Day Five - Hebron

If there is one place in the West Bank that epitomises the colonialism, violence, racism, injustice and brutality of Zionism, Hebron is it. The day in Hebron came towards the end of the group's trip (they were staying for just one week, I stayed for two) and left everyone speechless. If you want to look into the eyes of Zionism, unclouded by the spin of politics or the apologetics of 'international diplomacy', visit Hebron.

Like most Palestinian towns in the West Bank, Hebron has an old city and a newer commercial centre (the busy commercial centre is shown above). On the edge of the old city is Abraham's mosque. This is the site of the 'Cave of the Patriarchs', a religious site important to all three of the world religions. Hebron is surrounded by illegal Israeli settlements that are home to some of the most violent and fanatical Israeli settlers. Groups of hardcore settlers have periodically tried to take up residence in the old city and terrorise the Palestinian population into leaving. The first group were led by a fanatical rabbi who booked into a hotel in the old city with his motley crew and then refused to leave. They claim that Hebron was bought for the Jewish people by Abraham in biblical times. On the strength of this claim, they feel justified in attempting to evict the population of Palestinians who have lived here for thousands of years (and indeed are the true descendants of the biblical people). It is on these kinds of spurious religious, pseudo-historic claims that the whole of Zionism is based.

In 1994, a settler in Hebron, who also happened to be a senior doctor in the Israeli army, called Baruch Goldstein, broke into Abraham's Mosque during prayers and massacred 29 Palestinians with a machine gun. He was eventually overpowered and killed by the Palestinians in the Mosque. This was, to all intents and purposes, the first suicide attack of the conflict. It was this act that sparked the retaliatory suicide attacks by Hamas in the 90's. Before this suicide attack on the Palestinian civilians in the mosque in Hebron there had not been any suicide attacks against Israel by Palestinians.

There is a shrine to Goldstein in the area where he lived that describes him as 'clean of hands and pure of heart'. After his massacre, the Palestinians were held under strict curfew while the settlers were free to go about their business.

Curfews are a daily fact of life in Hebron and the Palestinians are often locked in their homes for days, sometimes weeks on end. In 1998, two babies died in their mothers arms at Hebron checkpoints as the soldiers would not let them be taken to the hospital. The curfew had been imposed so that the settlers could observe a religious period of mourning without having to come across any Palestinians on the streets.

The settlers believe in a genocidal ideology that the murder and violent expulsion of all non-Jews in the holy land will bring on the coming of the messiah. To this end, they carry out what can only be described as 'pogroms' against the Palestinian population in Hebron . The heavily armed settlers are given free reign to go on violent rampages through the city, murdering Palestinians, and burning Palestinian homes, cars and olive groves. Given the Israeli and US propensity to condemn Islamic extremism and even launch wholescale wars under the banner of combating it, you would imagine one or other would be quick to suppress this violent Jewish extremism. On the contrary, the Israeli government's reaction is to protect these fanatics at all costs. They have brought in several measures in Hebron to do all they can to ensure the safety of the settlers and, although many of them are literally murderers, murdering Palestinian residents in cold blood, they are never brought to justice.

There is currently a population of circa 650 insane settlers that have managed to take up residence in the old city. This is in comparison to a Palestinian population of approximately 180,000 in Hebron. The state of Israel, rather than evicting the settlers who have illegally invaded the old city, have brought in various security measures to protect them, at the expense of the Palestinian population's rights and liberty.

We arrived at the entrance to the town of Hebron and were confronted by the first of these security measures, the checkpoint (shown to the right [click on the pictures to enlarge them and then click 'back' to get back to the blog]). Note the Israeli flag over the checkpoint. There are over 100 checkpoints and roadblocks within Hebron. Obviously the fanatical settlers pass freely through these but movement for the Palestinian, within their own town, is very difficult.

Further into the town we saw these Palestinian girls confronting one of the Israeli soldiers at another checkpoint (right).

The checkpoints within Hebron demonstrate the way in which the state of Israel, and it's colonialist ideology, go hand in hand with the extremist religious fanaticism of the settlers. The settlers invade the Palestinian town and, rather than evict them, the Israeli state reinforces their claim to the town, entrenches their presence with military instalments, provides them with military support on their violent rampages and allows them immunity from prosecution. It compliments the direct violence of the settlers with its own bureaucratic violence of occupation. Indeed, many of the serving soldiers in Hebron are recruited from the settler populations themselves! Hebron is not a mutation of Zioinism or an unfortunate bi-product of Zionism. This is Zionism.

