Settler response to bubbles

Less than an hour after the Palestinian kids and us had fun with the blowing of the bubbles, there was a response.

An angry settler woman who is infamous for causing problems for Palestinians in Tel Rumeida, stormed down into our neighbourhood with about a dozen Israeli settler children, and began to accuse the Palestinian kids of attacking hers. She took out a big camera and began to get very close to their faces aggressively, filming. One of the Palestinian boys began filming her with his camera. Some Palestinian adults showed up and then so did soldiers, and began pushing them and the Palestinian kids around. Scuffles broke out between some of the Israeli and Palestinian children. Some of them were also very visibly annoyed with Tzipi, and one of them was trying to tell her to stop, but she was having none of it.

The settler woman saw a young Palestinian woman and began to get very aggressive, pointing the camera in her face, before chasing her. She and some of the settler kids chased her into her backyard, and the soldiers followed. The settler woman shoved the Palestinian girl and before she was able to again, one of our activists stood between her and the Palestinian.

The settler woman began yelling that the ISMer elbowed her in the face. Numerous police began to show up, and the ISMer as well as 5 Palestinians were taken to the police station. They were kept there for 8 hours. Although no one was beaten, one of the Palestinian men was kept in handcuffs the entire time. Despite being kept in the station for 8 hours, no one was offered any water or food. Inexplicably, the ISM activist said that when you enter the station, the first thing you see is a creepy picture of a clown. He was asked questions about what happened, as were the other Palestinians. Eventually they were released, since it was clear that no assault on the settlers took place.

Despite this, our fellow activist was banned from Hebron for 15 days. The Palestinians were threatened with a fine of 3,000 shekels if they are seen in the police station again... in spite of the fact they did not launch any attacks in the first place. They have no way of knowing when the next time they end up in a police station may be, since there is no way of knowing when a settler may decide to make another false accusation.

Eid is a time of celebration for Muslims, and a very big deal for Palestinians in Hebron. Families get together, feast, drink (non-alcoholic beverages), invite people over. Five of them spent most of the day in a police station, one of them handcuffed- because of a lie that someone maliciously concocted.


An as interesting aside, one of the policemen that day exchanged some words with one of the ISMers. He told the ISMer that the settler woman causes problems all the time, and that personally, "I've had it up to here with the settlers". He said that he knew that the Palestinians that were being arrested were probably innocent.


In Exodus 20:16, the following commandment was given to Moses from God:

 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

Pictures will be put up in the next few hours.