Page 8. A visit to Hebron
(page uner construction)
When my wife and I visited Israel
last summer, our goal was to look at some of the problems and seek
hopes for peace. In earlier essays I’ve described visits to Tel
Aviv and to Efrat, a Jewish town south of Bethlehem within the West
Bank. One of our more difficult visits was to Hebron, to visit
the Cave of the Patriarchs, the site which Abraham purchased from
Machpelach when Abraham first arrived in Canaan. The city is holy
to both Jews and Muslims, and has been problematic for many years.
Our hosts in Hebron
were members of the Christian Peacemakers Team (http://cpt.org)
, an interdenominational group organized by Mennonites and devoted to
trying to prevent violence.
There were Jews in Hebron
from ancient times until 1929, when many were killed and expelled
during a time of rioting.
(For a Wikipedia article on this, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1929_Palestine_riots
)
A Jewish settlement was founded in 1968 at Kiryat Arba, just east
of Hebron, but in 1971 it was still very small. It attracted many
members of the very right-wing Kach party, which is now banned in
Israel as a terrorist organization. It now has 7,000 or so
residents, with others living nearby or in small settlements (typically
looking like apartment houses) within Hebron itself.
When I first visited Hebron
in 1971, it was relatively peaceful and prosperous, drawing many
tourists. Both Jews and Muslims prayed in the large building over
the Cave, called by locals the Ibrahimi Mosque and by Jews the Cave of
the Patriarchs. In 1994 the American immigrant Dr. Baruch
Goldstein entered the Mosque and opened fire, killing 29 Muslim
worshippers and wounding 150, effectively ending short-term hopes for
peaceful coexistence in Hebron. Jewish settlers have established
themselves on rooftops in the city, protected by the Israeli army and
throwing garbage on the residents below. The building over the
cave is divided into Muslim and Jewish sections, heavily guarded by the
Israeli military.
For an article on a relatively recent move-in of Jews into Hebron, see
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?c=JPArticle&cid=1176152784857&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
There is major fear on each side
of attacks by the other. The Palestinians regard the Jews as
invaders. They report that some years on Purim, drunken Jews have
rampaged through town shooting and smashing windows. In an
attempt to separate the two, the Israeli military retains control of
much of the city, with numerous roadblocks, and restricts who can go
where. Providing a route from Kiryat Arba to the Cave of the
Patriarchs meant prohibiting Muslims from using a street that had been
a major shopping street for the Palestinian population.
The strange shape of the
Jewish-controlled area in the heart of Hebron complicates day to day
life no end. Palestinian children walking to school must pass
Jewish areas. Some were attacked, and members the Christian
Peacemaker Teams started walking with the young pupils. Then some
settlers attacked the CPT people, who suffered broken bones without
fighting back. This reached the attention of the Knesset, which ordered
the Army to accompany the children walking to school.
Is there a hope
for peace in Hebron? Not soon. Even most Israelis see the
Jewish settlements in and near Hebron as part of the problem, not part
of the solution. Descendants of the Jews who lived in Hebron have
urged the settlers to leave, in the hope of promoting
peace. But it is believed by many that an attempt to remove
the most radical of the settlers by force would be very violently
resisted, and the Israeli Army is, pointedly, not in the business of
fighting with Jews. The presence of international observers
- from the UN, from the European Union, from voluntary groups like the
CPT - may possibly have some calming effect.
In the meantime, the
disruption in day-to-day life for the residents, and the extremely poor
state of the economy, lead to increasing hatred and terrorism and more
occasions for possibly violent confrontations.
Hebron does have a functioning city
government, which tries to maintain schools, city services, and police
protection in the Palestinian areas. Unfortunately, the US and
Israeli boycott of the Palestinian government meant that when we were
there, the schoolteachers and other city employees had not been paid
for several months, further depressing the economy. In the view
of many, this boycott and economic is as likely to be as
effective as the US boycott of Cuba, and to lead to desirable changes
just as quickly. I hope that our leaders will see that talks and
economic support for peaceful activities are in the interests of all
parties.
Ordman Net Home
What's next?
From here you can go on to other sections of
material.
CONTENTS:
Page 1: Introduction
Page
2: Kfar Shalem
Page 3: Duheisha Refugee Camp
Page 4: Universities
Page 5: The Wall / Security Barrier
Page 6: Bethlehem
Page 7: Efrat
Page 8: Hebron
(More
to come)