I will start the story of Hebron with what we saw as we arrived and were preparing to sit down to a nice lunch of hummus and falafel. (Side bar: hummus is not an Israeli dish, it was originally a Palestinian dish. When we joked with one of our guides about how they even stole the hummus, he replied “yes, but we will be glad to trade hummus for peace – we will agree that hummus is Israeli in return for peace.”) We were in the center of town where there was a military compound. As we watched, the soldiers stopped 3 Palestinian young men and one by one, took them inside the fenced-off compound. We stood there and watched, hoping our presence would force these young soldiers to behave. Then we heard a loud bang – like something (somebody?) being thrown against the wall of the compound. I do not know how this story ends.
Our guide then proceeded to tell us the story of Hebron. The settlers came to Hebron with a lie: they were going to a hotel to celebrate Passover. They promised the army they would leave the day after the holiday. Instead, the next day they announced that they were here to settle Hebron. And they simply stayed. Yigdal Allon armed the soldiers with weapons. Prime Minister Eshkol avoided confronting the situation and, eventually, the IDF trained the settlers in weaponry and made them a part of the Army in this strange way of avoiding evicting Jews. Six months later, the government decided to establish a Jewish neighborhood in Hebron, in the heart of the Arab city. I can only skim this appalling story. To read it in detail, I highly recommend “Lords of the Land – the War Over Israel’s Settlements in the Occupied Territories, 1967-2007,” by Idith Zertal and Akiva Eldar.
But for those historians amongst you, our guide also mentioned the Arab massacre of Jews in Hebron in 1929. Before this, Jews and Arabs lived side by side, peacefully, until the rise of Zionists. Our guide told us that Hebronites distinguish between Jews, their friends and neighbors, and Zionists – those who came to colonize, conquer and oppress, like Baruch Goldstein and his settler friends. He talked about how they would go to each other’s weddings and funerals, how his grandfather has told him stories of the diverse community of Hebron. The week before the massacre, the Zionists raised an Israeli flag at the wailing wall. It was during a Jewish holiday and Muslim prayers. The Muslims were offended and riots broke out. There were rumors that Jews were killing Muslims and Muslims were killing Jews. Tensions were high and here our guide told us that Hebronites often wonder about the British role. Eventually, 67 Hebronite Jews were killed after which the British evacuated the entire Jewish population from Hebron. After the 1967 war, with the move to settle Hebron, the settlers launched a campaign saying “we take back our properties!” However, the descendants of the massacre victims went to the city council opposing the settlers. They were unsuccessful.
Instead, the IDF moved in, literally, into Palestinians homes and, as I indicated above, supported and protected the settlers. They deported Palestinian residents, including the elected mayor and threw some Palestinian leaders out of the country. They demolished Palestinian homes. Then came Oslo.
In connection with Oslo, Israeli troops were to redeploy from certain Palestinian inhabited areas. Remember, though, that the settlements were one of the issues that Oslo put off to be negotiated later. So when it came to Hebron, the Israeli government refused to redeploy because there are settlers living (illegally, of course) in Hebron who need protection. It was in Hebron in 1994 that Dr. Baruch Goldstein, a Jewish settler/terrorist, burst into a mosque and started firing at 800 worshipers. 29 Palestinians were murdered and 125 wounded. The settlers have turned Goldstein’s grave into a monument to Goldstein and view him as a hero. His gravestone reads: “he had sacrificed himself for the sake of Israel, his Torah and his land.” The Israeli government responded by instituting a curfew . . . against the Palestinians in Hebron. They then turned the mosque into a half-mosque, half synagogue.
The Palestinians then began to work to get the settlers out but the settlers respond with daily attacks on the Palestinians. The power imbalance here, with the settlers being armed not only with weapons but with the IDF, has made it impossible for the Palestinians to evict these troublesome neighbors. And what is Israel fighting for here? The rights of about 600 settlers, 250 of whom are Yeshiva students, here temporarily. There are 150,000 Palestinians in Hebron.
And how does Israel fight? There are now approximately 98 different movement restrictions on the Palestinians. These are mostly in the old city, which consists of 1 square kilometer. They include checkpoints, blocked alleys, metal gates, and rooftop monitoring, all of which I witnessed with my own, tearing eyes. Curfew, another favorite tool of oppression, was imposed from 2000-2003 and forced many businesses to close, destroying Hebron’s economy. As to the I.D. card check we witnessed above, our guide pointed out that the Israelis have a sophisticated computer system on which they could simply check out the status of a Palestinian’s I.D. card. Instead, they physically stop the Palestinians, which “I.D. check” can last anywhere from 20 minutes to 3 hours. There are arrests of many Palestinians here. In addition, 512 businesses have been closed by direct Israeli order. They are welded shut.
