Hebron is the biggest district in all West Bank and Gaza and has the most complicated situation in the area at the same time.
The situation started to get complicated after 1967 when a group of Jews moved to the city claiming to be just tourists. They managed after some time, with the help of the Israeli army, to kick the Palestinians out of their homes to build their own settlement. Today after many conflicts in the city, deaths and many controversial agreements, Hebron is totally divided into 2 parts with 27 settlements and checkpoints in the middle of the city to make the life impossible for the Palestinian people.

Abdulla, while explaining all of these facts, trembles a little bit and his eyes are red. He was born and raised here, he will be our guide around the city.
The story of Hebron is very complicated and is very hard for me to follow Abdulla, at the end of his speech he says that it is also complicated for Palestinians to understand everything.
We start the tour, we first gather in a marketplace in order to reach the old city, Abdulla tells us “from now on guys just keep smiling, there are cameras all over the place!!”
The old city is full of markets on both sides, we barely have a path to walk.
Above my head I see a metal net covering the space between buildings all the way, at some point, I see trash and rocks. People in the market decided to build the net to protect them from the settlers who are living in the buildings above as they sometimes attack the Palestinians by throwing any sort of things.

Abdulla pointed to a part of the net full of stones, a present from the soldiers
from the watchtower.

We arrive at a square, there is a military base which used to be a Palestinian school. We attract the attention of the guard at the watchtower, he looks like he is trying to capture what Abdulla is saying to us but there is too much noise. There are three military bases in total in the old city with 4900 soldiers for the protection of 500 settlers.

We arrive at the checkpoint, we pass through very fast, the soldier asks Abdulla who we are and he answers we are internationals from different countries so he just let us pass. For Abdulla we are a kind of  Passepartout, usually, if he is alone it takes good five minutes for him to pass through, with many questions raised from the soldiers. The checkpoint closes every day at 9 o’clock in the evening, after that, people can’t go back to their home until the next day.

We are now in the part of the old city where settlers usually walk through. We reach the mosque Ibrahim, where in 1994 a fact perturbed the life of the people changing the structure of the city of Hebron forever. A settler entered the mosque while people were praying, killing 29 people, 45 people were killed outside the mosque at the same time by Settlers and Soldiers.

We enter the mosque, I need to wear a long skirt to cover my hairy legs, and to take off my shoes. The mosque after the attack was divided into two parts, the part where I am now for the Muslims (with the exception of the Israeli soldier which can come inside whenever they want), and the other part became a synagogue.

We get out of the Mosque to reach the other part, Abdulla invites us to visit it, but he can’t come with us because Palestinian are not allowed to enter in this zone. The story does not make sense at all, the attack was committed by an Israeli killing innocent Palestinians and they even got their city and their mosque divided into two parts where they are not allowed to get inside?!? They have added insult to injury.

Before the entrance of the synagogue, there is another checkpoint, I see many young soldiers around laughing and cheering, a woman is praying outside with her hands towards the wall of the Synagogue. An Arabic guy is working repairing tiles of the path which bring the people to the turnstiles. I pass them, no problem, again I do not need to show my passport. I enter the synagogue where there is a soldier sitting at the entrance, I try not to look at him. People are praying, others are just tourists taking pictures. At the end of the sala, there is another soldier, a beautiful girl, she is also sitting, she looks bored. So much security for what?

We reunite with Abdulla, we are now in a street which once was very rich of shops but after the city was divided with the creation of checkpoints, they all had the close due to lack of customers. Abdulla walks with us for a while then he tells us to meet again at the end of the street after the checkpoint where we met earlier in the morning and he turns and starts to run.

We enter the streets, two soldiers are standing with guns, I greet them, no answer, only nodding. This part of the city is basically a ghost town, settlers have houses here but they come only during the weekend so they can go and pray. 

During 10 minutes of walking, I count 14 soldiers, sitting, standing and walking. Closing the access to Palestinian use of this road has basically made, and still is makes, life impossible for them.

We pass the checkpoint, Abdulla is already there, panting after the run. I am confused, I have so many questions for him, so much to understand. I manage to ask few, but I will feel confused for the rest of the day.

The main question I will keep inside me, and I am sure nobody can answer it, is how humankind can conceive such a cruelty.