Ground Zero Hebron

The ancient Biblical city of Hebron, one of Palestine's largest cities, is truly a "ground zero" for the phase of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that involves the settlements. It's in Hebron that an Orthodox rabbi and his followers checked into a hotel in 1971 (?) and refused to leave, forcing the Israeli government to accommodate them on land at Hebron's occupation military base. From that beginning, Hebron has attracted a relatively small group of the most ideological settlers who have expanded their presence into Hebron's Old City, and required many times more Israeli troops to guard them than their actual numbers.

Why is Hebron important to them? We met with a leader in the settler community to understand why. Hebron is Judaism's second holiest city, next to Jerusalem, because it has the Tomb of the Patriarchs. Abraham and Sarah, Jacob and Rebekkah are buried there. These patriarchs are holy figures to Islam as well, and their tombs were contained in a mosque to which Israelis could not travel. The Jewish community that lived in Hebron had been massacred or expelled by the Arab community in 1929. A fanatical settler, Baruch Goldstein, took his vengeance in 1979 by slaughtering Muslims at prayer in the mosque.

This legacy of violence has been inherited by a new generation of Hebron residents, and one of them, a young man named Issa who is an activist in the resistance to the occupation and the settlements, showed us around the Old City of Hebron. It is a ghost town. Divided by walls and barbed wire, watched by security cameras, towers, and checkpoints, the area's former economic activity and residential life has all but disappeared. Leaving the Muslim entrance area to the mosque through an elaborate cattle-pen of a checkpoint, we were suddenly inside Hebron's still-existing souk (market)
and could see that the Arab community there remained vital.

Even in the souk, however, the settlers presence is inescapable. The Israelis have confiscated nearby blocks for settler homes, shutting off the street to Palestinians. The backs of some of these buildings are the walls of the souk, with shops facing into the souk on the ground floor, and settlers above. The settlers have frequently thrown garbage and debris down into the souk, so that the shopkeepers have had to arrange for overhead fencing to insure that no one else could be hurt by the barrages.

Amidst conflicting narratives of pain, our host Issa was the only ray of hope that could be seen. His courage, and even joy, in sustaining his resistance, and his hope that it will not be in vain, was an inspiration and a challenge to all of us.

Location:Hebron, Palestine