2 mar 2014
By Hanan Ashrawi
Hanan Ashrawi is a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestinian Liberation Organization and head of the PLO Department of Culture and Information.
Twenty years ago this week, a Brooklyn-born Israeli settler named Baruch Goldstein walked into the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron and opened fire with his army-issued assault rifle, killing 29 Palestinians and wounding 150 others.
In the following days, Israeli soldiers shot and killed at least 20 more Palestinians and injured hundreds of others as protests erupted across the occupied territories.
The Israeli government convened a commission of inquiry that found Goldstein had acted alone and deemed there was no deeper problem, despite repeated warning signs that he posed a serious danger prior to the massacre. A year later a Jewish extremist and admirer of Goldstein assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in an attempt to stop the peace process.
Goldstein and Rabin's killer, Yigal Amir, were both followers of the notorious Rabbi Meir Kahane. Kahane, a fellow Brooklynite of Goldstein's who advocated a Greater Israel and the expulsion of all Arabs from Israel and the occupied territories, founded the Jewish Defense League in New York before immigrating to Israel in the early 1970s where he formed the Kach political party.
At the time of Kahane's assassination in 1990, Kach had been barred from Israeli politics for its overt racism and extremism.
After Goldstein's bloody rampage the Israeli government outlawed Kach as a terrorist organization along with offshoots like Kahane Chai, as did the U.S. Yet, two decades later, the extreme right-wing, anti-Arab racist ideas espoused by Goldstein and his mentor Kahane, which deeply alarmed many in Israel's ruling elite at the time, have moved into the mainstream of Israeli politics and society.
Kahane has become a folk hero to many on Israel's right, for whom "Kahane was right" has become a popular slogan. Equally disturbing is the veneration of the mass murderer Goldstein by some.
Although generally not as horrifically lethal as the events of Feb. 25, 1994, settler violence against Palestinians has risen steadily in the intervening years, particularly over the last few. So-called "price tag attacks" against Palestinians and their property, including holy sites, have become routine. A culture of hate has been encouraged by the impunity granted to Jewish extremists who attack Palestinians.
Meanwhile, settlers and Kahanists have risen to powerful positions in the government and a steady stream of racist laws directed at Palestinian citizens of Israel, who make up about 20 percent of the population, have been passed by the Israeli parliament. Numerous edicts from influential rabbis on the government payroll have been issued calling on Jews not to rent housing to Arabs, not to mix socially or romantically with non-Jews, and even condoning the murder of non-Jewish children and babies on the grounds they might grow up to pose a threat to Jews and the state.
Last year, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who frequently complains of alleged Palestinian incitement and glorification of "terrorists," appointed Moshe Feiglin of his Likud party to be a deputy speaker of the Israeli parliament. A few weeks earlier, the ultra-rightist who advocates paying Palestinians to leave Israel and the occupied territories and was once considered on the fringes of the party, told an interviewer: "I can definitely say that the slogan 'Kahane tzadak -- Kahane was right' has proven itself many times."
Netanyahu's foreign minister and leader of the Yisrael Beiteinu party, Avigdor Lieberman, was briefly a member of Kach decades ago and still espouses views that echo Kahane's. Following the death last fall of the racist spiritual leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, who declared that non-Jews "were born only to serve us ... only to serve the People of Israel," and ruled that Jewish doctors shouldn't treat non-Jews on the Sabbath, even if the situation is life threatening, Netanyahu lauded him as "one of the great Torah sages of our generation." President Shimon Peres called Yosef "my teacher, my rabbi, my friend."
The third largest party in Israel, The Jewish Home, which sits in Netanyahu's coalition government, is led and supported by far-right Jewish nationalists and fundamentalists like party leader and Minister of Religious Services Naftali Bennett, Deputy Minister for Religious Services Rabbi Eli Ben Dahan, and Rabbi Dov Lior, head of the West Bank settler rabbi council and chief rabbi of the settlement of Kiryat Arba, where Goldstein lived.
In elaborating on his opposition to same sex and inter-religious marriage, in late December Ben Dahan told an interviewer that "a Jew always has a much higher soul than a gentile, even if he's gay." Lior, who has an appalling history of virulently racist statements and religious rulings against Arabs and others, is one of the most influential figures in the religious Zionist movement.
Following Goldstein's killing spree, Lior praised him as "holier than all the martyrs of the Holocaust." He was also reportedly the source of religious rulings judging Rabin a traitor to Jews, providing the theological justification for his murder.
Given all this and much more, it's no surprise that Netanyahu refuses the request of the US and Palestinian negotiators to re-establish the trilateral committee on incitement created during the 1990s under Oslo, preferring instead to make a show of dubious claims of Palestinian incitement in a cynical attempt to distract from the illegal actions and incitement of his own government and citizens.
Today, 20 years after Baruch Goldstein cut down so many innocent lives in a burst of hateful rage, the poisonous anti-Arab racism that turned him into a mass murderer is alive and well in Israel.
Hopefully, it won't take another similar tragedy to shake the world's conscience and turn empty words of condemnation into concrete action to protect the millions of Palestinians who live at the mercy of Israeli settlers and soldiers in the occupied territories.
Originally published in The Hill.
The views expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily reflect Ma'an News Agency's editorial policy.
Hanan Ashrawi is a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestinian Liberation Organization and head of the PLO Department of Culture and Information.
Twenty years ago this week, a Brooklyn-born Israeli settler named Baruch Goldstein walked into the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron and opened fire with his army-issued assault rifle, killing 29 Palestinians and wounding 150 others.
In the following days, Israeli soldiers shot and killed at least 20 more Palestinians and injured hundreds of others as protests erupted across the occupied territories.
The Israeli government convened a commission of inquiry that found Goldstein had acted alone and deemed there was no deeper problem, despite repeated warning signs that he posed a serious danger prior to the massacre. A year later a Jewish extremist and admirer of Goldstein assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in an attempt to stop the peace process.
Goldstein and Rabin's killer, Yigal Amir, were both followers of the notorious Rabbi Meir Kahane. Kahane, a fellow Brooklynite of Goldstein's who advocated a Greater Israel and the expulsion of all Arabs from Israel and the occupied territories, founded the Jewish Defense League in New York before immigrating to Israel in the early 1970s where he formed the Kach political party.
At the time of Kahane's assassination in 1990, Kach had been barred from Israeli politics for its overt racism and extremism.
After Goldstein's bloody rampage the Israeli government outlawed Kach as a terrorist organization along with offshoots like Kahane Chai, as did the U.S. Yet, two decades later, the extreme right-wing, anti-Arab racist ideas espoused by Goldstein and his mentor Kahane, which deeply alarmed many in Israel's ruling elite at the time, have moved into the mainstream of Israeli politics and society.
Kahane has become a folk hero to many on Israel's right, for whom "Kahane was right" has become a popular slogan. Equally disturbing is the veneration of the mass murderer Goldstein by some.
