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12. Hebron - an epicentre of racist extremism.

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12).  Hebron, cradle of extremist Zionism, nurtured by the State. On our final day together in Palestine as a group, we went to Hebron.  As on all the other minibus journeys, when we crossed a fixed checkpoint along the road it was deserted and we could drive straight through it - it is only manned during the rush hours earlier in the morning and in the evening, to disrupt and delay people getting to their work.   I noticed another pattern - where there was a settler-only road going to an Israeli settlement, or going direct to Jerusalem, the junction would be laid out in such a way that the mixed or mainly Palestinian traffic would have to wait, even though it was much heavier traffic than on the other road; the settlers could drive straight across the junction with priority, but the Palestinians had to form a queue and wait; this was another example of the imposition of dominating force to create a little ritual of humiliation in the mundane act of d...
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5. Ramallah; the graves of Yasser Arafat, Muhammad Edwan, and Mahmoud Darwish.

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5).  Ramallah: the tombs of Yasser Arafat, Muhammad Edwan and Mahmoud Darwish. On the third day we went  in the minibus to visit the secondary school and orphanage in Abu Dis, where we were greeted warmly by some of the teachers who showed us some of their pupils’ art work.  Then we were driven out to the east of Abu Dis near to the gates of a large settlement, Ma’ale Adumim.  We took the road to Ramallah, passing on its southern edge through Qalandia refugee camp, where a young man of 23, Muhammad Edwan had just that morning been shot multiple times whilst driving his car by Israeli forces on a house-arresting raid,  and left to bleed to death.  The main road had been closed for a while but was open when we went through, though  all the shops were shut as people were preparing for the funeral. We went first in Ramallah to the tomb of Yasser Arafat, which was guarded by two soldiers in decorative uniforms, in a stone mausoleum; I fo...
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The machinery of oppression

To get from the West Bank to Jerusalem everyone (except the Israeli settlers) must go through a check point. So we might understand something of the every day experience for Palestinians we were sent through a pedestrian checkpoint. You queue, about half an hour in our case, in front of a metal turnstile under surveillance cameras. A plain clothes Israeli with an ear piece and clip-on microphone watches from our side. The turnstile lets through two or three people at a time and then locks with one person held half way through - on this occasion it was me caught in the middle.   Once through you are in between two locked turnstile in a caged area. There is an X-ray machine and a metal detector gate. Your bag with all your metal items goes through the machine, you through the gate. You present your documents through a slot to an army officer, Palestinians must also touch a fingerprint machine, and then you pass through a second turnstile under the eyes of another plain clothes...
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