November 2020 report is out.

From the November 2020 human rights report from Abu Dis… which you can read here.  November 2020 human rights report

One problem with a report based on one month in an on-going occupation is that we talk of things that change, particular things that happen, and often don’t talk about the things that continue and have become (under occupation) “normal” even though they are clear violations and unbearable. In a discussion with women from Abu Dis, one said sadly how difficult this year had been. She has not been able to see her family (her parents and brothers and sisters) in Jerusalem since last December. This is because – years ago – the Israelis gave her a different coloured ID from her family (green instead of blue) and they use these colours to decide where they will allow people to go.

A second woman talked about the Wall, and how her children don’t know life without the Wall (which went up from 2002 and progressively cut Abu Dis from Jerusalem). She said “They don’t know Jerusalem, they don’t know how we were free before.”   “Free?” said another woman. “We weren’t free.  Even then the Israelis didn’t allow me to go to my village which I was born in.”

“Not really free,” said the second woman – “we were under occupation. But before the Wall we could go to Jerusalem or Jaffa or Haifa if we wanted to. Now we are really in a prison.”

The report records some of the human rights violations faced by the people of Abu Dis in this past month.