that are so clear to us are not clear to others. Kids like ours are not going to break down because they have seen so much and all understand what the real issues are for Israel. I genuinely think these are the future leaders of our country.”

The military’s ubiquitous in Israel. Troops patrol the streets, many of which are named famous battles and generals. Uniformed soldiers work as teachers in remote schools, and playgrounds feature tanks along with the more innocent swings and slides. It’s something that I just couldn’t get used to.

One of the country’s most popular radio stations is owned by the military. And there is mandatory national service for all 18-year-olds – except those of Palestinian descent (referred to as Arab Israelis) or certain ultra-orthodox Jews. Even after their three years of service, men continue to serve a month each year as reserves until they’re in their forties.

An illustrious army background can be a ticket to success, with many senior officers moving into politics after retirement.

Questioning the status quo is not a popular thing to do in a country whose identity is so entangled with the military. Helping concientous objectors to avoid the draft is seen by many as the ultimate tretchery to a nation that perceives itself to be under threat by any number of enemies – both outside its borders and within.

This is exactly what New Profile is known for doing. The group has outraged the Israeli religious right (ironic considering the orthodox exemption), and is now being targeted by a government that is struggling to deal with a spiralling number of teenage refusniks. In 2007 almost 28 per cent of eligible young men evaded enlistment. Even the daughter of a spymaster in Mossad recently ended up in jail for refusing to serve.

While I was in Israel, a criminal investigation was launched against the NGO by the attorney general, following a request from the IDF. It centres on information New Profile gives about how to fail psychological tests carried out as part of the enlistment process. The government has now appealed to the Israeli High Court to close the group.

Aside from these activities, the small but group works to persuade Israelis that over-militarisation must be addressed and the army restricted to defence. Member Ronit Marian-Kadishay believes it’s a throwback to Zionism and that her country needs to move on.

She says: “Israeli culture generates an image of the world in which war was, is and will always be inevitable – a necessary and acceptable way of solving our problems.
“The army permeates our whole society. Our children’s textbooks are full of army imagery, there are tanks in their playgrounds and soldiers are used as teachers when staff can’t be found.

“Pictures of soldiers are used all the time in advertising. Battlegrounds have become memorial sites. It’s completely normal to see uniformed, armed soldiers everywhere.”

The effect is to perpetuate the belief that Israeli lives are in danger, and that a strong military is the only way to keep them safe.

“We would argue that this feeling that we are living among enemies and must be strong to survive is outdated and actually harmful,” she says.
“If Israelis believe everyone else is against us, they don’t want to know about ‘the other’ and continue to fear our neighbours. This mindset has to be changed because it simply drives us from one war to another.”

When people think about the Israel-Palestine situation they talk about Jews, Muslims and very occasionally the Palestinian Christians. Together these three communities account for most – but not all – of the people living in this region.
There is another group – religion or ethnicity if you will – who has lived in the Holy Land since the earliest days of the bible. The tiny Samaritan community has friendly relations with all its neighbours but has suffered quietly over the past 40 years.
Reputed to be the smallest ethnic group in the world – with less than 850 members left – these people live in two distinct communities, one near the West Bank town of Nablus and the other near Tel Aviv, in Israel.
The two groups are fairly separate – the Israeli Samaritans tending to speak modern Hebrew in their day-to-day affairs, while the Nablus Samaritans speak fluent Arabic and pray in ancient Hebrew or Samaritan Aramaic.
After many years living in Nablus, the Palestinian Samaritans were forced to retreat to a gated community on a nearby hilltop to escape the second intifada.
I was lucky enough to visit the Samaritan village on Mt Gerazim – considered by them to be their holiest site – during my month in Israel and Palestine, and to meet with one of its elders, an ebullient middle aged man named Khader Samaritan, who talked me through some of their traditions and the issues they face today.
Centuries ago, the Samaritans inhabited the biblical land of Samaria. They always had good relations with the successive powers that have occupied the West Bank – the Ottomans, the British, the Jordanians and now the Israelis.
Today, this mean Samaritans get more rights than their fellow Palestinians. Those of them who live in the West Bank have three official nationalities – Palestinian, Israeli and Jordanian – and carry the passport of Israel. This bestows on them all manner of priviledges that the Muslims and Christians of Nablus can’t get. They can cross the security barrier into Israel, visit friends and relatives that side of the border and fly, if they wish, from Ben Gurion airport.
Their cars carry the white Israeli number plates (Palestinian plates are green), meaning they get waved straight through the dreaded army checkpoints.
Khader explained that Samaritans believe theirs is the true faith of the ancient Israelites. Unlike Jews, they do not recognise the sanctity of Jerusalem and instead revere Mt Gerazim as being the holiest site.
Their faith has five pillars – God is one; belief in Moses and his bible; the ‘old Torah’ or first five chapters only; Mt Gerazim is the most holy site, and judgement day. They keep the Jewish holy days including Passover and Yom Kippur, and have in their possession the world’s oldest Torah – a scroll they claim is more than 3,600 years old. Animal sacrifices remain an import part of their tradition.
“We pray like Muslims, bowing down on the floor, rather than sitting on chairs. We don’t put any paintings, icons, music in the synagogue. On the Sabbath we wear traditional clothes and can’t smoke, cook or do any work. We only go to the synagogue and read the Torah,” said Khader.
“We believe this mountain is holy because it’s the place where Abraham came to slaughter his son Isaac. Joshua built a temple here on Mt Gerazim. This area is mentioned in the Torah as that important site.
“We hope to be at peace with everyone. We would like Mt Gerazim to serve as a bridge for peace between all the people living here.”
The biggest challenge facing the survival of this tiny community however, is genetics. Samaritans have been persecuted and assimilated to the brink of extinction and have been left with serious issues as a result. Traditionally reluctant to accept converts, members have been forced to think again and look outside their community for partners to overcome a skewed population that has left two men to every woman, and high rates of genetic disease.
The tiny gene pool and implications it brings means that all marriages within the Samaritan community must first gain the say-so of a geneticist at Israel’s Tel HaShomer Hospital.