Although generally not as horrifically lethal as the events of Feb. 25, 1994, settler violence against Palestinians has risen steadily in the intervening years, particularly over the last few. So-called "price tag attacks" against Palestinians and their property, including holy sites, have become routine. A culture of hate has been encouraged by the impunity granted to Jewish extremists who attack Palestinians.
Meanwhile, settlers and Kahanists have risen to powerful positions in the government and a steady stream of racist laws directed at Palestinian citizens of Israel, who make up about 20 percent of the population, have been passed by the Israeli parliament. Numerous edicts from influential rabbis on the government payroll have been issued calling on Jews not to rent housing to Arabs, not to mix socially or romantically with non-Jews, and even condoning the murder of non-Jewish children and babies on the grounds they might grow up to pose a threat to Jews and the state.
Last year, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who frequently complains of alleged Palestinian incitement and glorification of "terrorists," appointed Moshe Feiglin of his Likud party to be a deputy speaker of the Israeli parliament. A few weeks earlier, the ultra-rightist who advocates paying Palestinians to leave Israel and the occupied territories and was once considered on the fringes of the party, told an interviewer: "I can definitely say that the slogan 'Kahane tzadak -- Kahane was right' has proven itself many times."
Netanyahu's foreign minister and leader of the Yisrael Beiteinu party, Avigdor Lieberman, was briefly a member of Kach decades ago and still espouses views that echo Kahane's. Following the death last fall of the racist spiritual leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, who declared that non-Jews "were born only to serve us ... only to serve the People of Israel," and ruled that Jewish doctors shouldn't treat non-Jews on the Sabbath, even if the situation is life threatening, Netanyahu lauded him as "one of the great Torah sages of our generation." President Shimon Peres called Yosef "my teacher, my rabbi, my friend."
The third largest party in Israel, The Jewish Home, which sits in Netanyahu's coalition government, is led and supported by far-right Jewish nationalists and fundamentalists like party leader and Minister of Religious Services Naftali Bennett, Deputy Minister for Religious Services Rabbi Eli Ben Dahan, and Rabbi Dov Lior, head of the West Bank settler rabbi council and chief rabbi of the settlement of Kiryat Arba, where Goldstein lived.
In elaborating on his opposition to same sex and inter-religious marriage, in late December Ben Dahan told an interviewer that "a Jew always has a much higher soul than a gentile, even if he's gay." Lior, who has an appalling history of virulently racist statements and religious rulings against Arabs and others, is one of the most influential figures in the religious Zionist movement.
Following Goldstein's killing spree, Lior praised him as "holier than all the martyrs of the Holocaust." He was also reportedly the source of religious rulings judging Rabin a traitor to Jews, providing the theological justification for his murder.
Given all this and much more, it's no surprise that Netanyahu refuses the request of the US and Palestinian negotiators to re-establish the trilateral committee on incitement created during the 1990s under Oslo, preferring instead to make a show of dubious claims of Palestinian incitement in a cynical attempt to distract from the illegal actions and incitement of his own government and citizens.
Today, 20 years after Baruch Goldstein cut down so many innocent lives in a burst of hateful rage, the poisonous anti-Arab racism that turned him into a mass murderer is alive and well in Israel.
Hopefully, it won't take another similar tragedy to shake the world's conscience and turn empty words of condemnation into concrete action to protect the millions of Palestinians who live at the mercy of Israeli settlers and soldiers in the occupied territories.
Originally published in The Hill.
The views expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily reflect Ma'an News Agency's editorial policy.
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Some 2,000 Palestinians and international activists marched through Hebron on Feb. 21 to mark the anniversary of the Ibrahimi mosque massacre.
Protesters called for the re-opening of Shuhada street, a major thoroughfare that was closed by Israeli authorities after a US-born Jewish extremist killed 29 worshippers and injured 125 inside Hebron's Ibrahimi mosque in February 1994. Demonstrators were met with violence by Israeli soldiers, who maintain a heavy presence in Hebron's Old City near areas where around 500 Jewish settlers have taken over properties. |
28 feb 2014
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In the two decades that have passed since the murder of 29 people in The Cave of the Patriarchs, shops have closed, streets were deserted and the few remaining Palestinian residents lament apathy: 'The world carried on, but here nothing has changed.'
Early Sunday morning. The Abu Khadid family from Hebron begins renovating their shop on Shuhada Street – only a few dozen feet from the Cave of the Patriarchs. A short while later, a group of settlers from the Jewish part of the city arrive on the scene. |
Armed with plastic furniture, they set up two tables in front of the store's entry and unpack light refreshments. The goal of their visit: To block access to the shop, in protest of its renovation. IDF and police forces, who are well aware of the volatile atmosphere in the city, arrived almost instantly to see what was behind the improvised picnic, and formed a buffer between the two sides before things got out of hand.
A few minutes later, UN forces from the Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH) arrived, followed by more representatives from watchdog organizations – most of them unheard of by the Israeli public – like The Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) and Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT). Eventually, with the exception of a few swear words, the crisis was averted.
This bizarre mix of settlers, Palestinians, soldiers, policemen, UN forces and Scandinavian-looking observers, coexists in a territory of 50 square feet. This may seem like the opening line of a joke, but life in the H-2 territory, the Israeli controlled part of Hebron, over the last 20 years has been anything but a comic relief.
This was especially true on Wednesday, exactly two decades after Dr. Baruch Goldstein entered the Muslim prayer chamber in The Cave of the Patriarchs armed with an automatic rifle and opened fire. Twenty-nine Palestinians died and over a hundred were injured by the time the barrage of bullets had stopped, and Goldstein had been killed at the hands of his surviving victims. That fateful massacre changed the face of Hebron forever.
'We're the ones being punished'
Among the hundreds of worshipers who filled the prayer hall that deadly day was Kamal Al-Abadi, then 20-years-old, who worked in marketing for his family's shoes manufacturing business. Now he is in a wheelchair, after a bullet pierced his throat and damaged his spine. After sustaining the paralyzing wound, Al-Abadi lost consciousness and awoke only several months later, in Jordan.
“The Jordanian doctor arrived and told me I better get used to the fact I won't be able to walk anymore,” he recalled. From Israel, he said, he received a one-time compensation of NIS 100,000 ($ 28,400). He underwent physical therapy and now works as a clerk for the Palestinian Authority. He has devoted his life to promoting sports for the disabled and participates in international table tennis competition.
His city, on the other hand, never recovered. “We thought that the world would be on our side after the massacre, but we were the ones being punished again”.
It started with growing restrictions on Palestinians' freedom of movement, as well as the closing of some their shops in fear of additional vengeance. After the Second Intifada, the IDF increased its segregation policy, forcing many to close their main street shops, which were deserted by the residents in favor of other areas.
In the boulevard of closed shops lives Moped Sharabati. “We had a store which sold Hookahs and charcoal. The day of the massacre was the last day it was opened,” he said while chain-smoking and lying on a bed in the living room of his bleak home.
