By: Saeda
On the evening of Sunday, July 14, three young boys played in the old city of occupied Hebron. None of them attracted particular attention at first, but before the sun set each boy would shed light on a very different face of the Israeli occupation in Hebron. One would be arrested but released amidst a riot, one would be arrested and carted away to the police station, and one would do more harm than the former two but would walk away free and unbothered.
The first boy, Ahmed Farjat (13), strolled through the Old Suq buying groceries for his family’s iftar (evening meal that breaks the fast during the month of Ramadan). At some point I was told that he threw a tomato near one of the Israeli settlers, though where this occurred is not clear. What is clear from ISM documentation is that around thirty occupation soldiers stormed into the Suq, grabbed young Ahmed and dragged him back into their military base for interrogation. I happened upon the scene while out buying groceries, and Ahmed’s mother Yusra explained through her English-speaking older son that the soldiers had taken her thirteen-year-old boy Ahmed and he was behind the gate in the military base. She had heard that he was being mistreated and was very worried.
Then I watched as Yusra took the power back, and with the crowd in the market cheering her on she stormed up to the gate and shouted at the soldiers to give back her son. She shook the gate ferociously and even tried to climb through it. The occupation soldiers were not going to get away with one more crime against her family. The crowd was angry now and soldiers behind the gate seemed unsure what to do, but the angry settlers who seemed to be instructing the soldiers was not going to let this end easily. I told the soldiers in rapid English to just let Ahmed go, and then the crowd would leave everyone could go on with their day. The soldiers eventually told everyone to step back and make space, and several minutes later some twenty soldiers finally came through the gate and escorted Ahmed back out to the Suq, along with his older brothers who had gone to collect him. He was covered in sweat and looked shaken but relieved, and his brothers told ISMers that he was doing OK. The family joyfully strolled back through the old city and home for a celebratory iftar.
The second boy, named Mohammed, was not so fortunate. He had to endure further dehumanizing punishment as he was escorted to the police station near Ibrahimi Mosque. Officers told internationals present that Mohammed would be released and they could “trust him;” in fact he was taken to the Qiryat Arba and only released several hours later upon his family’s payment of 500 NIS.
The third boy, an Israeli settler around the same age as Ahmed and Mohammed, was caught on camera throwing eggs at international observers on Shuhadah Street. The soldier standing nearby briefly shouted at the kid but did not pursue him. He faced no consequences for this act of harassment, and that a settler was willing to throw eggs at internationals is a signal of what settlers are willing to do to the local Palestinians. Offenses including physical assault, stone-throwing and destruction of property have systematically gone unpunished.
The contrast between these three cases, all of which occurred on the same night, demonstrate the several faces of the Israeli occupation. Apartheid is evident when Palestinian kids who may have thrown objects while playing in the market are hauled off by the occupation soldiers for interrogation and in some cases families are charged money for their release, while Israeli kids (and adults) who commit similar crimes in front of a camera go unpunished. Oppression is evident when crimes are continually perpetuated against Palestinians, making it increasingly difficult for them to live their daily lives in peace.