3 March
I'm in a party of six that self-assembles at the Jerusalem hostel, ages 22 to me, five nationalities, couldn't look more like dumb tourists if we tried. I realize that if there is trouble the leader will be not me but a 23 year old Swiss medical student, who simply is quicker. I'm the only one that knows what we are heading into.
An Israeli Egged bus delivers us in 90 minutes to Hebron; it exists to service the extremist Jewish settlers. A few miles outside Hebron we pass Kiryat Arba, where a plaque commemorates the New York born Jewish physician who, around 1996, dressed as an Israeli officer, entered the mosque covering part of the Cave of the Patriarchs and gunned down about 40 Muslims before being killed. The rabbi at his funeral stated that even one million Arabs are "not worth a Jewish fingernail."
Israeli peace activists counter-demonstrate at the murderer's plaque:
The bus line terminates directly in front of the building that, half-synagogue, half-mosque, covers the Tomb of the Patriarchs, where the Genesis figures reputedly lie. During Ottoman rule Jews were only allowed to climb to the seventh stair, still a holy spot for Orthodox Jews:
In the synagogue, arranged very simply, are the reputed tombs of Abraham, Sarah, others. Sacred to all three monotheistic religions, yet breeding, far less than respect and spiritual feeling, hatred and sometimes murder. I personally respect most the sensibility of the stories, and I keep this sensibility in mind when I'm there.
Abraham:
Sarah:
Back outside, there is only the Israeli military, signs put up by the settler community in and near Hebron, and a few Arabs who wander past. The soldiers won't answer questions about Hebron city and we see no sign of it. Two tourist stands. The signs speak of massacres upon Jews and the "liberation" of Hebron by Israel:
We follow the few Arabs we see down a desolate street, a "no-man's-land." In 50 yards we come across a tour from a group called Breaking The Silence. They are Jewish former Israeli soldiers who seek to educate the outside world about the intimidation perpetrated against Palestinians by settlers and the Israeli army.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaking_the_Silence_(non-governmental_organization)
After listening for a few minutes, our party continues on past two Israeli checkpoints. We pass through a gate and the quiet gives way to a city of 120,000, Hebron center a few minutes away. It bustles but there are few tourists and it is far more tense than East Jerusalem. We eat in a friendly restaurant, but we can't know how we are really being received, or how I would be received as a Jew. I was told by a Palestinian in Jerusalem that hatred for Israelis and Jews is strong in Hebron. There is color and life in the city.
Hebron spices:
Hebron sweets:
After a few hours we get an Arab service taxi to Bethlehem, and then another to East Jerusalem. It ends up a twelve hour day. In Bethlehem a plaque shows the degree to which Palestinians have lost ownership of land once theirs since 1948, and especially, to me, since 1967 (difference between stages 3&4). I don't see how, without justice for Palestinians, there can ever be peace for Israel.
I'm in a party of six that self-assembles at the Jerusalem hostel, ages 22 to me, five nationalities, couldn't look more like dumb tourists if we tried. I realize that if there is trouble the leader will be not me but a 23 year old Swiss medical student, who simply is quicker. I'm the only one that knows what we are heading into.
An Israeli Egged bus delivers us in 90 minutes to Hebron; it exists to service the extremist Jewish settlers. A few miles outside Hebron we pass Kiryat Arba, where a plaque commemorates the New York born Jewish physician who, around 1996, dressed as an Israeli officer, entered the mosque covering part of the Cave of the Patriarchs and gunned down about 40 Muslims before being killed. The rabbi at his funeral stated that even one million Arabs are "not worth a Jewish fingernail."
Israeli peace activists counter-demonstrate at the murderer's plaque:
The bus line terminates directly in front of the building that, half-synagogue, half-mosque, covers the Tomb of the Patriarchs, where the Genesis figures reputedly lie. During Ottoman rule Jews were only allowed to climb to the seventh stair, still a holy spot for Orthodox Jews:
In the synagogue, arranged very simply, are the reputed tombs of Abraham, Sarah, others. Sacred to all three monotheistic religions, yet breeding, far less than respect and spiritual feeling, hatred and sometimes murder. I personally respect most the sensibility of the stories, and I keep this sensibility in mind when I'm there.
Abraham:
Sarah:
Back outside, there is only the Israeli military, signs put up by the settler community in and near Hebron, and a few Arabs who wander past. The soldiers won't answer questions about Hebron city and we see no sign of it. Two tourist stands. The signs speak of massacres upon Jews and the "liberation" of Hebron by Israel:
We follow the few Arabs we see down a desolate street, a "no-man's-land." In 50 yards we come across a tour from a group called Breaking The Silence. They are Jewish former Israeli soldiers who seek to educate the outside world about the intimidation perpetrated against Palestinians by settlers and the Israeli army.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaking_the_Silence_(non-governmental_organization)
After listening for a few minutes, our party continues on past two Israeli checkpoints. We pass through a gate and the quiet gives way to a city of 120,000, Hebron center a few minutes away. It bustles but there are few tourists and it is far more tense than East Jerusalem. We eat in a friendly restaurant, but we can't know how we are really being received, or how I would be received as a Jew. I was told by a Palestinian in Jerusalem that hatred for Israelis and Jews is strong in Hebron. There is color and life in the city.
Hebron spices:
Hebron sweets:
After a few hours we get an Arab service taxi to Bethlehem, and then another to East Jerusalem. It ends up a twelve hour day. In Bethlehem a plaque shows the degree to which Palestinians have lost ownership of land once theirs since 1948, and especially, to me, since 1967 (difference between stages 3&4). I don't see how, without justice for Palestinians, there can ever be peace for Israel.
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