Until then, he claims, his five brothers lived in the adjacent houses and the shop was the source of the family's livelihood. “After the store closed, with the new and straining routine here, two of my brothers moved to the Palestinian part of Hebron and another brother moved to Ramallah”.
Have you also thought of leaving?
“I understand those who leave, but I will not buckle despite all the pressure. Somebody even offered us a check for NIS 1 million to evacuate our house”.
The two decades that have passed haven't filled him with much optimism. “The world carried on since that day, but here nothing changed. Our lives stopped,” he complains, sparing no criticism from the Palestinian Authority: “We receive no support from them”.
Rather die here
Khaled Khativ, a neighbor who joined the conversion at the Sharabati residence, tries to remain positive nonetheless. “In the first few years after the settlers arrived, our relationship (with them) was tolerable,” he claimed. “I thought they were interested in living peacefully together, but over the years they left and in their place came a group of extremists with whom we are having all this trouble.”
The rest of the people in the room interrupted him, claiming that no one moves to somebody else's territory with the intent to be neighborly. On one thing they could all agree: The massacre only strengthened the extremists on the Palestinian side and inspired suicide bombings inside Israel.
Again and again, the Palestinian residents described a feeling of abandonment. “Our lives became harder,” said Wadha Al-Bayed, an elderly woman, whose son Arafat was killed in the massacre.
According to her, The Red Cross used to hand out food to the needy, but had stopped doing so in recent years. Nowadays, she claims, only Hamas-owned charities continue to help. “That's also not enough,” she added. “Anyone with children has already left and moved somewhere else, but I've stayed. I'd rather die in this house.”
The walk back from her house to The Cave of the Patriarchs painted a depressing image: The streets were empty, the shops were closed and the entrance was blocked with metal bars covered with Stars of David graffiti as well as the word "Hamas" in Arabic.
The entrances that once connected the north and south sides of town are now sealed off with cement blocks, and the silence is interrupted only once in a while by the sounds of a settler's car, a military jeep or a vehicle belonging to a human rights organization, monitoring any interaction that could ignite the barrel of gunpowder, which is neatly referred to as H-2.
A few minutes later, UN forces from the Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH) arrived, followed by more representatives from watchdog organizations – most of them unheard of by the Israeli public – like The Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) and Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT). Eventually, with the exception of a few swear words, the crisis was averted.
This bizarre mix of settlers, Palestinians, soldiers, policemen, UN forces and Scandinavian-looking observers, coexists in a territory of 50 square feet. This may seem like the opening line of a joke, but life in the H-2 territory, the Israeli controlled part of Hebron, over the last 20 years has been anything but a comic relief.
This was especially true on Wednesday, exactly two decades after Dr. Baruch Goldstein entered the Muslim prayer chamber in The Cave of the Patriarchs armed with an automatic rifle and opened fire. Twenty-nine Palestinians died and over a hundred were injured by the time the barrage of bullets had stopped, and Goldstein had been killed at the hands of his surviving victims. That fateful massacre changed the face of Hebron forever.
'We're the ones being punished'
Among the hundreds of worshipers who filled the prayer hall that deadly day was Kamal Al-Abadi, then 20-years-old, who worked in marketing for his family's shoes manufacturing business. Now he is in a wheelchair, after a bullet pierced his throat and damaged his spine. After sustaining the paralyzing wound, Al-Abadi lost consciousness and awoke only several months later, in Jordan.
“The Jordanian doctor arrived and told me I better get used to the fact I won't be able to walk anymore,” he recalled. From Israel, he said, he received a one-time compensation of NIS 100,000 ($ 28,400). He underwent physical therapy and now works as a clerk for the Palestinian Authority. He has devoted his life to promoting sports for the disabled and participates in international table tennis competition.
His city, on the other hand, never recovered. “We thought that the world would be on our side after the massacre, but we were the ones being punished again”.
It started with growing restrictions on Palestinians' freedom of movement, as well as the closing of some their shops in fear of additional vengeance. After the Second Intifada, the IDF increased its segregation policy, forcing many to close their main street shops, which were deserted by the residents in favor of other areas.
In the boulevard of closed shops lives Moped Sharabati. “We had a store which sold Hookahs and charcoal. The day of the massacre was the last day it was opened,” he said while chain-smoking and lying on a bed in the living room of his bleak home.
Until then, he claims, his five brothers lived in the adjacent houses and the shop was the source of the family's livelihood. “After the store closed, with the new and straining routine here, two of my brothers moved to the Palestinian part of Hebron and another brother moved to Ramallah”.
Have you also thought of leaving?
“I understand those who leave, but I will not buckle despite all the pressure. Somebody even offered us a check for NIS 1 million to evacuate our house”.
The two decades that have passed haven't filled him with much optimism. “The world carried on since that day, but here nothing changed. Our lives stopped,” he complains, sparing no criticism from the Palestinian Authority: “We receive no support from them”.
Rather die here
Khaled Khativ, a neighbor who joined the conversion at the Sharabati residence, tries to remain positive nonetheless. “In the first few years after the settlers arrived, our relationship (with them) was tolerable,” he claimed. “I thought they were interested in living peacefully together, but over the years they left and in their place came a group of extremists with whom we are having all this trouble.”
The rest of the people in the room interrupted him, claiming that no one moves to somebody else's territory with the intent to be neighborly. On one thing they could all agree: The massacre only strengthened the extremists on the Palestinian side and inspired suicide bombings inside Israel.
Again and again, the Palestinian residents described a feeling of abandonment. “Our lives became harder,” said Wadha Al-Bayed, an elderly woman, whose son Arafat was killed in the massacre.
According to her, The Red Cross used to hand out food to the needy, but had stopped doing so in recent years. Nowadays, she claims, only Hamas-owned charities continue to help. “That's also not enough,” she added. “Anyone with children has already left and moved somewhere else, but I've stayed. I'd rather die in this house.”
The walk back from her house to The Cave of the Patriarchs painted a depressing image: The streets were empty, the shops were closed and the entrance was blocked with metal bars covered with Stars of David graffiti as well as the word "Hamas" in Arabic.
The entrances that once connected the north and south sides of town are now sealed off with cement blocks, and the silence is interrupted only once in a while by the sounds of a settler's car, a military jeep or a vehicle belonging to a human rights organization, monitoring any interaction that could ignite the barrel of gunpowder, which is neatly referred to as H-2.
25 feb 2014
Palestinians evacuate a man on February 25, 1994 wounded during the Hebron massacre
Twenty years on, the massacre of 29 Palestinians by a Jewish extremist as they prayed in Hebron's Ibrahimi mosque still haunts Mohammed Abu al-Halawa, a survivor who was left a paraplegic.
On Feb. 25, 1994, Brooklyn born settler Baruch Goldstein used an assault rifle to gun down worshipers in the Ibrahimi Mosque in the heart of Hebron, before he was beaten to death by those who escaped his hail of bullets.
Dozens of Palestinians were killed by Israeli security forces in West Bank protests following the massacre.
