The Tel Rumeida Project

Tel Rumeida is a small Palestinian neighborhood widely acknowledged as housing the most violent and extremist faction of the Israeli settler movement. Palestinian families who live directly next to these settlers are often virtual prisoners in their homes, subject to the settlers’ violent attacks and destruction of property.

After meeting many of these families, documenting the circumstances in which they are forced to live, and experiencing the settlers’ violence and soldiers’ indifference firsthand, we became committed to the neighborhood and began to develop the foundations to begin a permanent international presence in Tel Rumeida.

Chelli Stanley and John Harmer from The Tel Rumeida Project spoke last night at ANSWER LA. They lived there for several months, putting themselves between Israeli settlers and the Palestinians who settlers routinely attack and terrorize. Conditions there are horrific for Palestinians. They showed video of a settler mob destroying a Palestinian house while Israeli military watched and did nothing.

Israeli law there makes it impossible to prosecute those younger than twelve, so it’s quite normal in Tel Rumeida for eight year old Jewish boys to run up to Palestinian men and throw rocks at their head – as their parents smile and approve. If the Palestinian says anything, much less does anything, he will be arrested. Again, they have the video to prove this. And again, the police and military do nothing to stop it.

Many of the Jewish settlers in Tel Rumeida are Americans and are known for their extreme racism and violence. They showed a photo like the one here (which I found on another website.) JDL is the Jewish Defense League, and they are advocating stone cold Nazi tactics.

This is not unlike the KKK, who were called extremists, yet who also had support from the highest levels indeed. Israel could stop this sickening settler violence in a lazy afternoon if they wanted to. Yet they don’t. Why?

And please, spare me babbling comments about how I must be anti-Semitic. Saying someone hate Jews because they oppose the policies of Israel is like saying someone hates Christians because they oppose the policies of George Bush. This isn’t about Jews, it’s about a government, aided and abetted by the US, whose policies are every bit as sickening and racist as apartheid was in South Africa. That’s what needs to change, the policies of the government of Israel.