Christmas and New Years have passed. But what do holidays mean when there is a genocide? I spent Christmas night with a family who had experienced a settler attack a few days prior. We stayed up late watching Al Jazeera broadcast the latest Israeli massacres in Gaza on the television (the Palestinian Authority has since banned the network in the West Bank in an outrageous crime against journalism). It was a somber evening and I am unsure whether the family knew the significance of the day, how in every other country people were celebrating and being merry. I never felt so far away from friends and family, but I was glad of it. It felt correct that I was in solidarity with the descendants of Jesus and witnessing the truth of what is happening in this holy land instead of being complicit back home.
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That night, the other activist and I slept in a structure separate from the family, which did not have a door that locked. A bit after midnight, we heard what sounded like footsteps going over the rocks nearby. Soon after, we saw the red and blue lights of a police car outside the window and heard Hebrew over a loudspeaker. Hurriedly we put on our shoes and went into the cold. We were sure that settlers were sneaking around and that the police had been called by a neighbor. We saw nobody, however. After long minutes of waiting and watching, we finally decided to try to sleep.
They were not the only family who installed new doors that week. The day prior a family who lives meters away from the Ma’on settlement managed to acquire and put in bulletproof doors. This is a sad necessity, as live rounds have been fired at and near their house. Settlers like to sit on the hill across from the house and train the laser sight of their machine guns at the head of anyone visible through the glassless windows.
The father of this family used to be a construction worker in ’48 before Israel canceled all Palestinians’ work permits after October 7th. Around 208,000 people lost their jobs due to the collective punishment of Palestinians following the Hamas attack. This man was the sole financial provider, as is common in the West Bank, so his family has been struggling greatly in the past year. Despite the danger, he is now spending his days finishing the upper story of his house where volunteers can stay in the future.