Abu al-Halawa, 53, resides a mere 400 meters from Goldstein's grave in the Kiryat Abra settlement where he had lived, adjoining Hebron's old city.
"I remember the massacre at every moment and am physically still affected by it -- it paralyzed me for life, and I'm still in a lot of pain and need regular medical treatment," he said from his wheelchair.
"It pains me whenever I see settlers dancing next to the grave of the criminal who left me disabled," he added, bitter that his attacker was still honored by some Jewish extremists.
And with a physical disability, the draconian security measures and checkpoints imposed by the occupying Israeli army on Hebron following the massacre are all the more arduous for Abu al-Halawa.
Hebron's main street was partially closed to Palestinians after the massacre, and six years later, at the outset of the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, the army declared it a "closed military zone," restricting Palestinian access to residents of the immediate area -- and then on foot only.
Last Friday, thousands took part in a protest to demand that Shuhada Street be reopened. At least 13 Palestinians were injured and five detained after Israeli forces violently dispersed the demonstrations.
The occupation is felt as strongly as ever today around the site of the 1994 massacre, and the security measures have put many worshipers off praying at the historic site.
Electronic gates, airport-style security and searches by soldiers of those heading to the Ibrahimi Mosque detract from any feeling of reverence, and the number of Muslims going to pray has diminished, according to local religious officials.
Adel Idris, who was the mosque's imam on the day of the massacre, remembers it vividly.
"I'll never forget what happened. Every day that I enter the shrine to pray I get flashbacks of the scene -- the criminal opening fire, the roar of the gun and screams of worshipers... that was an indescribably awful moment," he said.
Worship at the flashpoint site is split between the two faiths, with an area for Jews and one for Muslims.
The director of Hebron's Islamic religious affairs, Taysir Abu Sneineh, said that "entering the mosque to pray has become much more difficult since the massacre".
"They (the Israeli army) are punishing the victims!"
Goldstein was a member of a banned racist group, which advocates the forcible expulsion of all Palestinians from the biblical "Greater Israel".
Around 500 Israeli settlers live in Hebron's Old City, many of whom have illegally occupied Palestinian houses and forcibly removed the original inhabitants. They are protected by thousands of Israeli forces, and frequently harass local Palestinians.
A 1997 agreement split Hebron into areas of Palestinian and Israeli control.
The Israeli military-controlled H2 zone includes the ancient Old City, home of the revered Ibrahimi Mosque -- also split into a synagogue referred to as the Tomb of the Patriarchs -- and the once thriving Shuhada street, now just shuttered shops fronts and closed homes.
Twenty years on, the massacre of 29 Palestinians by a Jewish extremist as they prayed in Hebron's Ibrahimi mosque still haunts Mohammed Abu al-Halawa, a survivor who was left a paraplegic.
On Feb. 25, 1994, Brooklyn born settler Baruch Goldstein used an assault rifle to gun down worshipers in the Ibrahimi Mosque in the heart of Hebron, before he was beaten to death by those who escaped his hail of bullets.
Dozens of Palestinians were killed by Israeli security forces in West Bank protests following the massacre.
Abu al-Halawa, 53, resides a mere 400 meters from Goldstein's grave in the Kiryat Abra settlement where he had lived, adjoining Hebron's old city.
"I remember the massacre at every moment and am physically still affected by it -- it paralyzed me for life, and I'm still in a lot of pain and need regular medical treatment," he said from his wheelchair.
"It pains me whenever I see settlers dancing next to the grave of the criminal who left me disabled," he added, bitter that his attacker was still honored by some Jewish extremists.
And with a physical disability, the draconian security measures and checkpoints imposed by the occupying Israeli army on Hebron following the massacre are all the more arduous for Abu al-Halawa.
Hebron's main street was partially closed to Palestinians after the massacre, and six years later, at the outset of the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, the army declared it a "closed military zone," restricting Palestinian access to residents of the immediate area -- and then on foot only.
Last Friday, thousands took part in a protest to demand that Shuhada Street be reopened. At least 13 Palestinians were injured and five detained after Israeli forces violently dispersed the demonstrations.
The occupation is felt as strongly as ever today around the site of the 1994 massacre, and the security measures have put many worshipers off praying at the historic site.
Electronic gates, airport-style security and searches by soldiers of those heading to the Ibrahimi Mosque detract from any feeling of reverence, and the number of Muslims going to pray has diminished, according to local religious officials.
Adel Idris, who was the mosque's imam on the day of the massacre, remembers it vividly.
"I'll never forget what happened. Every day that I enter the shrine to pray I get flashbacks of the scene -- the criminal opening fire, the roar of the gun and screams of worshipers... that was an indescribably awful moment," he said.
Worship at the flashpoint site is split between the two faiths, with an area for Jews and one for Muslims.
The director of Hebron's Islamic religious affairs, Taysir Abu Sneineh, said that "entering the mosque to pray has become much more difficult since the massacre".
"They (the Israeli army) are punishing the victims!"
Goldstein was a member of a banned racist group, which advocates the forcible expulsion of all Palestinians from the biblical "Greater Israel".
Around 500 Israeli settlers live in Hebron's Old City, many of whom have illegally occupied Palestinian houses and forcibly removed the original inhabitants. They are protected by thousands of Israeli forces, and frequently harass local Palestinians.
A 1997 agreement split Hebron into areas of Palestinian and Israeli control.
The Israeli military-controlled H2 zone includes the ancient Old City, home of the revered Ibrahimi Mosque -- also split into a synagogue referred to as the Tomb of the Patriarchs -- and the once thriving Shuhada street, now just shuttered shops fronts and closed homes.
Hamas movement warned the Israeli occupation of the repercussions of continuing the war against the city of al-Khalil and the Ibrahimi mosque. Hamas stressed that the occupation's attempts to impose a fait accompli in the city will not succeed in obliterating its historical facts, adding that the Palestinians will never give up their land and holy places.
It said in a statement on Tuesday that the crimes of the Israeli forces and settlers against the Palestinian people, their land and sanctities will not be subjected to a statute of limitations, and that the criminals will not escape punishment.
The movement also emphasized its absolute rejection of any agreement that leads to relinquishing the Palestinian rights, constants and sanctities. "Our steadfast people will continue to resist the occupation and its plans until the liberation of the land and the holy sites and the achievement of the right of return”, it said.
Hamas called on the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Jerusalem and the 1948 occupied territories to continue to confront the occupation until defeating it.
Tuesday marks the 20th anniversary of the massacre of the Ibrahimi mosque in al-Khalil city which claimed the lives of 29 worshipers and wounded 150 others, and which was committed in 1994 by Baruch Goldstein, with the participation of the occupation forces and settlers from Kiryat Arba settlement.
After the massacre, the Israeli soldiers closed the doors of the mosque to prevent worshipers from escaping and prevented citizens from entering the mosque to rescue the wounded, bringing the total number of martyrs to 50.
On the same day, the city of al-Khalil and all Palestinian cities witnessed tension and clashes with the Israeli soldiers, and the number of those killed reached 60 martyrs.
