On Monday the19th of April, between 6 o`clock in the evening and 6 o`clock the following morning, the West Bank village of Kifl Haris was overtaken by the Israeli army and the Jewish worshipers paying a visit to the biblical tombs of Joshua, Caleb and Nun, which are based in separate locations in the village.
The sites are of importance to all three main religions but because of the movement and other restrictions imposed by the Israeli occupation the pilgrims are nowadays mostly Orthodox Jews form the West Bank and Gaza settlements, as well as from Israel.
Thousands of Jewish worshipers come to Kifl Haris four times a year. Majority of them are armed with automatic weapons and cause significant disruption to the life of villagers who are ordered indoors and are often exposed to the acts of violence and destruction of property.
In the past, a teenage girl was killed in her house by the stray settlers` machinegun fire, animals were shot, cars damaged, attempts were made to set houses alight and villagers were verbally abused and threatened.
Two years ago worshipers vandalised Palestinian graves near the Tomb of Caleb and sprayed `Death to Arabs` graffiti on the nearby walls.
Smaller groups of worshipers visit the religious sites throughout the year but the villagers told us that when they are not accompanied by the army their behaviour is usually peaceful.
On Monday night the settlers were accompanied by over two hundred heavily armed Israeli soldiers, police and private settlement security staff who took over the control of the village and positioned themselves at the key locations including along the worshippers route and on the rooftops.
Floodlights were installed along the route and at the main village square and the tomb sites were adorned by the large banners in Hebrew.
The presence of IWPS was urgently requested on the night by the worried villagers who live near one of the tombs. They feared the repetition of violence by both settlers and the army they experienced in the previous years which included the attempt to set their house on fire, breakage of house widows and door fittings and threats of violence.
When we arrived we went to the main village square through the line of heavily armed soldiers positioned alongside both sides of the road and found about 40 more soldiers with about 10 army and police jeeps and troop carriers at the square. About a hundred villagers waiting for the evening prayer in the nearby mosque and village children were also there.
We spoke to the village mayor who told us that an agreement was reached with the Israeli commander that the villagers could stay outdoors until the end of the evening prayer at 10 o`clock.
At about 10 o`clock the worshipers started arriving and we returned to our hosts` house. We stayed together on their veranda less than 10 meters away from the worshipers` route until after 3 o`clock in the morning when the soldiers insisted that we had go into the house for our own safety.
This gave us an opportunity to see hundreds of settlers who continued to arrive by busses and cars throughout the night and until the early hours of the morning.
We were also able to witness the abuse directed at our hosts by the worshipers. This included the swearwords and rude finger gestures and on three occasions the army had to intervene and prevent the settlers` aggressive attempts to come to the veranda. At one point a settler was prevented form opening a bottle with a suspicious content, possibly petrol, near the door of our hosts` house.
Many worshippers were simply surprised at the sight of Palestinians sitting outside their home and took pictures.
Our host and his family were adamant that they would never have been allowed to stay outdoors and would have suffered mistreatment form both the worshipers and the army had it not been for our presence and expressed hope that the IWPS would be able to stay with them in the future during similar events.
The morning after, at about 7 o`clock we walked around the village and found settlement security chasing and than forcing into their jeep couple of Orthodox settlers who refused to leave.
When all the worshipers and the army were gone, leaving behind large amount of food and drinks containers and half eaten food, the villagers started to emerge form their homes. We spoke to couple of them who commented that `this was how the occupation looked like` and that they were glad that the night was over and that they were spared the usual violence.
A thought comes to mind that it is as a matter of principle appropriate to allow worshippers of any faith to visit places of importance to them.
But in the case described above this is done by the force of arms and by suspending the freedoms and basic human rights of the Kifl Haris villagers.
The Palestinians also never forget to stress that similar rights are denied to them by the Israeli occupiers and that large majority of them are banned from visiting the most sacred places to the Muslims, the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock in Al Quds (Jerusalem).
Written: Rada
Edited: Bianca
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