Children of the Old City

I decided to focus this post on the daily life of Palestinians inside of the occupied old city of Hebron. While violence is very prevalent by both the military and the settlers it is the daily occupation and humiliation that makes life so incredibly hard for the Palestinians living under these conditions. 

Another hourly military patrol in the old city.

Two children waiting to pass a street that has been closed off for settler use.

Woman take their children around a military perimeter made for the arrival of a Jewish birthright tour.

Children walking behind two soldiers moving through the old city.

Israelis and Palestinians are forced to walk on different paths separated by a concrete barrier. 

Children of the old city.

Two teenagers being detained at a checkpoint.

The old city is desolate by night time for fear of attacks. Taken at 5 pm.

The locks used to help safeguard shops against settler and military break-ins. 

Reminders of the Holocaust

I spent last week continuing my work in Hebron, a city under terrible violence. I will release more photographs of my latest experience in this city later on but I thought for this post I would show a more haunting series of images. 

I entered the Jewish only neighborhood late Saturday morning and was completely alone. All of the streets were abandoned of even the Jewish residents because of Shabbat and the only thing I could hear was the chirping of mourning birds and the roar of F-16 jets flying overhead to patrol and bomb the Gaza Strip which is only a few kilometers away. Eventually I ran into another person who happened to be an orthodox settler giving a tour to his two friends. He was white with a full red beard, two curls hanging from his head, a yamika, belt tassels, talit and a fully equipped M-16 assault rifle. 

As we passed each other he stopped me and asked what I was doing here. I told him I was going to the Abraham mosque which I new was up the street. “Are you Jewish?” he asked. Realizing I was all alone in a Jewish only neighborhood and they had assault rifles I told them that I was Jewish by blood but was never raised as one which was why I came to Israel to figure out my roots. 

“Well remember that you are always with us. You are a Jew. You are never with THEM (pointing to the Arab cemetery across the street). You are always with us no matter what happens. The whole world hates you because you are a Jew and this is the only place you belong”.

I tried to smile and force a laugh out of my lungs when I said OK and walked away. I can’t even imagine how someone can live like that; in constant hate and fear that the world is out to kill you and to tell your children that everyone wants you dead because your a Jew. It was later on when I was walking through the neighborhood that I started to document the Jewish graffiti on the old Palestinian houses that only reminded me of the Nazi swastika markings on the Jewish doors in Germany.

These are just a few photographs of the door markings in the old Palestinian neighborhood.