The occupation forces closed the Ibrahimi mosque and the Old City for six months on the grounds of investigating the crime. They formed the Shamgar committee to investigate the massacre and its causes.
The committee came up with several recommendations, including the division of the Ibrahimi mosque into two parts; 40% for Muslims and 60% under the Jewish sovereignty, and placed security guards on the mosque in an attempt to control it.
The occupation authority then installed 26 cameras and electronic gates at all the mosque's entrances and closed most of the roads leading to it, except for one on which it has imposed tight security measures.
It said in a statement on Tuesday that the crimes of the Israeli forces and settlers against the Palestinian people, their land and sanctities will not be subjected to a statute of limitations, and that the criminals will not escape punishment.
The movement also emphasized its absolute rejection of any agreement that leads to relinquishing the Palestinian rights, constants and sanctities. "Our steadfast people will continue to resist the occupation and its plans until the liberation of the land and the holy sites and the achievement of the right of return”, it said.
Hamas called on the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Jerusalem and the 1948 occupied territories to continue to confront the occupation until defeating it.
Tuesday marks the 20th anniversary of the massacre of the Ibrahimi mosque in al-Khalil city which claimed the lives of 29 worshipers and wounded 150 others, and which was committed in 1994 by Baruch Goldstein, with the participation of the occupation forces and settlers from Kiryat Arba settlement.
After the massacre, the Israeli soldiers closed the doors of the mosque to prevent worshipers from escaping and prevented citizens from entering the mosque to rescue the wounded, bringing the total number of martyrs to 50.
On the same day, the city of al-Khalil and all Palestinian cities witnessed tension and clashes with the Israeli soldiers, and the number of those killed reached 60 martyrs.
The occupation forces closed the Ibrahimi mosque and the Old City for six months on the grounds of investigating the crime. They formed the Shamgar committee to investigate the massacre and its causes.
The committee came up with several recommendations, including the division of the Ibrahimi mosque into two parts; 40% for Muslims and 60% under the Jewish sovereignty, and placed security guards on the mosque in an attempt to control it.
The occupation authority then installed 26 cameras and electronic gates at all the mosque's entrances and closed most of the roads leading to it, except for one on which it has imposed tight security measures.
Six Palestinian citizens were wounded including four journalists when Israeli occupation forces (IOF) opened fire at a peaceful demonstration east of Gaza city afternoon Tuesday. Local sources told the PIC reporter that the IOF soldiers fired live bullets and teargas at dozens of young men who demonstrated near the border fence in memory of the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre in Al-Khalil.
The youths raised Palestinian flags and placards denouncing occupation and its crimes against the Palestinian people.
The media forum said that four journalists were injured in the shooting including one with a bullet in his left knee, another in his foot, a third was hit with a teargas canister in his hand, and the fourth was treated for suffocation.
3 injured in Gaza clashes on massacre anniversary
Three Palestinian men were injured and others suffered from excessive tear gas inhalation during clashes with Israeli forces east of Gaza City on Tuesday, an official said.
Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said that three people in Nahal Oz were injured, one of whom was a journalist.
The three were taken to the hospital with moderate injuries, al-Qidra said.
Clashes broke out after dozens of people from the Intifada Youth Coalition rallied to demonstrate on the anniversary of the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre.
An Israeli army spokeswoman said that forces fired at Palestinians who approached a security fence despite instructions from Israeli forces to turn back. She said they identified direct hits.
On Feb. 25, 1994, a Jewish extremist entered Hebron's Ibrahimi Mosque and opened fire, killing 29 worshipers and injuring 125.
The youths raised Palestinian flags and placards denouncing occupation and its crimes against the Palestinian people.
The media forum said that four journalists were injured in the shooting including one with a bullet in his left knee, another in his foot, a third was hit with a teargas canister in his hand, and the fourth was treated for suffocation.
3 injured in Gaza clashes on massacre anniversary
Three Palestinian men were injured and others suffered from excessive tear gas inhalation during clashes with Israeli forces east of Gaza City on Tuesday, an official said.
Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said that three people in Nahal Oz were injured, one of whom was a journalist.
The three were taken to the hospital with moderate injuries, al-Qidra said.
Clashes broke out after dozens of people from the Intifada Youth Coalition rallied to demonstrate on the anniversary of the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre.
An Israeli army spokeswoman said that forces fired at Palestinians who approached a security fence despite instructions from Israeli forces to turn back. She said they identified direct hits.
On Feb. 25, 1994, a Jewish extremist entered Hebron's Ibrahimi Mosque and opened fire, killing 29 worshipers and injuring 125.
23 feb 2014
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The streets of central Hebron filled with protesters on Friday afternoon as around 2,000 Palestinian and international activists marked the 20th anniversary of the Ibrahimi mosque massacre.
Protesters marched through the southern West Bank city calling for the re-opening of Shuhada Street, a major thoroughfare that was closed by Israeli forces in the wake of the 1994 killing of 29 Palestinian worshipers by an armed Jewish extremist. Demonstrators were met with violence by Israeli soldiers, who maintain a heavy presence in Hebron's Old City near areas where around 500 Jewish settlers have taken over properties. Protesters marched from Sheikh Ali al-Bakaa mosque towards the eastern entrance of |
Shuhada street, but Israeli forces began firing stun grenades and tear gas canisters at demonstrators as they reached Bab al-Baladiya area, organizers said.
Shuhada street was once a major thoroughfare in central Hebron, but after the 1994 massacre Israeli forces shut it to Palestinian traffic under the pretext of preventing reprisal attacks against settlers in the city. The street was never again reopened.
According to Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, by 2007 over 40 percent of the area's Palestinian homes had been abandoned and three-quarters of commercial establishments had shut down to the severe difficulties they faced as a result of the street closure and checkpoints.
An activist campaign to "Open Shuhada Street" is now in its fifth year, but Israeli authorities have so far refused to do so.
Clashes broke out following the protests, turning Hebron's center into a battleground for hours on Friday afternoon.
Coordinator for the activist group Youths against Settlements Issa Amro said that Israeli forces chased protesters into the Bab al-Zawya neighborhood and fired rubber-coated steel bullets, injuring 13.
Five other protesters were detained by Israeli forces over the course of the clashes, including Badee al-Dweik, Tamer al-Atrash, Mohammad Zughayyer, Farid al-Atrash, and Issa Amro himself.
Shuhada street was once a major thoroughfare in central Hebron, but after the 1994 massacre Israeli forces shut it to Palestinian traffic under the pretext of preventing reprisal attacks against settlers in the city. The street was never again reopened.
According to Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, by 2007 over 40 percent of the area's Palestinian homes had been abandoned and three-quarters of commercial establishments had shut down to the severe difficulties they faced as a result of the street closure and checkpoints.
An activist campaign to "Open Shuhada Street" is now in its fifth year, but Israeli authorities have so far refused to do so.
Clashes broke out following the protests, turning Hebron's center into a battleground for hours on Friday afternoon.
