About
 graffiti by Israeli settlers on a Palestinian home |
Tel Rumeida, a district of the city of Hebron in occupied Palestine is a notoriously violent and oppressive place to grow up. Palestinian families live in fear of racism and violence from Israeli settlers and soldiers and the indifference of the Israeli police. Art Under Apartheid workshops were started Tel Rumeida in order to bring art and craft activities to the children of Tel Rumeida who have very few places to play or fun activities to do.
2006 was a disastrous year for Palestinian children. Because of the international and Israeli boycott of the Hamas government, the Palestinian authority had no money to pay its public sector employees. This meant that the US government pressured the rest of the world to cease sending aid of any kind into Palestine while Israel stopped paying the Palestinian Authority money it collected in taxes on imported goods. Doctors, nurses, teachers and municipality workers have received salaries on an irregular basis at best, or none at all at worst. In September of 2006, the beginning of the school year, public school teachers went on strike because they had not been paid so there was no school. Children in Tel Rumeida were suffering enough as it was with the ongoing attacks from Israeli settlers, harassment from Israeli soldiers and poverty resulting from their parents not getting paid. Not having any school was just not fair. This tragedy was the inspiration for Art Under Apartheid. |
 Israeli soldiers detain a Palestinian teenager |
Facts of life for Tel Rumeida Palestinians:
- Palestinians are not allowed to drive any type of cars into the neighborhood (private cars, busses, taxis, ambulances, fire trucks) because the Israeli military has declared this a threat to the Israeli settlers
- Palestinians are not allowed to have weapons of any kind (their Israeli settler civilian neighbors are allowed to carry guns)
- Palestinians are subjected to random detentions and ID checks (Israeli settlers are not)
- Israeli soldiers frequently invade Palestinian homes or use their roofs as outposts
- the security forces in the neighborhood are Israeli only and ignore complaints by Palestinians
For an overview of the current political situation read The Living Conditions of Tel Rumeida Palestinians by the Tel Rumeida Project.
For daily reports written by international human rights workers in Tel Rumeida, see Hebron Region reports on the International Solidarity Movement website.