March 27, 2011
The ‘A-Word’ in Hebron
Letty Cottin Pogrebin in Forward:
Since the 1970s, radical settlers have been reclaiming properties in Hebron that were owned by Jews prior to the establishment of the state in 1948. Today, there are signs everywhere proclaiming the settlers’ God-given right to the city, citing the words of the Torah (“The children have returned to their own border.” Jeremiah 31:17) and recalling the 1929 massacre of 66 Jews by their Arab neighbors.
I saw no mention of the 1994 massacre that took place at the Ibrahimi Mosque in the Tomb of the Patriarchs, where Baruch Goldstein, an American-born Israeli doctor, opened fire on Muslim worshippers, killing 29 and wounding 125. When the streets of Hebron erupted with rage, the Israel Defense Forces imposed a curfew on the Palestinians, confining them to their homes for all but a few hours a day to buy food.
First we’re massacred, then we’re punished, was the incensed Palestinian response. Why not put the Jewish extremists under curfew? Why does the burden of Jewish security always fall on us?
More here.
Posted by S. Abbas Raza at 04:39 AM | Permalink
Comments
Read the Israeli responses to this article and you will immediately understand why these people should not be living among the Palestinians beyond the 1967 boundaries. The vanguards of these settlements are racists and the occupation policy is one of supremacy.
Posted by: Erich | Mar 27, 2011 5:45:41 PM
Hebron is a damned place of many massacres; the settlers that are living now in Hebron are living in the houses of the Jews massacred by Arabs in 1929; the racism exist on the both sides and the Hebrons Arab habitants will not allow someone that is Jew to live there. They will not allow a fanatic Jewish settler neither a Jewish Peace Now voter (as myself).If possible, the Jews will be Killed as 1929:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1929_Hebron_massacre
The Baruch Goldstein act was the terror of a single mad man, the 1929 massacre (67 dead; men,women,children) was a collective act of the majority of the Arabs of Hebron.
In the same time, even that the presence of the Jewish zealot settlers is a legitimate act of the freedom (to live where you want in your private property),they are an expensive source of trouble and concern for the Israeli security forces. It is a real nightmare to guard a couple of buildings and the settlers families (the number is officially 700 but the true stand under 76 families) against an hostile and fanatical population of 120000 Arabs (under Palestinian Authority) and of 30000 (under Israeli control).
The Jewish settlers have to be evacuated by Israel and walls to the sky have to be built to separate Israel of Hebron and of Palestinian state. However this will be possible only when peace (or the farewell of arms) will start; and for the time being rockets are pouring from Gaza over Israeli cities.
So in summer we will have not peace, but an army operation in Gaza...
It is easier to lead men to combat, stirring up their passions, than to restrain them and direct them toward the patient labors of peace. ~André Gide, Journals, 13 September 1938
Posted by: Mirel | Mar 28, 2011 2:05:01 PM
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