The Nightmare of Hebron (Al Khalil)--Israeli Occupation's Ugliest Face

This will certainly be the hardest blog entry to write. It is also the day that I kept thinking about Kyle, over and over, and wishing he could have been with me to see what I was seeing. I knew that his own instincts and goodness would have made him understand my own objections to Israeli occupation. I thought of the epitaph which we put on his headstone--- "And I believe in 'one person can make a difference' because if no one did, nothing would ever change." So I write this in the spirit of our son, Kyle, knowing full well he too would expect me to make a difference--to take my responsiblity to write about what I saw in Hebron seriously.

A slide from the Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH) presentation. 

Settler mural that depicts local Palestinians as rats.

The settlers in the Palestinian city of Al Khalil (the biblical name is Hebron) are American Jews who appear to embrace a hateful, violent, ideological view of the Palestinian people and believe they have rightful ownership of the land and believe it is their mission to drive out the local Palestinian population since they are on encroaching on biblical lands promised to Jews by God. I would not have believed until I saw it. I was warned about how miserable and depressing Hebron would be. I was so disturbed that I lay asleep all night wondering how such a thing could be done in the 21st century. How was it possible that people who lived through such racism and violence historically could perpetuate something so awful, so inhumane, so deeply degrading to both themselves and their victims?  I think the worst part of it all is that this is becoming part of the way that the settlers create a situation of hostile conflict that allows the Israeli Defense Forces to come into a place in the West Bank and militarize, occupy, and destroy the lives and economies of Palestinians. Hebron is an extreme example of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, but it is also examplary of how the settlements function to destroy Palestinian life and create the conditions for further militarization and land confiscation by the state of Israel. For more on this, I'd encourage you all to read Eyal Weizman's book Hollow Land: The Architecture of Israeli Occupation Here is an interview with him: http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/9/wall.php

Israeli AKA 47-armed Jewish settler and IDF soldier fraternizing--under international conventions this contact between occupying army and armed settlers is illegal.

As an academic, I'm familiar with the ways that the situation of Jewish settlers in Palestine have been identified with a form of zionism that is settler-colonial. They go in there, claiming some kind of divine right to a place of religious significance, set up camp with tents and guns, provoke the local population, move in temporary campers, set up their flag, and then illegally start building. They throw rocks, garbage, shoot at, and harass local populations that have lived there for hundreds of years, claiming that they are more entitled to be there. When Palestinians resist their occupation of their land, when they throw rocks back at them, when they protest their illegal presence, the Israeli military is called in to protect them. Hebron has approximately 500 illegal settlers and they are protected by more than 1000 Israeli soldiers. Remember, this is in the West Bank. This is Palestine; these settlements are illegal under international law.

I don't fully understand what their ideology is, but on many levels it is governed by the same frontier mentality that enabled white Afrikaaners in South Africa to believe they were doing black Africans a favor by taking the land in South Africa and white settlers in America redeeming the land from a race of uncivilized savages. They believe in the idea of Eretz Israel (greater Israel which means taking land that has been continuously inhabited by Palestinians for millenia for Jewish people who believe God promised it to them) and they believe in the use of violence to achieve their aims. We went to see the settlements in the old city of Hebron after we visited the university, and heard how the settlements have terrorized the local population and driven out many Palestinians from their homes. It was a particular irony that we visited Hebron the day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the U.S. Congress. The President of the University of Hebron, Dr. Nabil, was visibly shaken and told us he did not sleep the whole night after sitting through the entire speech. He was disgusted but not surprised by Netanyahu's speech, but with his voice shaking said, "I cannot believe the people of America have bought his lies and have the audacity to stand up and give him 30 ovations for his lies, which are built on the suffering of our people!" He gave an eloquent analysis of the speech, which he said, exposes the true character of Israel's intransigence and unwilling to negotiate a real peace with the Palestinians. He also told us that if the American people knew what kinds of atrocities the Palestinians were suffering under the guise of "Israel's security" and the image of perpetuating Palestinians as "terrorists" they too would not sleep at night. He was so shaken by the idea of American congressman and women rising to their feet to applaud a state that has committed that I'm paraphrasing here--commits countless human rights violations, expelled and imprisoned thousands of Palestinians, and criminalizes them for resisting occupation that takes Palestinian land, herds them like cattle through checkpoints, and builds walls and roads that are equivalent to South African apartheid bantustans.

