Israeli military presence at Hebron mosque

In what country would it be acceptable to have military checkposts—replete with armed soldiers and armoured jeeps—in front of a place of religious worship?

The gross incongruities of the Israeli occupation never fade, never become less gross.

A group of Jewish women mass in front of the mosque, arguing with the mosque guardian to allow them in. Around the side, there is a separate entry for Jews, the mosque years ago having been divided, its other half made into a synagogue.

The women are insistent: they should enter, now, during Muslim prayer time, via the Muslim gate.

Were an occupying army to install a humiliating checkpoint system in front of a church—or synagogue—in the West, there would be outraged people. Why aren’t people outraged at this ridiculous system in Palestine? The double-standards are baffling.

Normalization. Those who talk “peace” from the other side of the Wall like to use this phrase. But normalization is what allows checkpoints to become permanent, checkpoint procedures and degrading inspections to be accepted as a natural and inevitable aspect of life for Palestinians It is what allows colonists to 1st drive Palestinians out of their homes—from fear and fatigue from harassment—and next occupy their homes and land without question from the Israeli army or other.

Little by little—and also suddenly, all at once—illegal Israeli colonists and soldiers take homes, land, and control.

**around Tel Rumeida checkpoints, where new shifts of soldiers arrive every few weeks, thus never allowing relationships to develop, and perhaps with them understanding, between soldiers and the Palestinians they ID on a daily basis. Illegal Israeli colonists here sport rifles, slung casually over their backs. They are not IDed.