Main Street
Hebron, Palestine
2002 April 23
Ten boys, ages about 7 to 11, walked out into the street ahead of us. As we approached their colony, they began to stone us. Three or four soldiers began chasing the boys and scolding them, trying to stop them. Every time a soldier would grab one boy and take away his stone, two others would get past him. The soldiers are not supposed to touch the boys, only to protect them, but there were no police around. I batted down one large stone coming at my head. Another stone hit me from behind in the leg. The boys started to follow us up the street, but the soldiers finally got them stopped after about three minutes.
The soldiers do not consider nonviolent activists a threat to the colonists. But the colonists do consider us a challenge to their ethnic cleansing (“transfer” in Israeli discourse). On the other hand, the Israeli police will arrest any adult colonists who attack nonviolent activists.
Two blocks later, just past the military base, we were attacked again, by some of the same boys. First they taunted us, then stoned us, then threw little cups of water at us. I was hit with a third stone. Other soldiers, including one or two women, came to chase the kids this time. As we turned the corner around the military base, several teen-age girls, in long elegant skirts, tossed pebbles at us. Just then a new soldier came storming up the street, screaming at the girls; he was really angry. Maybe he hadn’t seen the stones the boys threw.
I thanked one soldier for trying to protect us. He replied, “The thanks is all ours.” I responded, “I realize not all Israelis are like this.” He was obviously embarrassed by the colonist children, so I offered, “I know this is only a small minority.” He replied, “Yes, very small.”
.
