In the first of an occasional series, Hannah Brooks, currently working on women’s rights projects in Jerusalem and the West Bank, reports on life under the occupation and the dull grind of a trip through Qalandiya. In 2004 Hannah spent three months in Israel/Palestine with the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) and in 2006 she worked in Ramallah, Nablus and Hebron with Palestinian lawyers on behalf of the Bar Human Rights Committee. She has also worked on human rights issues and projects in Nepal and Turkey.

It could have been called a Festival of Jewish Non-Seeing, as they were literally going to experience the absence of Arabs for an evening. This was the real entertainment.

As I passed along the line, a man who was about sixty, just about to enter the long cage to the turnstile, said to me very softly in English: “Why? Why? Why?”

What could I say? “Because you are not Jewish.”

East Jerusalem residents who make up 36% of the residents of Jerusalem receive 7% of the budget while 64% of residents who are in West Jerusalem receive 92% of the budget.

Could there be a more effective way of engendering resentment and creating hatred towards Jews than stamping out everyday life for non-Jews at the same time as Jews celebrate their own freedom from oppression?

We will not be forced to make the false choice between history and progress. If our goal is to build Jerusalem as a city for all its peoples, we must carry with us all of the multiple histories here.

Hebron and the surrounding hills to the south have been the epicenter of hard-core ideological Zionist settlement activity for some years. Central Hebron is a tragic, hate-filled, militarized zone, full of poverty, burned-out buildings, rubble and a pervasive misery. The atmosphere is oppressive and there is palpable tension especially around the old city. The cruel face of modern Zionism is here in stark relief.

It is shocking enough to read and watch news coverage of the situation here in Israel from afar. After growing tired of claim and counter-claim of media bias I decided to find out what was going on with my own eyes so I set off for the Holy City. To visit and see for yourself the infrastructure of the occupation is deeply troubling and almost surreal.

The whole scene would have been idyllic, with children playing and picking bunches of small pink wild cyclamen while their elder brothers toiled on the land, were it not for the fact that several armed soldiers were a few metres away positioned with their guns ready to fire if they thought it necessary.