Coordinator for the activist group Youths against Settlements Issa Amro said that Israeli forces chased protesters into the Bab al-Zawya neighborhood and fired rubber-coated steel bullets, injuring 13.
Five other protesters were detained by Israeli forces over the course of the clashes, including Badee al-Dweik, Tamer al-Atrash, Mohammad Zughayyer, Farid al-Atrash, and Issa Amro himself.
The streets of central Hebron filled with protesters, on Friday afternoon, as around 2,000 Palestinian and international activists marked the 20th anniversary of the Ibrahimi mosque massacre.
Protesters marched through the southern West Bank city calling for the re-opening of Shuhada Street, a major thoroughfare that was closed by Israeli forces in the wake of the 1994 killing of 29 Palestinian worshipers by an armed assailant.
Demonstrators were met with violence by Israeli soldiers, who maintain a heavy presence in Hebron's Old City near areas where around 500 Jewish settlers have taken over properties.
Protesters marched through the southern West Bank city calling for the re-opening of Shuhada Street, a major thoroughfare that was closed by Israeli forces in the wake of the 1994 killing of 29 Palestinian worshipers by an armed assailant.
Demonstrators were met with violence by Israeli soldiers, who maintain a heavy presence in Hebron's Old City near areas where around 500 Jewish settlers have taken over properties.
21 feb 2014
The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) violently attacked on Friday afternoon peaceful Palestinian protestors in Al-Khalil city marking the 19th anniversary of the massacre of the Ibrahimi Mosque. The protestors also demanded the Israeli occupation authority to reopen Al-Shuhada'a street, which has been closed since 1994 in the wake of the massacre.
The IOF fired a hail of tear gas grenades and rubber bullets randomly to disperse the Palestinian rally and physically attacked several demonstrators. Several injuries took place.
Israeli soldiers detained Ibrahim Al-Heih after beating him and a family of eight members was rushed to hospital after two tear gas canisters fell into their apartment, according to eyewitnesses.
A tear gas grenade also exploded inside a home in the Jabal Juhar area, injuring several family members. The Ibrahimi Mosque massacre was a shooting attack carried out by American-born Jewish settler Baruch Goldstein, a member of the extremist Israeli Kach movement, who opened fire on unarmed Palestinian Muslims praying inside the Mosque on February 25, 1994.
The IOF fired a hail of tear gas grenades and rubber bullets randomly to disperse the Palestinian rally and physically attacked several demonstrators. Several injuries took place.
Israeli soldiers detained Ibrahim Al-Heih after beating him and a family of eight members was rushed to hospital after two tear gas canisters fell into their apartment, according to eyewitnesses.
A tear gas grenade also exploded inside a home in the Jabal Juhar area, injuring several family members. The Ibrahimi Mosque massacre was a shooting attack carried out by American-born Jewish settler Baruch Goldstein, a member of the extremist Israeli Kach movement, who opened fire on unarmed Palestinian Muslims praying inside the Mosque on February 25, 1994.
24 feb 2012
By Khalid Amayreh in occupied Palestine
On the 25th of February, 1994, as hundreds of Muslim worshipers were performing the dawn prayer at the Ibrahimi Mosque in downtown Hebron, a Jewish-American terrorist by the name of Baruch Goldstein descended onto the mosque from the nearby settlement of Kiryat Arbaa, spraying the worshipers with machinegun bullets, killing at least 29 people and injuring many others.
The terrorist, who used his army-issued Galilion rifle, wanted to kill as many innocent people as possible in order to create mass terror throughout the city, the largest in the West Bank. His motive was to thoroughly terrorize the Arabs, who constitute 99.5% of the city's population.
The Israeli occupation authorities, who had to tackle a public relations disaster, denied any complicity or collusion with the perpetrator.
Israeli officials, including then Prime Minister Isaac Rabin claimed the massacre was thunder on a clear day. However, it was hard to believe that the terrorist could not have reached the heavily-protected premises of the huge compound without some connivance with the strong Israeli army garrison at the site.
Goldstein himself was eventually overpowered and killed by survivors, fearing he would still kill more worshipers. Many settler leaders had the audacity to demand the arrest and prosecution of those responsible for Goldstein's death.
Many Jewish religious leaders praised the mass murderer, calling him a great saint and hero. Eventually, a monument perpetuating his memory was erected in Kiryat Arbaa and Jewish pilgrims from as far as California came to pay their respects to and be blessed by the tomb.
Goldstein was also eulogized by many rabbis and Torah sages who heaped praise on him, arguing that a thousand Gentile or Goyem were not worth a Jew's fingernail.
One rabbi, when asked about the religious admissibility of murdering innocent non-Jewish people, said he was not only sorry about the death of innocent Arabs but that he was also sorry about the death of innocent flies!!!
Following the bloodbath, the Israeli government carried out a huge public relations campaign aimed at convincing western especially American public opinion that the Israeli government played no part in the carnage.
Israeli officials argued that Israel and most Jews were dismayed by the criminal act as much as anyone else.
However, polls in Israel and abroad showed that a majority of Jews, including Israeli high school students, enthusiastically supported the evil deed. Moreover, subsequent measures taken against the Palestinians as well as the excessive leniency toward settlers, who hailed the massacre, suggested the government was indifferent toward the massacre and behaved as if the lives of non-Jews were worthless.
No thunder on clear day
The claim that the massacre surprised the Israeli government was too fabulous and disingenuous to be believed. In truth, the massacre was preceded by a poisoned campaign of incitement against the Palestinians by Talmudic circles.
Goldstein was affiliated with the religious Zionist school of thought as taught by Abraham Kook.
According to the authors of "Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel," Israel Shahak and Norton Mezvinsky (Pluto Press, 1999), Kook is quoted as saying that "the differences between a Jewish soul and souls of non-Jews -all of them in all different levels- is greater and deeper than the differences between a human soul and the souls of cattle."
And, according to some torah sages, the difference between Jews and Gentiles is not religious or political. It is rather racial, genetic, and scientifically unalterable.
One group is at its very root and by its very nature "totally evil." While the other is "totally good." Some rabbinic circles with which the killer Goldstein was closely affiliated would quote heavily from the Talmud and Old Testament, justifying genocidal treatment of non-Jews in general and Palestinians in particular.
Goldstein was a follower of the manifestly racist rabbi Meir Kahana, who believed in the necessity of ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from the River Jordan to the Mediterranean. In 1978, he wrote a book entitled "They Must Go." Fourteen years later, following a speech in a New York City hotel, in which he called for uprooting all Palestinians from Palestine-Israel, Kahana was assassinated.
(60 Minutes Rabbi MEIR KAHANE)
On the 25th of February, 1994, as hundreds of Muslim worshipers were performing the dawn prayer at the Ibrahimi Mosque in downtown Hebron, a Jewish-American terrorist by the name of Baruch Goldstein descended onto the mosque from the nearby settlement of Kiryat Arbaa, spraying the worshipers with machinegun bullets, killing at least 29 people and injuring many others.
