Safe? Sometimes.

Deserted Hebron marketplace

One of the most often-asked questions about our trip to the Middle East was:

Did you feel safe?

And yes, I felt safe. For the most part. Jordan is very safe - Amman is safer than some American cities. Most of Israel proper is pretty safe - just not around Gaza. And I felt fairly safe in the West Bank.

The only place it got a little wild was the day we visited Hebron.

Hebron is known to many as being probably the tensest place in the land. It's the site of one of the most ideologically motivated Israeli settlements. There are estimated to be about 1,200 Israeli soldiers protecting the 400ish settlers. There are over 100,000 Palestinians living in close range.

The Palestinians used to see Hebron as a market town. There was a thriving industry in shopping and marketing - the marketplace was huge, lively and profitable. When the settlers came, they built high-rise apartment buildings right next to the market, and began using their high windows as an opportunity to make life miserable for the people below. They threw bottles and stones, and poured hot oil and urine down on the Palestinians. Palestinians fought back, and erected tarps and nets as overhangs, to catch all the debris, but eventually they gave up. The market today is now completely deserted, and Hebron Palestinians suffer from unemployment and poverty in the once-busy town.

(*Not all settlers are so badly-behaved, although one might question the legality of even the nicest settler's right to the land. But the settlers in Hebron have a lot to answer for)

On the day we visited Hebron, about 50 yards in front of our van, we saw a few men throwing stones at Israeli soldiers who were perched on the roof of a nearby building, overlooking the proceedings. The soldiers dropped tear gas on the crowded square. All the mayhem that you can imagine ensued. Luckily we were down wind from the gas, and were still able to go forward, albeit tensely. A little while later, as we were leaving, we saw several soldiers dragging a crying Palestinian child toward a police van, his mother running after him and beating her fists on the soldier's back. We also saw a Palestinian family whose water reservoir, their only source of clean water, had been riddled with bullet holes four days prior to our visit by an Israeli soldier at point blank range. He knew exactly what he was doing.

Heavy, heavy things.