Sign posted by IDF saying who can go in and out
of this particular section of Hebron (Palestinians
must go through an Israeli checkpoint at this spot)

This effects the entire city of Hebron, and specifically students, because the local community has lost its main bloodline--the old market in the city that enabled people to sell their produce, wares, and other products. There is more poverty as a result of the settlements, because Palestinians under this military occupation, are constantly faced with threats by settlers, violent and unexpected curfews, and the increased strangulation of local economies as a result of the settler community's harassment. The settlements are residences of Jewish settlers who have occupied themselves in formerly Palestinian homes, which ironically have been confiscated because the Israeli Defense Forces deem it their right to confiscate land not inhabited by Palestinians. Mind you, these are Palestinians who fled their homes because of settler harassment over the last decade. They have had rocks thrown at their houses, their children have been harassed on their way to school, people have been shot at, and injured. When they have resisted they have been met with even more force by the IDF. 

 Walking around the old downtown area, you cannot believe how many shops and homes have been boarded up, but even more disturbing, the metal doors have been sealed with a welded on piece of iron--indicating that the Israelis see fit to confiscate property not inhabited in the past three months. Walking through the old city, the souk, the traditional market that we were told by our two guides, had once been a thriving commercial center, has now been driven into ruin. Settlers living above the old city in illegal settlements throw garbage, dirty water, feces, bricks, stones, shoes, etc. in an effort to intimidate and harass the local merchants who are still struggling to live and work in the old city.

I should clarify that we were with a UN-mandated organization the Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH)--which was agreed to under the 1993 Oslo Accords. The TIPH is an internationally supported NGO whose specific mission is to monitor, record, and witness settler activity in Hebron. Although the Israelis agreed to this in the 1993 Oslo accords, they have no obligation to read reports, follow recommendations, and curb settler activity. And it was obvious that the TIPH was doing their job (it is a staff of 60 international monitors, mostly from Scandinavia who walk the streets of Hebron daily to record settler violations, harassment, and to document the extreme conditions that Palestinians live with with the presence of illegal settlements). The guides who walked with us, took pictures, spoke with local Palestinians about the latest settler incidents--the latest of which was the settlers throwing burning paper down into the souk (which they had covered with a plastic tarp in order to prevent garbage and sand being thrown at them), and burning holes in the tarps.

One of many, many Palestinian shops/homes that are sealed shut by Israeli soldiers after they've fled the terror of the settlement. Palestinians cannot go back into their homes. 

The entire scene of the settlements in the old city makes it look like a war zone. Settler live in a kind of siege mentality, I think. This is because they have illegally siezed land and are protected by barbed wire, checkpoints, road blocks, electronic fences, IDF soldiers, and their own guns. Yes, folks, illegal settlers are allowed to carry AK 47s in and around Palestinian neighborhoods and in their own settlements. It's a rather disturbing sight to see people who are hostile and aggressive bearing these kinds of weapons against  a defenseless population of local Palestinians who have no protection against them. At several points, we saw settlers fraternizing with the local IDF guards, and that was another sign of how entrenched Israel is with these settlers, even though they deny the seriousness of these settlements and when convenient, like to distance themselves from these people's ideological extremism. When Baruch Goldstein, an American Jew from Brooklyn went into the Hebron Ibrahimi mosque in 1993 and shot and killed 27 praying Muslim men, Isarel called him a lone, crazy gunman. But what you see here is evidence of the state's collusion with the settlers to confiscate land, under develop Palestinian life, and threaten the security of Palestinian communities. The settlers do tremendous property damage and psychological damage by shouting insults, throwing things such as stones and garbage at their Palestinians neighbors, and making life so impossible for any kind of thriving market that it causes people to leave. The old city was also once a thriving tourist area for both Palestinian and international tourism, but because of the settlements, the Separation Wall, the checkpoints, and the presence of Israeli soldiers, everywhere, no one wants to come to the old city. Therefore, it looks like a ghost town and the poverty and desperation which have resulted by the settlers is palpable. We were followed through our walk by several Palestinian children absolutely desperate to make a sale of a few shekels by selling jewelry, scarves, chewing gums in order to help their families. At one point during our walk in the souk, two small settler children threw sand at us from above us in a compound. It was disturbing to say the least. Another of our group was confronted rather hostilely from a group of three Jewish American teens who asked our Pakistani-American colleague what she was doing there. Because she looked Asian/Middle Eastern, they made a rather unseemly comment about Muslims. These are kids who are encouraged to be hostile, aggressive and hateful towards Palestinians, and to anyone who might sympathize with the Palestinians living with this kind of behavior.

