Hebron (Al-Khalil)

When I mention to a Canadian journalist in Ramallah that I have just been to Hebron, he smiles half-heartedly and says to me that there really isn’t anything subtle about what is happening there. Despite its beautiful old market, which resembles that of old Jerusalem, Al-Khalil has become somewhat of a destination for anyone wanting to see some of the strangest most disturbing aspects of the occupation in the West Bank. The city has administratively been divided into 2 zones (H-1 and H-2), which are controlled by the PA and the IDF respectively. Three large illegal settlements were constructed near the city, but the most shocking manifestation of the settler phenomenon is the settlements actually built above Palestinian homes and businesses.

Hebron is the burial site of the Patriarchs of the Old Testament. Abraham, Sarah, Jacob, Issac, Rebecca and Leah are said to be buried in a series of caves under the Al-Khalidi mosque. There is thus a strong religious attachment to the city by Muslims and Jews and a strong push by religious Jews to increase the Jewish population in Hebron by any means necessary. This includes seizing any Palestinian homes that remain unoccupied in H-2 and harassing locals. The Israeli military maintains a constant presence in the city center as well as surveillance cameras everywhere including inside the Mosque itself. The Mosque has been divided into two sides: one for Muslim worshippers and the other for Jewish worshippers. Access to the mosque from settlements has been ensured by placing military checkpoints on numerous streets and even completely shutting down all the Arab businesses on the main Shuhada street and denying all access to arabs. This has turned the once lively commercial street into a ghost town only accessible to armed religious settlers and foreigners. There are a series of placards on Shuhada street as well as a website by the settler movement justifying these scenes.

Settlers living above Palestinian homes and businesses are known for throwing down garbage, rotten eggs and even bottles of urine onto the arab merchants with the tacit approval of the military in an effort to intimidate and force out the arab inhabitants. Metal grates have been installed above some sections of the market to shield people from the trash and projectiles.

Closed street with settlement above

The past century has seen a lot of violence in Hebron. In 1929, when Palestine was still under British Mandate an Arab mob killed 67 Jews because of the false rumor of the massacre of Arabs by Jewish immigrants. More recently, in 1994 Baruch Goldstein, a physician and American citizen, waked into Al-Ibrahimi mosque and opened fire killing 29 worshipers. In subsequent riots the Israeli army killed 19 Palestinians. The walls of the mosque still bear stickers from the forensic investigation by the Israeli government. Upon exiting the section of the mosque that has been converted into a synagogue, a tourist wearing one of the paper kippahs which are handed out to visitors strikes up a conversation with us. He’s a Carmelite priest from Germany leading a tour group. “Crazy isn’t it?” He says. “I tell everyone who wants to visit here that you have to see it to believe it”.