Today I’m in the upper part of the neighbourhood. An old woman from one of the illegal settlements comes up walking shouting at every one she finds on her way.
I’m told to be careful with her, although she is not usually violent physically.
It seems she is one of those who can’t understand that non-Jews are allowed to live on this land, and therefore it is necessary to make them disappear, and they feel frustrated as they can’t just do it like the Nazis did with them.
Indeed, the woman shouts at every person that crosses her path, both Palestinians and foreigners. No wonder the Palestinians fear her. It is by no means pleasant to leave home and meet some one you know is going to shout at you the minute she sees you.
One of us, C., is walking down the hill when the woman stops to talk at her. After a few minutes of listening, C. continues to walk down the hill to the street below.
Without stopping shouting, the old woman turns to us as she comes up the hill, then she sees me and starts her long list of reproaches again.
After a few steps, she’s finally close enough for me to distinguish what she’s saying: “you – are helping the people, who are destroying your civilisation! First they destroy Iran, then America – now! – Your turn!”
One of the other internationals tells me that this woman called him “German” once, with an insulting tone. “She probably meant to say ‘Nazi'”, he explains, “because for many Jews, it’s the same. I didn’t think at the time, so I only said, ‘no ma’am, I’m not German, I’m Swedish’, and she replied: ‘I’m sure you are related in some way with the Germans'”.
Every night I go to bed begging that the following day will be at least as violence free as the day just gone, still hearing the tooting horns in the distance, as if it was a dream already, and remembering how nice the city is at the other side of the checkpoint, and it really feels very, very far away from the middle of this environment of oppression and suffocation, and I go to sleep trying to imagine what these settlers would feel if they could witness how beautiful, multicoloured and happy life can be without them.
