Listening to the Living, Mourning the Dead: Dispatches from the West Bank

by John Whitehead

—

A group of activists known as a Meta Peace Team (MPT) traveled to the West Bank this autumn. These activists are committed to “creating a nonviolent alternative to militarism.” During their West Bank work, the MPT collaborated with the Palestinian-led International Solidarity Movement (ISM).  

The MPT and ISM’s joint mission includes “participating in Palestinian-led demonstrations, creatively disrupting activity by the Israeli occupation forces, [and] accompanying children to school and farmers to their fields.” They also aim to document for local and international media violations of Palestinian human rights by Israeli military personnel and settlers. 

This article concludes the account of their experiences living among the Palestinian residents of the region. Read Part 1 and Part 2 on the Rehumanize blog.

—

During their time in the West Bank, the Meta Peace Team (MPT) spoke with Palestinians who shared their experiences of Israeli repression.

Testimony from an Activist

In the city of Al-Khalil/Hebron, they spoke with Palestinian activist Arej Abdel Karim Al-Jabari, who has been working for almost 20 years to highlight the situation of Palestinians in Al-Khalil. She currently records, from her home, episodes of the Israeli military mistreating Palestinians on the street and posts the videos on TikTok and social media.

"What makes me photograph is the injustice that the people—the children and the women —are exposed to," she says.

Since the late 1990s, Arej has lived on the border between Area H1 in Al-Khalil, which is under Palestinian control, and Area H2, which is under Israeli military control. For two years, an Israeli military-imposed curfew has confined her to her house from Thursday night through Sunday morning. "This means," she explains, "that residents are in their homes and it is forbidden to open the doors and windows.”

She described the Israeli military’s harassment of Palestinians as increasing since the Gaza war began in 2023. She regularly sent messages to MPT members such as the following:

"Hello, they beat this man and took him away for no reason. We don't know where they took him."

"No one went to school. This is terrible for the kids."

"The soldiers are here at my house. They are taking my car."

In addition to documenting abuses, Arej also offers various types of community support to her neighbors. She runs a summer camp that offers kids food and activities. Working from home, she teaches women to knit baby blankets, sweaters, and other items using donated yarn.

A major frustration for women in the community is their inability to make the pilgrimage to Mecca. “They want to go pray, but the financial amount is large. I hope that those who care about them will help them achieve their only dream." She also hoped that she could get another car to replace the one confiscated by the Israeli authorities.

Arej also expressed a larger wish. "I hope that the international community can stand by me and support the activities I do for women and children. I want friends to know how we suffer, to watch my documentation videos, see my work for children, and help complete my mission." She is not deterred by opposition from the Israeli military: “I am strong and they will not defeat me."

 Conversations in Taybeh

MPT members visited Taybeh, a Christian Palestinian village in the West Bank. Taybeh is home to a craft brewery, where the MPT members received a tour from the owner and got to sample various types of beer.

The owner explained that the brewery was founded by her father. He had lived in Boston before moving to Taybeh in the 1990s, at a time when peace between the Palestinians and Israelis seemed more likely. For almost 20 years, the Taybeh Brewery has hosted an Octoberfest Weekend featuring live music that draws people from across the West Bank.

Since the Gaza war began, however, the brewery’s Octoberfest has been cancelled. "People don't feel like celebrating right now," the owner commented. "Also, with security so tight, people have lost their jobs and don't have the money."

During their stay in Taybeh, the MPT members encountered an obstacle to staying in the guest house where they had planned to lodge. The guest house owner had been working in the city of Ramallah that day and was subsequently stuck at a checkpoint for two hours on his way back to Taybeh. The guest house rooms were thus not ready in the evening.

(The guest house owner eventually arrived later that evening and welcomed the MPT members in. He also explained that employment had dropped dramatically since the start of the Gaza war and so he had turned to hosting guests in Taybeh.)