The state of Israel used exactly this kind of religious extremism in its foundation. The indigenous, non-Jewish population of Palestine needed to be massacred and violently evicted from their homeland in order to create the Zionist state in 1948. The same ideology is now being practised in the West Bank by the settlers. It bears repeating at this point that Zionism is not Judaism. Zionism is a colonialist political movement (founded in Europe) that was well underway long before the horrors of the Holocaust brought international consensus on the 'necessity' for a Jewish state. It is a political movement that hijacks Judaism as its ethical scaffold and one which an increasing number of Jews are rejecting. It is also worth noting that the vast majority of Holocaust survivors wanted no part in the Zionist movement that was claiming the salvation of the Jewish people. Most wanted to settle in the US or even remain in Europe (which they considered their home).

Israeli politicians are fond of using Hebron as a medium for demonstrating their liberalism, their removal from the extremism of the settler movement. They will sometimes make critical statements against the more violent acts of the settlers in Hebron. And yet I saw with my own eyes the way the state will go to great lengths to protect the settlers and support them in their genocidal goals.

Our guide took us to Abraham's mosque on the edge of the old city. The building was previously a mosque in its entirity but, after the settlers moved in, was made into a synagogue. Now just 20% of the building is allowed to be used as a mosque by the Palestinians of Hebron. We saw the Jewish settlers arriving for prayer in a huge, Israeli military armoured bus. The 'call to prayer' that you hear in every city across the Arab world has been banned in Hebron as it disturbs the settlers.

Note the settler here on the left with his family and the gun tucked into his trousers. The way he has done this, I think, is indicative of the kind of macho, frontier-like mentality of the settlers.



The Palestinians must go through several checkpoints and searches in order to enter the mosque itself. The Jewish entrance to the synagogue has no such inconveniences even though it was a Jewish settler who massacred the Palestinians in this mosque in 1994. Inside the mosque are CCTV cameras monitored by the Israelis. The tomb itself (site of the burial of the Biblical figures, Abraham, Sarah, Rebecca, Jacob and Leah) was entered by the Israelis some years ago and they were inside it for several days. Nobody knows what they did inside but they covered the entrance with a bookcase (shown here on the right). They enter the mosque twice a day to check if the bookcase has been disturbed.

The mosque is separated off from the Synagogue although you can see into the Synagogue at one point. This part is separated by bullet-proof glass which is there to protect the Palestinians from another settler attack (obviously the Palestinians would not be able to get a gun into the Mosque but the settlers are allowed to carry weapons into the Synagogue if they choose). I took this photo of someone peering through the divide from the Synagogue (left).

We left the Mosque and headed towards the old city but were stopped by two Israeli soldiers in the street. They pulled one of the girls aside because she looked more Arabic than the rest of us. They demanded to see her passport. Her passport was European and our guide explained we were on a trip from England but they were not satisfied. "Are you Muslim?" they asked. This kind of open racism seemed bizarre to us but is an everyday reality for the Palestinians. Indeed the treatment our friend received was surely toned down by her possession of a European passport compared to what the residents here suffer. A police car arrived and spoke with our guide. We were eventually allowed to move on.

The second thing I noticed about Hebron, after all the checkpoints, are the grills and grates on all the windows. The settler children are taught in a Jewish fundamentalist school on the outskirts of Hebron, that violence and terrorisation of the non-Jewish residents is an instruction from god. They do their own bit by stoning Palestinian homes and can also be very violent towards internationals.

The entrance to the old city is the site of the more inhuman checkpoints (right). They appear more suited to cattle than people. Only Palestinians who have residency cards proving they live within the old city are allowed through these checkpoints.

The old city has effectively been shut down by the Israeli military. What was previously a thriving market centre has become a ghost town. All but a few of the shops that were the livelihoods of a whole population are now shuttered up, their customers denied entry. All this because 650 settlers decided they wanted Hebron for their own. Not only do the Palestinians here live in fear from settler violence, they have also had their businesses ruined by the Israeli military.

A couple of boys followed us around trying politely to sell us trinkets and souvenirs and this made the desolate scene seem all the more tragic. In the photo on the right you can see one of the boys being harassed by some soldiers.

On the left is the old entrance to the fruit market. Now blocked off and shut down. The streets where Palestinians still pass are all covered by wire meshing to protect them from missiles thrown by the settlers from above. We saw glass, rocks, chairs and bottles (presumably filled with something) caught in this wire.

The settlers typically take over the upper floors of the Palestinian homes. This tactic is replicated by the Israeli military who patrol the roofs in the old city. They can pass easily across the roofs in the old city. This photo was taken of a soldier peering over into the street at us.The following video (The Iron Wall) gives a more detailed look at Hebron in particular and how it characterises the occupation. Apologies I have had to put it in several parts. You will need to click 'back' at the end of each part to navigate back to this page. It really is a must see but does contain some quite graphic violence. How could it not:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6