The Israelis also close roads to Palestinians, not Jews. Sometime this means the Palestinians cannot drive on a road, sometimes it means they cannot walk on the road. Sometimes the road is the road on which the Palestinians live. To get out of their houses, they sometimes go roof-top hopping, sometimes climb out ladders from second story windows. What if you are pregnant, disabled, elderly or have small children? I cannot imagine living like this. In a minute, I will tell you about the Hebronite Palestinian family we visited. But for now, let me continue. The settlers, as I indicated, are ultra-Orthodox fundamentalists. When they harass the Palestinians, they do so with chants such as “death to the Arabs” and “Arabs to the gas chambers.” Nice, right? Their current leader has a sticker on his care “I have already killed an Arab, have you?” When they came to Hebron, they built their Yeshiva on top of the Palestinian school. The soldiers took over another Palestinian school, as well as the women’s center.
Now as we are walking down one of the nearly-deserted streets, we see netting above us. On top of the nettings are trash, large rocks and empty plastic bags. Our guide tells us the Palestinians have to place netting over their streets because the settlers throw their trash, rocks and plastic bags filled with water, urine or even acid down onto the Palestinians. (Many settlers’ homes are built on top of Palestinian buildings.” One time, a knife was thrown, which penetrated 4 centimeters into a Palestinian’s head. No charge were ever brought. How would they know who did this? Well, there are cameras everywhere, watching. The Israelis have another cute trick. In response to a settler woman who was injured by a wire in a fruit market, they imposed curfews against the Palestinians, detaining and arresting tens of Palestinians. (Our guide claimed the injury was an accident. Even if you assume the worst and she was “stabbed” by the wire as she claimed, notice the difference in response between injured/attacked Israelis, and injured/attacked Palestinians.) Finally, they lifted the curfew except as to the vendors. Meaning, of course, that the vendors’ livelihood was taken away.
Again in contrast, we visited a Palestinian family whose home was down the hill from a settlement. He told us that the settlers have cut down his olive trees and painted on his house “death to the Arabs” and “gas the Arabs” and “kill all the Arabs.” His wife has miscarried twice, both times after being attacked by settlers. The settlers have destroyed his pipes, his telephone line. The IDF has shot at his home. His children have suffered attacked on the way home and are psychologically suffering now from the trauma of it all. Oh, and how did we get to and from his house? His entrance has been confiscated by the settlers. So we had to go in the “back way.” Let me describe this to you, if I can. Remember the days when you would go hiking for fun, and climb up steep hills and impasses made of rock with no handles or anything to hold on to? And it became not much fun? And you went down trails with branches that hit your neighbor behind you in the face if you let go too soon? That’s how this family gets to and from their house. Then he showed us the videos.
One video showed a group of 14-15 y.o. settler girls surrounding and terrorizing a group of Palestinian children on their way home from school. Due to road closures and apartheid roads, the Palestinian children only have one way home, down a rather steep set of stone stairs. The Jewish children followed them, screaming insults the entire time. The Palestinian teacher accompanying the children tried to talk to the Jewish children, to no avail.
Another video he has shows an Orthodox woman locking a Palestinian woman and her children behind a fence, all the time taunting them with “whore” chants. A third video showed Mary Baxter, a 77 year old Australian activists who was trying to escort Palestinian children home from school when a group of settlers attacked her, pushing her over a stone wall and injuring her back. As if these were not bad enough, he then showed us another video from 2003, filmed by a Palestinian ob/gyn, whom we met. The video shows hundred of settlers gathering, crossing walls, breaking gates, all accompanied by soldiers and border police. Our host told us that the settlers invaded homes, breaking in and beating Palestinians and destroying properties. Again, a vision of my Zadie in the pogroms. The IDF regularly inspects this family’s home, confiscating kitchen knives because they are weapons. Meantime, the settlers of course have their automatic rifles.
We met the ob/gyn who had filmed the pogrom. He told us that he and his 14 year old daughter were beaten by the soldiers, his daughter so severe that she went into a coma. (She recovered). Instead of focusing on this horror and raging, he began asking the ob/gyn in our group about three-dimension ultra sounds and how they need training.
Oh, by the way, I asked our guide why the Palestinian shops were welded shut, to which he replied with a smile, “security, of course.” Seems to me that who needs to be welded, curfewed, deported and arrested are the settlers.
The Palestinians responded in the mid 1970’s by forming the “National Guidance Committee,” which lead nonviolent resistance, including to the issue of the settlers. They had strikes and demonstrations. With the city center desertion we saw, we agreed with the Hebronite Palestinians that the message is clear: do not come here to visit, open business, live, etc.: go away from here. But instead, the Palestinians civil society groups are trying to renovate buildings, plant trees and rebuild. It is bad here. Zertal and Eldar say Hebron is getting it the worst. I have posted some pictures below. The first picture is of a shop welded shut by the Israelis. In the second and third pictures, you can see the netting and the objects and trash on top.
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