While they waited for the guest house owner to return, two Palestinian women, one a relative of the owner, invited the MPT members to stay at their home for tea. One woman had lived in Australia for decades but returned to Taybeh to retire. "See how they treat us here?” she asked. “Nobody in the whole world would stand to be treated this way."  When asked if she would consider returning to Australia, though, she said, "Never. This is my home." 

The MPT members also met the husband of one of these women. He was originally from Gaza and still had family there. Asked “Is your family OK?” He replied, “Nobody in Gaza is OK.”

Remembering Muhammad

During the MPT’s time in the West Bank, a nine-year-old boy named Muhammad al-Hallaq was shot and killed by an Israeli soldier. Muhammad had lived in al-Rihiya, a small village south of Al-Khalil. MPT members visited his family.

The third of five children, Muhammad was in the fourth grade and a good student: his mother, Alia, displayed his workbooks, which showed good marks. He had a great enthusiasm for birds and would throw out seed for them and catch them.

The day of his death, Muhammad had received a new backpack from the United Nations, to his delight. After coming home from school and doing some work at home, he decided to pay a visit to his grandmother. Muhammad’s mother had suggested he wait, saying the visit could be “maybe tomorrow,” but the boy insisted.

After a short visit to his grandmother, Muhammad set out again. Because the road his grandmother lives on is rocky and can be dangerous, she recalled, “I remember praying for his safety three times as he ran out of the house." Muhammad then went to play a soccer game with friends.

Different sources give differing accounts of what happened next. WAFA, the official Palestinian Authority news agency, says Israeli soldiers fired on the children as they were playing soccer on a school playground. Unidentified witnesses cited by the MPT say an Israeli soldier knelt down to take aim and shoot at the players from 200 meters away. The Israeli military maintains that soldiers in the al-Rihiya area were met by “disturbances and stone-throwing” and “responded with fire toward the stone-throwing suspects and hits were identified.” 

Muhammad was hit in the abdomen. Locals drove him to the hospital, but road closures and road blocks took them on a lengthy detour. 

Alia and Muhammad’s grandfather were out shopping when they got a call from Alia’s uncle. The call was about an incident that day involving a confrontation with Israeli forces. She recalled, "I said 'it's Muhammad,' a mother's intuition, but I knew."

They went to the hospital. Whenever someone is injured by the Israeli military, the community gathers at the hospital, so roughly 100 people from al-Rihiya were already there when the family arrived. The doctors kept Alia from seeing her son, and she fainted.

MPT members recounted her story about what happened next:

She couldn't remember how long she was unconscious, but when she woke up she saw a bed rolling past her room. At this point in telling the story she started to pull at her hands and wrists. She said "I ripped out all the IVs…and ran after Muhammad and his team of doctors." She met them at the elevator which they were taking to the operating room three stories up. They told her every second counts and she needed to let them operate on her son. She let them go, but then she ran up the three stories. She fell three times on the way up the stairs to stand outside the operating room while the doctors tried to save her son. 

She got to the OR and desperately waited for news on her son. And then she heard the heart monitor turn into a long tone. She saw a doctor run into the OR with three units of blood, and then a doctor walked out. "Muhammad is dead now."

Alia said, “We have had terrible pains as poor people in the past, but this is the worst pain I have ever felt in my life."

The family showed MPT members the signs of Muhammad’s presence still within their home, such as old drawings he had made on the walls. In the bedroom he had shared with his siblings, Muhammad’s bed now had a special blanket with his picture on it. Other possessions, including his backpack and soccer ball, adorned the room. Since his death, his siblings have not been able to sleep in the room, choosing to sleep in Alia’s room instead.

The preliminary Israeli military investigation into Muhammad’s death claimed that the soldier involved "deviated from rules of engagement” and that there had been “improper use of weaponry.” 

—

To read more about the Meta Peace Team’s experience in the West Bank, read their blog posts at https://mptinpalestine.blogspot.com/.