by Aryeh Cohen · Tuesday, June 24th, 2008
So, for some unknown reason, I am on the email list of the “Jewish community of Hebron”. As a result of this good fortune I receive an email two or three times a week from David Wilder, the spokesperson of the community. This morning my inbox brought me Mr. Wilder’s response to Nicholas Kristof’s column in today’s New York Times (mentioned here). I won’t rehearse Wilder’s “arguments” (which seem to consist of repeating a version of “x is exaggerated” or “y is a fairy tale”) which are available here.
The telling thing about his response is his opening paragraph:
Nicholas D. Kristof called me a few days ago and we spoke for a while on the phone. Obviously he visited Hebron, but did not see fit to interview me at the time, preferring a phone conversation. That fact, in and of itself, is unfortunate, for had he spent some time with me on site, seeing Hebron through Jewish-Israeli eyes also, perhaps his column would have been written differently.
“Seeing Hebron through Jewish-Israeli eyes.” Since Kristof seems to have spent time with many apparently Jewish Israelis, it seems that Wilder does not consider people who care about Palestinian human rights, or who work for or with B’Tzelem, or who volunteer at checkpoints to help Palestinians to be Jewish-Israelis.
This brings to mind a Shabbat I spent in Hebron in the mid-80s. It was pre-first Intifada Hebron and therefore Jewish settlers could swagger through the Arab markets brandishing AK-47s with impunity. I spent Friday night with the Levingers. Over Shabbat dinner, Moshe Levinger told us that Israel should, in fact, invade Jordan since it was Eretz Yisrael but that the time was not right. This was just a few years before he was arrested and convicted of shooting towards shops in the Arab market at random, killing Khayed Salah, a 42 year old Hebron shopkeeper, after Palestinians threw stones at his car.
The Jewish settlers in Hebron have created a religion which is foreign to the traditions of our ancestors. The open question is, as Jeffrey Goldberg asked in an important 2004 New Yorker piece, will they destroy Israel?
by Josh Frankel · Sunday, June 22nd, 2008
It is here in the Palestinian territories that you see the worst side of Israel . . . Yet it is also here that you see the very best side of Israel.
Alright, there’s nothing Earth shattering here. No brand new observation that we haven’t seen before, but Nicholas Kristoff does it right today. Too often our friends on the right laud Israel’s greatness while ignoring the underbelly, and too often our friends on the left scourge Israel for its mistakes, while missing it’s beauty. If you want a balanced opinion, read Mr. Kristoff’s essay. It’s an easy read, and it’s good for the soul.
by BZ · Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008
Wow. Estimates of the number of people who went from Gaza to Egypt today range from 200,000 to 350,000 (out of a total population of 1.5 million).
I’m probably missing something big, but I’m finding it hard to see how this isn’t a good thing for both Israel and Palestinians. The right-winger in me says that after 60 years, maybe this will finally force Egypt to take some responsibility for the situation in Gaza, and the left-winger in me says that Gaza is a shithole so who wouldn’t want to leave. We’re not talking about the West Bank, with ancestral villages and olive groves and such.
Whether one sees all Palestinians as terrorists, or whether one sees them as human beings to whom the Israeli government has a responsibility as long as they’re living in Israeli-controlled territory, one way or the other it seems like Israel is better off letting this be Egypt’s problem.
by Mobius · Tuesday, April 17th, 2007
Surprise, surprise! Haaretz reports,
The company that facilitated the purchase of the disputed house in Hebron occupied by settlers is currently the subject of a police probe. Police suspect the company of forgery and fraud in purchases performed before the transaction of the contested house.
Police are investigating two purchases after which settlers moved into houses in the West Bank city owned by Palestinians.
The company is suspected of forging documents on the two purchases as well as fraud. The purchase of the house occupied since March 19 by settlers in Hebron is not currently being investigated by the police because no evidence suggesting criminal activity has been presented.
Full story.
by Mobius · Wednesday, March 28th, 2007
–Katie Miranda
Coming on the heels of the recent controversy surrounding settler incitement against Palestinians in Hebron, the Alternative Information Center (an independent Israeli-Palestinian news agency) reports,
On the evening of Monday, March 19, 2007 around 200 settlers from Kiryat Arba’ and other small outposts and settlements in Hebron city, occupied a building belonging to Fayez Rajabi and Mohammed Baradi’ee.
The building is located to the west the Kiryat Arba’ settlement, on the main road that leads to the center of the city, in an area called al-Ras. The large building, measuring 300 sq. meters in total, is three floors; it holds six individual apartments and 16 shops on the ground level, in addition to an empty hall on the second floor.
The settlers acted under the protection of Israeli soldiers and the police. During the occupation of the building, the settlers threw stones at other houses and the main road was closed off for Palestinians.
The settlers claim they bought the land on which the building is built on. The owner of the house said he purchased this land 16 years ago from the original owner and has all the documentation to prove it.
The ISM is providing live updates from Hebron as events transpire.
Last Tuesday, Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres denounced the settlers as having created an “unbearable situation” for Palestinians in Hebron. Nonetheless, upon visiting the occupied building, MK Otniel Schneller, a member of Peres’ own Kadima party, said that “the takeover of the house was consistent with Kadima’s policy, and that the party viewed a Hebron settlement bloc as part of a future peace agreement.” On Sunday, dozens of Israeli activists gathered near the house in protest. No action has yet been taken by the government against the settlers.
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