Viewing the Old city of Hebron Through Young Palestinian Eyes: The complicated legacy of the people of Hebron to their youth makes for a very interesting subject. How do they feel about living in a city so full of contrast and contradictions, do they see themselves living in Hebron once they are adults, what are their daily issues?

Nour, Mohammed and the other Mohammed wanted to take us to the old city and show it to us through their own eyes. They are high school students attending the English journalism class in their last year before University. The 3 of them speak an amazing English, self-taught through watching series, movies, and youtube videos, they say. Mohammed and Nour, both have American accents. In Nour´s case, it can be explained by the fact that she spent 1 month in the US in an organization called “The Hands of Peace”. Its objective is to establish a dialogue between Jews (settlers or jews from the world), Palestinians and Americans. Her routine consisted of plays, group dialogue/debate sessions with facilitators and also visits. “Going there was my idea, says Nour, I wanted to meet the “other side”, understand why they feel the way they do. My dad didn´t like the idea of me going abroad alone and staying with a host family. My mum was very supportive as she is very open-minded and comes from a long line of strong educated women.

We go through the old city of Hebron and they explain where they can or can´t go. The boys are slightly nervous. They tell me “It is a shame, a lot of our friends from Hebron don´t come here these days but they should, they have to!” As we walk through the lovely cobbled streets of the old city, they wave hello at the local shopkeepers or exchange a word or 2 with the locals, they are incredibly mature for their ages and so respectful. You cannot help but like them. We try to go the Ibrahimi mosque but today it is full of pilgrims as it is a holiday and both sides of the Mosque are open. (a rare event!). Change of plan we go to some other part of the old city where we had never been to as they have a surprise for us…

We are taken to the beautiful church acquired by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1868, which includes an ancient oak that was declared to be the spot where Abraham entertained three angels. The site was a major attraction for Russian pilgrims before the Revolution and is the only functioning Christian shrine in Hebron. It isn´t opened to the public but one of the Mohammed lives nearby and knows people there that´s why we can go in a real treat!!

“Please tell us if you need anything in Hebron, they tell us”. “This is the first time we have shown the old city to visitors but it is important to us to explain how we live and the restrictions imposed on us”. “I would love to travel says the other Mohammed and see how other life!”. We talk about what sports they practice and they tell me of Football, a little swimming. We ask where they swim and they tell us that they dream of sea and beaches but they have to make do with a pool as no Palestinian is allowed to go to the nice beaches on the Israeli side…”You are welcome to come and visit us in Europe anytime” we say, “That is if we can get a visa…We would love to” they all respond!

Time to go and visit Nour´s family for lunch. The boys can´t come it isn´t good manners so we say goodbye and until the next class.