A few weeks ago, while I was in Israel and Palestine, I wrote about an Arab family from East Jerusalem who were about to be evicted from their home of 52 years to make way for the Jewish settlers who are gradually taking over their neighbourhood.

Well, it happened yesterday. During the early hours of Sunday, police threw the Al-Kurd family out of their home in Sheik Jarrar. The house had originally been built for Palestinian refugees by the UN, when East Jerusalem was occupied by Jordan and not Israel.

The Jewish community who now live there claim the land was previously owned by Jews and is rightfully theirs. They have now acted – with the support of the authorities – despite several court rulings to the contrary.

The wife, Fawazieh Al Kurd, pictured, was incredibly calm about the situation that was brewing when I visited her in late September.

As observant Muslims, she and her husband were putting their trust in God, she said. But she did make the point that land property rights should benefit all residents – and not just Israel’s Jewish community.

Her family, orignally from West Jerusalem, and her husband’s – internally displaced from Jaffa – both lost their homes to Israelis in the upheaval and war that followed the state’s creation in 1948.

“I’ll get through this because I believe in God and I have never harmed anyone. God will decide what happens to us, and whatever they do, I won’t do anything back to them. God will punish them [the settlers], not me,” she told me.

“If they own this property, fine. But it works both ways and Israel should give us back our property too. We lost a lot in 1948. My family was living on the other side of Jerusalem and was chased out of there.

“My husband is a refugee from Jaffa – his family has a three-floor building there. Now it looks like we’re going to be refugees twice.”

Second – and, for now, final – installment of features that came out of my work trip to Delhi in August, this time looking at education in the slums. It’s in this week’s Big Issue in the North magazine and my images have been used throughout.

The other India feature I’ve uploaded can be found here.
Other images from the trip are over here

Another day, another time-wasting slideshow. This will be the end of them for now, but I thought this might be a nice way of quickly showing a few of my unused images from my trip to Delhi in August, as well as some of my favourites that I’ve already put online at Flickr.
Many of these people are from the fringes of society: slum-dwellers, beggars, rag-pickers and the like. But life seems to seep out of many of them and they retain their dignity.

It’s always obvious when I’ve got a lot of work I should be doing. Why? Well because I prat around doing irrelevant things and wasting valuable time, of course.
Which is exactly what I’ve been doing this morning. I have put together a mediocre at best slideshow of my morning at a West Bank checkpoint a couple of weeks ago. The quality is terrible and the music ends too abruptly. But you get the idea. And it was my first go and making one of these…

A couple of months back, I described a visit to a project that works with homeless children who end up living in India’s railway stations. Project Concern International runs drop in centres and education projects in Delhi, among other places, and rescues children as young as five from a life on the streets.
The story was published in the Big Issue in the North last week…

Following on from this post about India’s missing women, an Indian woman is making history by making an official complaint after her husband and in-laws tricked her into having a foetal scan and then pressured her into aborting her unborn twin girls.
She resisted and now has two beautiful three year olds. The doctor who performed the scan – it’s illegal in India to check the gender of a foetus – has now left the country and is believed to be working for the NHS.