It was a long time since we visited Hebron, and Annelien selected an educational tour conducted by ‘Breaking the Silence’, a group of ex-soldiers who are between uncomfortable to ashamed with their role as participants in the occupation during their military service. The tour is intended to show what occupation combined with settlers did to Hebron, as an example.
Well, the old city of Hebron, or the casbah, is dead, a ghost town. The process is simple enough; once settlers have in some way, mostly illegally, occupied a house in the old city of Hebron, a ‘sterile area’ must be created to protect them from any contact with angry Palestinians. This area is cleared for them by our loyal army, and prohibits all Palestinians from driving, walking or breathing in a defined perimeter around the newly acquired pure Jewish stronghold. Checkpoints are set up to enforce the sterility in this area. The more Jewish strongholds are created, the less Arab areas remain inhabited. By this method the whole old city of Hebron is prohibited for Palestinians, thus effectively denuding the city center of any signs of Arab life; the place is essentially deserted, but swarming with police and army to protect the Jewish presence. Arab shops are welded shut by the army.
Our tour was therefore mostly in this ghost town, where only Jews are allowed to move between their enclaves, but to ensure our safety – more from the violent Jewish settlers than from the absent Palestinians – we were accompanied by police and army during all phases of our sight-seeing trip.
At most checkpoints, we were initially not allowed entry – a fairly standard reflex against anybody who is not clearly a settler – but a phone call by our tour leader, who is well versed in this game, allowed us to get through within minutes. It must be said that this is not an easily won privilege; many court cases paved the way for this seemingly permissive attitude.
Our last stop was in Tel Rumeida, a settler stronghold. In contrast to our last visit five years ago, we did not furtively skirt around Tel Rumeida, but walked right in – after the usual phone calls. From there we went to visit one of the last Palestinians living close by. This man, Issa, must have physical and legal fights on a daily basis to remain there.
On the way out, waiting for our bus inside Tel Rumeida, we were accosted by two violent settlers, who shouted abuse at us, and called our presence ‘a provocation’. They taunted us by yelling that we only dare set foot in their territory thanks to the policemen present. This argument was even more bizarre, considering that roughly for each settler one soldier round the clock is needed for protection. The policemen accompanying our tour, instead of asserting our right as Jews to visit Tel Rumeida, hurried us onwards to get out of there before we were physically attacked as leftists and traitors.
With people like these, and their overriding influence on the Israeli government, there is no hope of any understanding with the Palestinians in our lifetime.
Hebron is a sorry ‘success-story’ of Jewish resettlement of this holy land.