The terrorist, who used his army-issued Galilion rifle, wanted to kill as many innocent people as possible in order to create mass terror throughout the city, the largest in the West Bank. His motive was to thoroughly terrorize the Arabs, who constitute 99.5% of the city's population.
The Israeli occupation authorities, who had to tackle a public relations disaster, denied any complicity or collusion with the perpetrator.
Israeli officials, including then Prime Minister Isaac Rabin claimed the massacre was thunder on a clear day. However, it was hard to believe that the terrorist could not have reached the heavily-protected premises of the huge compound without some connivance with the strong Israeli army garrison at the site.
Goldstein himself was eventually overpowered and killed by survivors, fearing he would still kill more worshipers. Many settler leaders had the audacity to demand the arrest and prosecution of those responsible for Goldstein's death.
Many Jewish religious leaders praised the mass murderer, calling him a great saint and hero. Eventually, a monument perpetuating his memory was erected in Kiryat Arbaa and Jewish pilgrims from as far as California came to pay their respects to and be blessed by the tomb.
Goldstein was also eulogized by many rabbis and Torah sages who heaped praise on him, arguing that a thousand Gentile or Goyem were not worth a Jew's fingernail.
One rabbi, when asked about the religious admissibility of murdering innocent non-Jewish people, said he was not only sorry about the death of innocent Arabs but that he was also sorry about the death of innocent flies!!!
Following the bloodbath, the Israeli government carried out a huge public relations campaign aimed at convincing western especially American public opinion that the Israeli government played no part in the carnage.
Israeli officials argued that Israel and most Jews were dismayed by the criminal act as much as anyone else.
However, polls in Israel and abroad showed that a majority of Jews, including Israeli high school students, enthusiastically supported the evil deed. Moreover, subsequent measures taken against the Palestinians as well as the excessive leniency toward settlers, who hailed the massacre, suggested the government was indifferent toward the massacre and behaved as if the lives of non-Jews were worthless.
No thunder on clear day
The claim that the massacre surprised the Israeli government was too fabulous and disingenuous to be believed. In truth, the massacre was preceded by a poisoned campaign of incitement against the Palestinians by Talmudic circles.
Goldstein was affiliated with the religious Zionist school of thought as taught by Abraham Kook.
According to the authors of "Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel," Israel Shahak and Norton Mezvinsky (Pluto Press, 1999), Kook is quoted as saying that "the differences between a Jewish soul and souls of non-Jews -all of them in all different levels- is greater and deeper than the differences between a human soul and the souls of cattle."
And, according to some torah sages, the difference between Jews and Gentiles is not religious or political. It is rather racial, genetic, and scientifically unalterable.
One group is at its very root and by its very nature "totally evil." While the other is "totally good." Some rabbinic circles with which the killer Goldstein was closely affiliated would quote heavily from the Talmud and Old Testament, justifying genocidal treatment of non-Jews in general and Palestinians in particular.
Goldstein was a follower of the manifestly racist rabbi Meir Kahana, who believed in the necessity of ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from the River Jordan to the Mediterranean. In 1978, he wrote a book entitled "They Must Go." Fourteen years later, following a speech in a New York City hotel, in which he called for uprooting all Palestinians from Palestine-Israel, Kahana was assassinated.
(60 Minutes Rabbi MEIR KAHANE)
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Today, 18 years later, While Goldstein himself no longer exists, "Goldsteinism", e.g. anti-Palestinian hatred and vindictiveness, is alive and well among the settlers.
A few years ago, Daniella Weiss, a settler leader, visited Hebron to encourage settler squatters, who had taken over an Arab property in the city, to resist government efforts to vacate them.
Weiss, a former mayor of a northern West Bank settlement, quoted extensively from the Old Testament verses urging the ancient Israelites to slaughter every man, woman and child and not leave a breathing thing. According to Weiss, "this is the only way to deal with the Arabs."
Following the massacre, the Israeli occupation army put, all of Hebron, the Arabs, not the settlers, under the harshest and longest curfew ever imposed since the onset of the occupation in 1967.
So cruel was it that several residents succumbed to their illness because they were denied access to local hospitals. Israeli officials argued rather dishonestly that the curfew was justified by "the security situation." However, it was clear, at least from the Palestinian view point that the main purpose behind the extended lockdown was to push as many Palestinians in the Old Town as possible to leave their homes in order to facilitate the coveted takeover of these homes by Jewish settlers.
Needless to say, these fears and suspicions have since been validated and thoroughly vindicated.
The Shamgar commission, a board of inquiry appointed by the Israeli government to investigate the circumstances surrounding the massacre, concluded that the Israeli occupation authorities had consistently failed to investigate let alone prosecute crimes committed by settlers against Palestinians.
But perhaps it was a local military commander Noam Tivon who said it most honestly when he told the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz: "Let there be no mistake about it. I am not from the U.N., I am from the IDF and I didn't come here to seek people to drink tea with, but first of all to ensure the security of the Jewish settlers."
It is probably safe to say that the overall situation in Hebron as well the rest of the occupied territories is very much similar to what was the situation on the eve of the Ibrahimi mosque massacre 18 years ago.
Jewish terrorists, otherwise called settlers, routinely vandalize Muslim and to a lesser extent Christian houses of worship and scrawl racist graffiti on their walls, insulting religious symbols of both religions,
In addition, the settlers regularly storm the Aqsa Mosque with heavy protection from the Israeli army and police. This gives the fanatical settlers a feeling of empowerment, which emboldens them to commit acts of terror, vandalism, and even murder against the Palestinians, without risking arrest and prosecution by an inherently unfair justice system that ipso facto discriminates against non-Jews.
Had the Ibrahimi Mosque carnage been committed in any other country, the government would have at the very least vacated the harmful settlers.
However, far from doing such a step, the Israeli government actually acted to strengthen the settler presence in Hebron while doing everything possible to harass the native Palestinians and push them to leave.
More importantly, the Israeli occupation authorities resorted to draconian measures against the Palestinians very presence in the old town. This brings us to the Shuhada Street where Palestinian traffic and even Palestinian individuals are off limit to the central thoroughfare which links the Bab El Zawiya district, the commercial heart of the city, to the eastern and southern suburbs as well as the neighboring smaller towns such as Yatta and Dura.
Some of the buildings abutting the street on both sides go back to the British and Ottoman eras. In recent years, efforts were made to rehabilitate the street. However, Jewish settlers fought the project, breaking street lights and the paving stones, as well as hurling stones at the workers.
Today Shuhada Street is a ghost scene. Only Israeli settlers, soldiers and foreign tourists are allowed to access it. And what they see is anti-Arab graffiti sprayed or scrawled across the streets. Some of this graffiti is particularly ugly, such as "kill the Arabs" and "Arabs to the gas chambers."
More bizarre are the metal mesh cages that enclose the balconies of houses where Palestinians continue to live. For these Palestinians to exit their homes -the Israelis have bolted their outside doors- they have to use dangerous ladders, or crawl out the windows in the back of their apartments and go from roof to roof.
