Ashraf, children on the run
Palestine, Culture, 9/15/1997

They are a group of young teenagers, no more than 15 years old. But the hard style of life they lead has made them look much older than they really are. Those boys, known as the junction kids, are forced, not necessarily by their families but due to general economic hardships, to go to work instead of reporting to their schools.

Elsewhere in the world, this phenomenon exists and sometimes is even fought against. But with the case of those Palestinian kids, their story is totally different. They have become perhaps the youngest to infiltrate across Israeli army roadblocks from the West Bank to come to Jerusalem for work. Their profession, like thousands of others of their age, is street vendors. But the unique situation in which they are caught trying to come to work puts their lives always at risk. They simply have to infiltrate through borders of two separate entities to get to work: those of the Palestinian National Authority and Israel.

Those kids have learned to suspect everybody. When I approached to speak to them, they refrained. The numerous occasions on which they were harassed by policemen, border guards and even by municipality inspectors have taught them not to talk to "strangers." I said I was preparing a report and they immediately thought of a television feature. Media for them is television. Illiterate as they are, they read no newspapers and hear no radios. Only at night, after a long day of hard work, they sit and watch television. The idea of appearing on television grasped their interest. Innocently and naively Ashraf asked: "Will I be on television tonight?" His family, by the way, still has a black and white television set. It could not afford to buy a color model. I explained to him that certainly not on the same day but who knows, maybe one day a TV feature will be filmed with them.

Ashraf is no more than 14 years old. He has been doing this job for the last five years. His daily routine, which in many cases ends up with a prison ordeal or a severe beating by Israeli border guards, starts at around 04:00 in the morning when his mother wakes him up to go to work. Half an hour later, he leaves his house in the village of Yatta, Hebron district, and heads to Bethlehem where he infiltrates across the Israeli lines into East Jerusalem. "I am the only one who dares to come to Jerusalem. The rest of my family is all locked in the village because of the closure, and none of them has managed to get a permit to come and work in Israel," said Ashraf, whose torn clothes, brown teeth and dusty face told more than all words could say.

"Look," he said showing me bruises on his body, "this is what they did to me. Border policemen have arrested me on a number of occasions." Two months ago, he said, Israeli soldiers took him in their jeep, blindfolded him and headed to an isolated area where they beat him up. "Those soldiers, mainly Druze, are even worse than the Jewish policemen. The policemen take us back to the army roadblock on the entrance to Bethlehem and send us home or take us to the police lockup at the Russian Compound in Jerusalem where we spend at least 48 hours in detention. But the soldiers tend to take us to deserted areas where they can freely beat us up without giving us a chance to seek help from anybody."

Ashraf still remembers his first day in prison. That was three months ago. A police patrol passed by the Musrara junction on the Green-Line separating West and East Jerusalem. Two policemen took him into the jeep, drove him to the Russian Compound and placed him under detention for two days. Ashraf's family has no telephone at home. He was allowed to call their neighbors to pass a message to his family about his arrest.

Is it worth all this hustle, I asked Ashraf. He said he has no other choice. In the best day of business, he makes the equivalent of US $30, of which he spends at least $12 for transport and food. "I go back home with whatever I make on that day. I buy what I can afford of vegetables, fruits and meat to take to the family. I am the family lord," he said as he failed to hide a smile of pride.

The danger surrounding those kids does not come only from police, soldiers or inspectors of the municipality. Running from one side to the other of the junction where they sell their merchandise they can easily be run over by cars. Ashraf was hit by cars four times in the last two years. Twice he was hospitalized for up to a fortnight in Israeli hospitals. He was not paid insurance money, and the maximum he received from one of those who hit him was having him pay his hospital bills.

Another risk those kids face is when people snatch goods from them and drive away. An Israeli driver wanted to buy a set of screwdrivers. He asked if Ashraf had change and as he prepared the money, the driver snatched the bills from AshrafÕs hand along with the screwdrivers set and drove away. Two weeks later, the same driver came to the same junction and was identified by Ashraf and his colleagues. They surrounded his car and demanded the money back. "We threatened that we would steal his car and the man finally paid back the money," said Ashraf. The car theft rate in Israel is high and the bulk of stolen cars find their way to the West Bank to places where they are torn to pieces and sold as spare parts. Hebron district is the area where most of the stolen cars from inside Israel are taken. Obviously, that fact had deterred the Israeli driver, who preferred to pay those kids their money rather than have his car disappear for good.

"One day," Ashraf said, "I came to Jerusalem with my younger brother, Hammoudeh. An hour after we took position at this junction, municipality inspectors arrived. They confiscated our goods and took us in their jeep. They forced us to remain on the floor of the jeep and every time I raised my head to see where we were going, they beat me up. Finally, they drove to a deserted mountain and left us there. We had to make our way back to a paved road to hitchhike. A woman stopped her car. As she heard our broken Hebrew, she pulled out her gun and started screaming at us. I told her she had no reason to be frightened and she sped away without a word." Ashraf and his brother went on walking until an Arab taxi driver passed by and picked them up.

Hassan, cousin of Ashraf, goes out with him almost every day. They both come together to Jerusalem. Hassan, also 14 years old, is shorter than Ashraf and looks much younger than him. His small body makes him look no more than ten years old. He too ran through the same saga on so many occasions. Last month, he was spotted by Israeli soldiers at the roadblock on the southern entrance to Jerusalem. He tried to run away but fell from a wall and broke his arm. Unfortunately enough for him, he continued to run disregarding his injury yet failed to infiltrate into Jerusalem and went back to Hebron. At Alia Hospital in the city, they first refused to treat him. "The doctor did not believe I was chased by soldiers. He said I was too young to be chased and thought I was lying. Only after I threatened to go to the Palestinian police and tell my story, that he agreed to x-ray my arm and transferred me to Beit Jala hospital where my arm was put in a cast for two weeks."

Hassan said that one day, border guards came with a bunch of checkbooks. They left them in a corner next to the kids' goods and then arrested him and his friend, claiming that they had stolen those checkbooks. "We were taken to the police station and all the way through, they beat us up. At the police lockup, an officer said we should go to school and not work in the streets. He even complained that we cause harm to Israeli shop owners who sell the same goods but at higher prices." And what about the checkbooks? Hassan and his friend were told that should the owners press charges, they will be summoned again. So far, they haven't.

Back in Yatta, families of Palestinian children who come to work in Jerusalem have a justification of their own for sending their children to what they admit is "hell." If a man infiltrates into Israel, he might be taken to prison for several months and fined an enormous amount of money. But when kids get arrested, they can only be kept for 48 hours or maybe less, after which they are released. When I asked Yousef, Ashraf's father, if he was worried for his son, he said: "May God be with him wherever he goes. There is not that much that I can do about it. The Palestinian National Authority cannot offer jobs for all of us and we need to fetch our own ways to earn our living."

Previous Stories:
  Palestinians file complaint against Israel with ITO   (9/13/1997)
  PNA ready for final status talks but wants Israel to pull out first   (9/11/1997)
  Palestinian losses due to Israeli blockade at $2.55 billion   (9/8/1997)

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