What's New in Hebron

Thank you for continuing to check in with me. It's been several weeks since I last wrote and I apologize for disappearing. Sometimes I'm too busy to write, sometimes I'm away, sometimes I'm too tired and sometimes there's just nothing to write about. I am, however, committed to blogging so please don't give up on me, even if I'm on a short hiatus.

The period between Thanksgiving and Christmas is always a quiet time for Israeli tourism and it's a good opportunity for us to recharge our batteries, rest and do things we normally don't have time to do. This week I went to the theater and took a field trip. Coincidentally, the subject of both activities was the city of Hebron, home of the Tomb of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs and a veteran hotbed of Jewish-Arab tension. Forty families representing the most extreme kernel of right-wing religious Jewish settlers have made their homes in the heart of downtown Palestinian Hebron, instigating an extremely volatile situation rife with violence.

The Cave of the Machpela became the first Jewish real estate acquisition in the land of Israel when Abraham purchased it for the burial of his wife Sarah; thus, the Jewish connection to Hebron runs deep. In fact, the city retained a notable Jewish presence until 1929, when members of the community were massacred by Arab rioters and the remaining survivors fled for their lives. The current configuration pits a small group of blatantly racist Jewish religious fanatics against an entire municipal population of conservative, traditional Palestinians. Although the Jewish community of Hebron, including yeshiva students, numbers around four hundred souls, hundreds more Israeli soldiers are stationed in Hebron to protect the settlers, creating constant friction with the Palestinians.

The play, called "Hebron," attempted to depict the vicious cycle of violence between Arabs and Jews perpetuated by the nationalist struggles of both sides to stake their claim on the city. Beneath the story line ran a thread of irony suggesting that most of the people mired in the conflict are good, peace-loving souls. Without summarizing the plot I would describe this heavy production as theatre of the absurd, whereby the absurd they protrayed is actually the reality. It was the darkest, most depressing play I have ever seen.

Admittedly, the next day I was a bit apprehensive about visiting a place that crackles with so much danger, but very soon after arriving I understood that the separation between Jews and Palestinians there is so complete, including a physical concrete barrier running through the city and a massive military presence, that the city is eerily quiet.

Essentially, Hebron is the only Palestinian city in the West Bank with a Jewish settlement in its center and it is completely segregated. The Arabs are confined to the area of the city known as H1 and the Jews to H2, even though H2 was originally a Palestinian residential and commercial area. As a matter of fact, the main market street, Rehov HaShuahada, runs right through the Jewish section. Almost all the Palestinian families originally living and working there have been forced to abandon their homes and shops due to the relentless harassment from their Jewish neighbors. We saw the house of one of the two Arab families that has stubbornly insisted on remaining. Its entire exterior is covered with reinforced metal fencing to protect them from the stones their Jewish neighbors throw at them, effectively transforming their house into a giant cage.

Palestinians who need to access this area are forbidden to drive cars here and may only walk through. Since we arrived during a Moslem holiday when people typically spend the day visiting with family, we encountered hundreds of Palestinians making their way through the area on foot. Even more disturbing was the street where Palestinians are forbidden to walk at all - ostensibly to prevent friction, but an ugly mirror of Jewish humiliation in the not-so-distant past.

The facts are that Hebron is an important Jewish historic and religious site, and today a Palestinian city. Although most Israelis never visit Hebron it would be historically irresponsible to sever our connections to it. However, the Jewish ties to the city are currently defended by a gang of racist hooligans with dangerous messianic tendencies - the antithesis of the salt of the earth. They have destroyed any possiblity of compromise with the local Palestinian population and only fanned the flames of hatred. They are the worst possible emissaries and it is criminal to enable them to represent the state of Israel in Hebron. If we are truly interested in one day creating a teneble compromise in the city then every last member of the settler community must be forcibly removed from this absurd reality.

Then we drove home, and back in Israel Hebron slipped back into a forgotten reality.