As Barack Obama posed for a photo-op with Israeli school kids on Wednesday, 30 young Palestinian children were forcefully arrested in the Hebron area of the West Bank for supposedly throwing stones at the IDF.Besides the fact that arresting and questioning children for maybe throwing some stones seems a pretty excessive, petulant thing to do – the law enforcement equivalent of skinning a puppy for potentially eating a couple of your Doritos – the young boys were also kicked, beaten and some questioned without their parents' knowledge, which is obviously both illegal and not something you should really be doing if you've been entrusted in a position of power.
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But, as you may have noticed in any piece of news about the area for the past half a century, similar occurrences of injustice aren't exactly a rarity. This time round, however, the situation was exacerbated by the fact that the US President was on his way to the West Bank after his trip to Israel, and Palestinians throughout the Israeli-occupied territory were already riled up into a more angry state of political anger than usual.
Considering the fact that Obama recently vetoed the Palestinian bid for UN membership and pledged over $30 billion (£19.7 billion) in military aid to Israel over the next decade, you might agree that their anger was completely justified. That said, demonstrations on Tuesday and Wednesday in the build up to Obama's arrival on Thursday morning were surprisingly modest compared to other recent protests – such as the "mini intifada" after the fatal torture of Arafat Jaradat in an Israeli interrogation centre – but crowds were still out in force in Ramallah city centre."Even though I initially welcomed Obama, I'm now here demonstrating against his visit," said 48-year-old Jaed Tawil on Tuesday, as Palestinian Authority (PA) riot police and plain clothes officers manhandled the crowds of demonstrators. "Obama needs to shift to policies that end the last occupation on earth. He has the power to change things and he's in his second term, so he shouldn't be afraid of speaking his mind."
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PA riot police in Ramallah.On Wednesday morning, Obama urged Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to resume peace talks with Israel, but there was no sign that Abbas was willing to do so (he's said in the past that Israel must stop its illegal settlement building before he'll go back to negotiating) and no sign that Obama pushed the issue any further or offered any other form of resolution.And public opinion in Ramallah suggested that the people of Palestine aren't holding out much hope that Obama's going to step in any time soon. "Obama is just like any other president; he won't say what he thinks," said 66-year-old Abdullah on Wednesday, before insinuating that the US President perhaps fears for his life were he to side with Palestine. "Look what happened to Lincoln and Kennedy, and then look how Folke Bernadotte was assassinated by Israel for speaking about Palestinian rights."In fact, the idea that Obama isn't speaking out for fear of assassination seems to be a pretty popular one, lifting the blame off Obama and hurling it at Israel. "Obama won't speak out against the occupation because he knows he'll be assassinated," said Lenda, a 55-year-old naturalised American citizen who recently returned to Palestine.
Demonstrators outside Ofer prison near Ramallah.Lenda has moved back to Palestine because she's been renting out a house she owns there to the Vice President of the PA, who is allegedly "refusing to leave and now claiming it's his home", as well as running up "thousands of shekels worth of heating and electricity bills". Which would be hilarious if it wasn't so infuriating and unfair on Lenda. She continued, saying, "My pleas to the PA President have been ignored. I wouldn't raise my children here in this situation."
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Lenda explained that the relatively small turnout of protesters was because, "People here are scared to talk out against the PA in fear of repercussions. The PA staff drive around in Mercedes while Israel maintain the occupation and they don't want it to end because it would mean an end to their positions."
Another demonstrator near Ofer prison.Some protesters clearly ambivalent to potential PA repercussions were the group of Palestinian youths who marched up to Ofer prison near Ramallah to protest against the thousands of Palestinians – some as young as 12 – serving lengthy prison sentences without charge or trial in Israeli military detention centres. Masked Palestinian demonstrators hurled rocks and launched projectiles with catapults; the IDF responded with tear gas and luckily decided to forego the illegal expanding bullets they'd used to kill a Palestinian protester the previous week.An hour outside of Ramallah, more Palestinian demonstrators erected a tent village, which they've named "Ahfad Younis", directly across from Maleh Adumim (the largest illegal Israeli settlement in the West Bank) in protest against proposals by the Israeli government to build more settlements on Palestinian territory."This is Palestinian land and we are here to defend it," said Ruba Hilal, a Palestinian activist. "We're sending a message that Israeli settlements here are illegal, yet Obama is still not doing anything about the occupation."
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Tents at Ahfad Younis.Alaa al Shabarti, another demonstrator I spoke to at Ahfad Younis, told me, "My father is on the 16th year of serving his 100 year prison service in an Israeli prison simply for organising resistance to the occupation. When I was 18 I was imprisoned for two years and I still don't know why. We are to send a message to Obama that the occupation must end, but the USA always sides with Israel."On Thursday morning, Obama spoke to a room of Israeli university students in Jerusalem and called on his audience to put themselves in the shoes of their persecuted neighbours and push Israeli leaders to secure peace with the Palestinians. Of course, reciting some noncommittal speech to a room full of teenagers doesn't really constitute making any huge steps, and demonstrators were out again in Bethlehem on Thursday awaiting Obama's arrival at the nativity church where Jesus was supposedly born.
Placards at Ahfad Younis.Because it wasn't helicopter weather, Obama instead drove through a checkpoint in the wall that separates Israel and the West Bank – a moment that I doubt was documented on camera because that would be like handing news editors a loaded gun and giving them free rein to pull the trigger with whatever headline they wanted. Members of the PA and Special Forces lined the streets, preventing the protesters and their banners from getting anywhere near the presidential convoy.
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