One of the oldest cities mentioned in Genesis, Hebron, is a revered holy site for all three Abrahamic religions. It is here that the Patriarchs and Matriarchs: Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob and Leah are believed to be buried. One would hope that this West Bank city would serve as an example of peace and harmony, respect and brotherhood.
Yet the Israeli journalist Gideon Levy warns, “If you want to know what callousness is, if you want to know what racism is, if you want to know what evil is, if you want to know what injustice is and if you want to know what malice looks like, Hebron …is the best place on earth to find out.”
I first heard about the Hebron of today, from a Dunedin Quaker friend Christina Gibb. She gave talks several years ago, in Christchurch, about her experiences as a Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT) volunteer in Hebron. An important function that Christina and her colleagues undertook was to accompany Palestinian children on their way to and from school. The CPTers hoped that their presence, in their ‘uniforms’ of red baseball caps, would discourage Zionist settlers from attacking the children.
(CPT was founded in 1984 by three historic peace churches, Mennonite, Church of the Brethren and Quaker. The CPTers go only where local people have requested their presence. The CPTers themselves are nonviolent, bearing witness to violence, sometimes trying to prevent violence by ‘getting in the way’.)
In 2009, Martin and I made our first of 4 visits to Israel and the West Bank.
We took part in an ‘alternative’ tour, meeting Palestinians and Israeli human rights activists too, organized by ICAHD (Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions). As part of our tour, we went to Hebron. Hebron , el Khalil the Arabic name, is surely like no place else on earth. It’s a city of
over 215,000 Palestinians and between 500 and 850 Jewish ‘settlers’ guarded by a large number of IDF, Israeli soldiers. Most West Bank ‘settlements’ are on hilltops, separate from Palestinian villages, but in Hebron the settlers are right in the middle of the old city. This happened because in 1968, a group of religious extremist Zionists posing as Swiss tourists rented the main hotel, overlooking the Palestinian market, souk, of small shops and open stalls, and then refused to leave.
We visitors, walking down the narrow street in the middle of the stalls, were aghast at the sight of the overhead wire mesh erected by stall holders to try to protect themselves from objects tossed down by the Zionists. It was a shocking sight!
We visited the 1000 year old Ibrahimi Mosque, considered to be the 4th holiest site in Islam. Our Hebron resident guide, Hashem al Azzeh, explained the various features including the historic carved wooden minbar, pulpit.
To be precise, we visited half of the original mosque.
On 25 February 1994, during Ramadan, Baruch Goldstein, an American Jewish settler from Brooklyn, New York, walked into the Ibrahimi Mosque and opened fire on men and boys at prayer, killing 29 and injuring dozens more, before he was attacked and beaten to death. Goldstein was a member of the Jewish Defence League, considered a terrorist group by the FBI, founded by Meir Kahane. Goldstein is considered a hero by the extremists; his grave is a pilgrimage site.
After the massacre, the Israelis punished the Palestinians, expelling them from 60% of the Mosque and turning that part into a Jewish synagogue. They also blocked off Palestinians from what was then a busy street, Shuhada Street. Even today Palestinians are not allowed to set foot on Shuhada Street.
Hashem invited us to his house. It was a struggle climbing up a rocky hill . The road to his house had been taken over by settlers, determined to drive him out. He explained that he and his wife never leave the house together in case settlers invade it and take over.
Martin and I made 3 more trips , in 3 more consecutive years, to Israel and the West Bank, including Hebron. Again we met with Hashem. We got to know him, a trained medical doctor as well as community leader , and his artistic wife and think of them as friends.
Each time it was obvious that the oppression was growing, that settlers , openly heavily armed, were becoming bolder and more vicious. The soldiers, the IDF, are there only to protect the settlers; they turn a blind eye to violence against Palestinians.
The situation today is really too ugly to put into words. The Israeli regime, IDF and police are in reality at war with the local population. See www.cptpalestine.com for a video about what children have to endure on their way to school: tear gas, stun grenades, firing from occupied rooftops, skunk water, rubber coated steel bullets. They arrive at school fearful, anxious and exhausted.
And speaking of tear gas, our friend Hashem al Asseh died earlier this year from excessive tear gas inhalation.
Jeff Halper of ICAHD explained that the settlers in and around Hebron are led by extremist fundamentalist Rabbis who not only justify but encourage violence against Palestinians by teaching the Torah , and Joshua , but ignoring the Prophets.
Making matters worse, the present Israeli regime is the most right-wing ever.
Poor Hebron, not a pretty sight, not a ‘holy site’ !
Martin and Lois Griffiths are Human Rights Activists
Zionist will never be happy even when all native peoples are crushed and flee as refugees or stay and be exterminated.
The Zionist expansion will continue to take over the Middle East using the US as attack dog effecting regime change all paid for by the disenfranchised US tax payer at cost to the non Jewish middle east lives.
Zionist do not seek peace but power. wealth and territorial resources. They also have nuclear capability illegally.
The greatest threat to the world today.
Thank you Martin and Lois for continuing to educate us about the realities of the Israel’s relentless oppression of Palestinians.
We must do all we can to help Palestinians because they are unable to defend themselves against the military might of Israel. We must insist on BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanction) against the apartheid state of Israel.
Well said Martin and Lois, the suffering in Hebron epitomises the inhumanity of Israel’s founding ideology. Zionism is an anachronism; a fanatical belief that the rights of one people necessarily override those of all others. Israel’s land theft, economic sabotage and purposeful denial of basic human rights gross are internationally recognised as gross violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Yet politicians still urge resumption of the failed so-called peace ‘negotiations’ that have achieved nothing other than to guarantee freedom for the Zionist enterprise to pursue its goals. The very survival of the hard-won provisions of international law now depend upon determined restraint being urgently placed upon Israel by the world community. Justice demands it.
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