Settler trash dumped next to a Palestinian man's house. 

The merchants in the old city have moved to safer
areas outside of the old souk. Trash, rocks, bricks, and
sand have been hurled at them by settlers, and as a result they've moved. The overall effect, however, is to scare people off from even going to the Old City--resulting in a kind of active underdevelopment of a traditional Palestinian economic site. Tourists, hearing of the settlers
and their use of violence, are few and far between

one of several settlements in the Palestinian town of Hebron. 

More boarded and shut Palestinian  homes and shops. Notice the guard tower used by IDF soldiers.

We saw one building where Israeli settler children were playing and our TIPH guides took photos because it was on an Israeli military compound inside the old city. Under international law, settlers and IDF soldiers are not supposed to fraternize or share common space. Clearly, this is in violation of international accords that govern the illegality of Israeli settlements. When we asked our guides how the Israelis get away with this they shrugged their shoulders and answered, that their job is to record violations, but the Israelis don't have to comply with their recommendations. We asked how our guides slept at night, and they both answered that it was difficult but they believed that their presence as witnesses was better than not being there at all and they believed that they might have been preventing more harm by just witnessing the abuse of the settlers.

I cannot adequately describe the desperation of this scene. When we went into the Ibrahimi Mosque --which is now divided and has two separate entrances --one for Jews and one for Muslims and which is guarded by IDF soldiers, I felt sick to my stomache. Although there have been historical tensions between Muslims and Jews in this town, they have been made into a kind of war now, and the sorrow of going into a holy shrine that is sacred to both faiths, and to have pass through armed soldiers, and barbed wire, that was the worst. I believe, that even with my short period of ten days in Palestine, that the situation in Hebron is the worst symbol of Israeli support for settlements that can possibly be imagined. Having seen the absolute impoverishment of the community, the hundreds of boarded homes, welded shut by the IDF, seeing the settler children playing on IDF encampments, having sand thrown on us, this all speaks poorly of what the American support for settlements means for peace. This is a form of racism and a blatant support for discriminating against one population using the ideologically loaded notion of greater Israel. The TIPH guide told us that after what happened in Gaza when the settlers were forced to dismantle the settlements, the Israelis are loathe to give up settlements. Our guide Anna, said that the settlers use a "price tag policy" to justify their continued illegal settlements---which means, saying, that it will be more costly for Israel to dismantle the settlements because the settlers promise commit violence and destruction on the community if they're forced to leave. In the end, what this does is make Palestinians into a terrorized population that has no protection and who feel that they are living in a state of insecurity and violence that ultimately makes it impossible for them to have an integrated and whole West Bank due to the presence and protection of these expanding settlements. The settlements are a huge problem, and I became convinced of it after visiting Hebron and seeing how this is the method of colonizing the land. The settlement roads, which carry settlers to cities like Jerusalem and Haifa, are places where foreign Jews are encouraged to settle and they receive tax breaks, subsidized housing, and the protection of the Israeli army. This is not democracy folks. This is apartheid.

Listening to Palestinian women talk about how they had to dodge settler bullets, rocks, and verbal harassment to help their children get to school gave me shivers. I saw the house where one Palestinian woman helped school children pass through her house in order to avoid walking by an Israeli settlement. The house was shot at, and the staircase was destroyed by settlers. The school children had to be accompanied to school by international witnesses, and were at one point protected by the IDF. The house is no longer inhabitable. The woman who lived there could not take the harassment. Even after a sheet of Iran was welded to her front doorstep, the settlers bothered her and the children.

Hebronite Palestinian children play in the old city where they know the TIPH guides regularly patrol. 

Tell me, is this what we Americans should be supporting? I cannot sleep thinking of this poor community of Palestinians under siege, struggling to stay in their city, struggling to make a living, struggling to have their human rights. They are determined and resilient. But they are also tired. They have what Dr. Nabil called "occupation fatigue."

For more, follow these two excellent NGOs that are working to record settlement harassment: Christian Peacemakers: http://www.cpt.org/work/palestine and Temporary International Presence in Hebron: http://www.tiph.org/filestore/TIPH-leaflet-english_lowres.pdf. Please support these organizations. The work they're doing is critical to defending human rights in the West Bank.