tel rumeida- your american tax dollars at work

we've been in tel rumeida for a few days now, thought it was high time to update. tel rumeida is a perfect microcosm of the apartheid conditions faced by palestinians everywhere in the west bank. in this neighborhood, only the israeli settlers (living here illegally according to international law) are permitted to drive cars. they also enjoy the privelege of carrying weapons, which is COMPLETELY out of the question for palestinians. virtually every settler over the age of 16 carries an M-16 on their shoulder at all times, while just the other day a palestinian boy was arrested (after several hours of detention in the sun) for carrying a BUTTER knife. yes, a butter knife.
we've had a few problems with palestinian youth sexually harrasing C. but overall, this is uncommon behavior, and something the adults strongly dissapprove of.
there are checkpoints at every possible entrance to the neighborhood, which are manned by the israeli army, and almost every palestinian (man, woman or child) can expect to get stopped, searched, and possibly detained without any reason at all, often several times a day. by monitoring the checkpoints, and intervening when soldiers begin to harrass palestinians, we are able to minimize the inconvenience and/or humiliation involved in thios process. on sunday morning, C. and i were on shuhada street, monitoring the checkpoints (of which there are two) when we noticed three settler youth between the ages of nine and twelve approaching us. as they got close, they began cursing at us, then all at once, they ran up and spit on us. a soldier at the checkpoint was standing watching us, but felt no need to intervene. in america, if this situation had happened, i probably would have smacked one of those little bastards. here in tel rumeida, however, such an action would invariably lead to harsh reprisals against the palestinain residents by both the soldiers and the setllers, so we silently stared back at them.
this morning, C. and i were on shuhada street again, monitoring checkpoints (again), when one of the three boys who spit on us came walking down the street. This time, without his friends to encourage him, he avoided eye contact with us, until he was several hundred yards away, then he managed to work up the courage to yell something in hebrew at us, which i assume was derogatory.
even with close to 1000 soldiers staioned in our neighborhood to protect them, the settlers are a cowardly lot. they send their children (who are immune from prosecution under israeli law) to commit most acts of violence, and harrasment. by night they stone the homes of palestinians (and the apartment where we internationals live), break windows, spray paint vile graffitti (i.e. gas the arabs), and set fire to olive groves, but at sunrise they lose their nerve.
in solidarity,
R