Needless to say, the impact of all this harassment is calculated by both the settlers and the Israeli political-security establishment to make the daily life of Palestinians living in Old Hebron, especially along Shuhada Street, an enduring nightmare. And it has.
A few years ago, Daniella Weiss, a settler leader, visited Hebron to encourage settler squatters, who had taken over an Arab property in the city, to resist government efforts to vacate them.
Weiss, a former mayor of a northern West Bank settlement, quoted extensively from the Old Testament verses urging the ancient Israelites to slaughter every man, woman and child and not leave a breathing thing. According to Weiss, "this is the only way to deal with the Arabs."
Following the massacre, the Israeli occupation army put, all of Hebron, the Arabs, not the settlers, under the harshest and longest curfew ever imposed since the onset of the occupation in 1967.
So cruel was it that several residents succumbed to their illness because they were denied access to local hospitals. Israeli officials argued rather dishonestly that the curfew was justified by "the security situation." However, it was clear, at least from the Palestinian view point that the main purpose behind the extended lockdown was to push as many Palestinians in the Old Town as possible to leave their homes in order to facilitate the coveted takeover of these homes by Jewish settlers.
Needless to say, these fears and suspicions have since been validated and thoroughly vindicated.
The Shamgar commission, a board of inquiry appointed by the Israeli government to investigate the circumstances surrounding the massacre, concluded that the Israeli occupation authorities had consistently failed to investigate let alone prosecute crimes committed by settlers against Palestinians.
But perhaps it was a local military commander Noam Tivon who said it most honestly when he told the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz: "Let there be no mistake about it. I am not from the U.N., I am from the IDF and I didn't come here to seek people to drink tea with, but first of all to ensure the security of the Jewish settlers."
It is probably safe to say that the overall situation in Hebron as well the rest of the occupied territories is very much similar to what was the situation on the eve of the Ibrahimi mosque massacre 18 years ago.
Jewish terrorists, otherwise called settlers, routinely vandalize Muslim and to a lesser extent Christian houses of worship and scrawl racist graffiti on their walls, insulting religious symbols of both religions,
In addition, the settlers regularly storm the Aqsa Mosque with heavy protection from the Israeli army and police. This gives the fanatical settlers a feeling of empowerment, which emboldens them to commit acts of terror, vandalism, and even murder against the Palestinians, without risking arrest and prosecution by an inherently unfair justice system that ipso facto discriminates against non-Jews.
Had the Ibrahimi Mosque carnage been committed in any other country, the government would have at the very least vacated the harmful settlers.
However, far from doing such a step, the Israeli government actually acted to strengthen the settler presence in Hebron while doing everything possible to harass the native Palestinians and push them to leave.
More importantly, the Israeli occupation authorities resorted to draconian measures against the Palestinians very presence in the old town. This brings us to the Shuhada Street where Palestinian traffic and even Palestinian individuals are off limit to the central thoroughfare which links the Bab El Zawiya district, the commercial heart of the city, to the eastern and southern suburbs as well as the neighboring smaller towns such as Yatta and Dura.
Some of the buildings abutting the street on both sides go back to the British and Ottoman eras. In recent years, efforts were made to rehabilitate the street. However, Jewish settlers fought the project, breaking street lights and the paving stones, as well as hurling stones at the workers.
Today Shuhada Street is a ghost scene. Only Israeli settlers, soldiers and foreign tourists are allowed to access it. And what they see is anti-Arab graffiti sprayed or scrawled across the streets. Some of this graffiti is particularly ugly, such as "kill the Arabs" and "Arabs to the gas chambers."
More bizarre are the metal mesh cages that enclose the balconies of houses where Palestinians continue to live. For these Palestinians to exit their homes -the Israelis have bolted their outside doors- they have to use dangerous ladders, or crawl out the windows in the back of their apartments and go from roof to roof.
Needless to say, the impact of all this harassment is calculated by both the settlers and the Israeli political-security establishment to make the daily life of Palestinians living in Old Hebron, especially along Shuhada Street, an enduring nightmare. And it has.
Hamas: Israeli crimes will not be forgiven
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Hamas has affirmed that the Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people would not be forgiven and would not be forgotten despite the lapse of time.
The movement said in a press release on Saturday on the 18th anniversary of the Israeli massacre in Al-Khalil that the Palestinian people would remain steadfast despite such massacres until they restore all usurped rights. Hamas held the Israeli occupation authority fully responsible for all massacres and crimes against the Palestinian people, adding that such systematic bloodbaths would not pass without punishment. The best response to those crimes is to go ahead in national unity on the basis of a united resistance strategy, Hamas said. |
The movement called on the Arab and Islamic masses to support the Palestinians until final liberation and return.
A Jewish settler, backed by IOF soldiers, killed 29 Palestinians in the Ibrahimi mosque and outside it 18 years ago while dozens others were wounded in the dreadful bloodbath.
A Jewish settler, backed by IOF soldiers, killed 29 Palestinians in the Ibrahimi mosque and outside it 18 years ago while dozens others were wounded in the dreadful bloodbath.
9 jan 2011
In early February a City of Ancestors Race will take place in Hebron with hundreds of runners from throughout Israel, according to the Hebrew-language news site nrg.co.il.
The 10 kilometer competitive race, conducted to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the nearby colony of Kiryat Arba, will pass by sites such as the Ibrahimi Mosque, the Palestinian market, the Avram Avinu colony in the heart of Hebron and the House of Contention, a Palestinian home that was taken over by settlers who were subsequently evicted from the home by a court order.
The 10 kilometer competitive race, conducted to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the nearby colony of Kiryat Arba, will pass by sites such as the Ibrahimi Mosque, the Palestinian market, the Avram Avinu colony in the heart of Hebron and the House of Contention, a Palestinian home that was taken over by settlers who were subsequently evicted from the home by a court order.
Initial settlers came to Kiryat Arba in 1968, although building on an abandoned military base began in 1971. With over 7,200 residents, Kiryat Arba features the Kahane Memorial Park, named for the racist Meir Kahane of the outlawed Israeli political party Kach that advocates expelling Palestinians from the areas under Israeli control.
It is also home to the grave of Baruch Goldstein, who killed 29 Palestinians and injured 125 when he opened fire on those praying in the Ibrahim Mosque on 25 February 1994.
The race is sponsored by the Hebron-Kiryat Arba Local Council, the Ministry of Culture and Sport and the commercial site Shvoong, a site that caters to Israeli fans of bicycling, racing and triathlons.
It is also home to the grave of Baruch Goldstein, who killed 29 Palestinians and injured 125 when he opened fire on those praying in the Ibrahim Mosque on 25 February 1994.
The race is sponsored by the Hebron-Kiryat Arba Local Council, the Ministry of Culture and Sport and the commercial site Shvoong, a site that caters to Israeli fans of bicycling, racing and triathlons.
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