Waiting for Obama: Hebron youth take cue from U.S. Civil Rights Movement
I came here after being invited by Youth against Settlements (YAS) – a local group dedicated to work with Palestinian youth and promote popular nonviolent protests against the occupation – in the one city which, more than anywhere else in the West Bank, has “apartheid” written all over it. The city where 500 Jewish settlers get to rule the H2 quarter, making the lives of more than 10,000 Palestinians miserable; where entire roads are closed for any Palestinian, including for those living on them, and who are forced to enter and leave their own homes through the rooftops. The city where even joint roads are segregated by walls so as to keep Palestinians out of the settlers’ way. The city where racist graffiti was previously sprayed all over Palestinian shops that have been closed down, until the Israeli Ministry of Education started sending schoolchildren there on tours and made sure the graffiti would be wiped clean. The city that countless soldiers have left after serving the settlers in ways that scarred their souls (and where a friend of mine, served as a soldier after having planned to refuse, committed suicide).
Here, in this city, YAS decided to plan a special welcome for American President Obama. Dozens of children gathered today to learn about the history of the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S., and to write the first black President personal letters. The younger kids enjoyed games and learned demonstration chants in English (“1, 2, 3, 4 – occupation no more!”), while the older ones heard a short lecture about the history of racism and segregation in the U.S. South, watched a film about Martin Luther King and his nonviolent outlook, and wrote Obama messages under the titles “we have a dream” and “yes we can make a change.” At the end of the day, while some were riding a horse outside, others stayed in to learn the words of “We Shall Overcome.”
One could only try to imagine what was going through their heads. On the one hand, they see a child just like themselves – the same age, laughing just the same at the funny gestures of the bunny-clothed clown. On the other hand, they all see the other as the enemy. The Arab heathens. The Jewish settlers. The dissonance that all people have to find ways to live with in a country of apartheid was three times intensified in the experience of these young people – neighbors, not entirely aware of the greater politics in which they all are pawns. And already, at these young ages, they all knew their place. The knew not to talk to each other. They knew that the settler kids can fling curses freely and ask the soldiers to accompany them wherever they go, while the Palestinian kids only have a bunch of YAS activists, Israeli and international journalists with cameras around. The settlers still have the upper hand.
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At the end of the day the guide promised the kids that their letters would be given to President Obama, the purpose of whose visit was described as “coming to help us get the settlers out of here”. But Obama will never receive these letters. Nor will he ever come to Hebron, or care much about the youth’s plans for nonviolent civil rights marches. Nor does he intend to do anything about the settlements. Speeches and declarations aside, the current U.S. administration, like all those before it and like its European counterparts, will go on supporting Israeli governments and apartheid policies with military aid, financial support, trade etc. Settlements in Hebron and the entire West Bank will continue to expand with those very funds, channeled through the supportive government, pushing Palestinians into smaller and smaller enclaves under military rule. The children of Hebron will demonstrate nonviolently and sing “we shall overcome,” but after being attacked one too many times by the neighbors and the IDF, with its U.S.-manufactured weapons, some will inevitably turn to violence. And on we go.
http://972mag.com/waiting-for-obama-a-surreal-saturday-in-hebron/67660/
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On the one hand, they see a child just like themselves – the same age, laughing just the same at the funny gestures of the bunny-clothed clown. On the other hand, they all see the other as the enemy. The Arab heathens. The Jewish settlers. The dissonance that all people have to find ways to live with in a country of apartheid was three times intensified in the experience of these young people – neighbors, not entirely aware of the greater politics in which they all are pawns. And already, at these young ages, they all knew their place. The knew not to talk to each other. They knew that the settler kids can fling curses freely and ask the soldiers to accompany them wherever they go, while the Palestinian kids only have a bunch of YAS activists, Israeli and international journalists with cameras around. The settlers still have the upper hand.
K&R
breathlessly anticipating throngs of crazed Arabs {Palestinians) screaming death to America and lynching or was it burning Obama's effigy just for Western news cameras as a means of gaining support for the POTUS or something, I can only imagine the 'relief' if the POTUS is greeted by these kids 
