BostontoPalestine
Boston support group for the International Solidarity Movement

Home
About us
News from Palestine

Contact
    Email
    Subscribe
    Donate

Campaigns
    Olive Harvest 2004
    Freedom Summer 2004
    Past Campaigns

Events
Photos
Videos (ISM)
Rachel Corrie
Links
Speakers
Be a Delegate
Press
faq
Actions!

Ben's reports

back to Ben's reports click here

to b2p summer 2004 delegation click here

8-19-04- photo report from Hebron

by Ben, in Hebron, West Bank

(click on images to enlarge)

The BostontoPalestine delegation visited Hebron on Tuesday, August 17th,
after waking up that morning in Deheisha refugee camp near Bethlehem. It
was striking to go from the homes of these refugees of Zionist violence
from the 40's to Hebron, where the same project continues to this day.
Hundreds of shops are closed in the center of town, where the settlers are
most active. In just two years of this intifada Palestinian residents of
the old center of town were kept home under curfew for six hundred days
(i.e. almost every day). They resisted by sending their children to school
through clouds of tear gas and rubber bullets fired at them by Israel
soldiers. Maybe the reader of this report hopes I'm exaggerating...but
sadly all of this has been well witnessed and documented.

Photo #1 tower over shops: Jewish settlers continue to confiscate
Palestinian homes and property as they expand their presence in the old
town section of Hebron. How exactly do just 500 Israeli Jews dominate
150,000 Palestinian Muslims in Hebron? With the help of 1,500 soldiers.
Pictured is the BostontoPalestine delegation beneath a watchtower
(circled) in a shopping area in the old city section of Hebron.

Photo #2 settler's trash: Israeli Jewish settlers are trying to "take back"
the old sity of Hebron, and have occupied Palestinian homes literally on
top of Palestinian shops in the old city. In this photo, you can see how
screens have been set up to prevent Palestians below from being pelted with
stones, cinderblocks, and whatever other refuse the settlers throw out
their windows from their homes above the shops.

Photo #3 Hisham
Hisham was born in Hebron and grew up in a house in the once beautiful old
city. He says his grandfather enjoyed good relations with the small number
of Jewish residents of Hebron, who had lived there as long as anyone could
remember. They were considered Palestinian Jews. Many of them opposed
Zionism, the idea that Palestine should be turned into a state for Jews.
Hisham's house was directly next to the Jewish section of town. Hisham's
grandfather would turn off his lights on the Jewish sabbath to respect his
neighbors. But by the 1920's, thousands of Zionist settlers arrived with
the goal of siezing enough Palestinian land to create a state. Some of
them came to Hebron, though many of the Palestinian Jewish residents are
known to have opposed Zionism. In 1929, Zionists raised their flag over
the wailing wall in Jerusalem, a Jewish holy site which is also part of the
Muslim Haram-al-Sharif, the third most holy site in Islam. Palestinian
Muslims responded by attacki!
ng Jews throughout the country. In a week over one hundred Jews and one
hundred Palestinian Muslims were killed in the violence. More than fifty
Jews were killed by Palestinians in Hebron, almost all of whom were the new
Zionist settlers. Britain, who occupied Palestine at the time, evacuated
the remaining Jewish commuity. After Israel retook Hebron in 1967,
Zionists retook the old Jewish area of town, and more. Hisham was born
that year. His family was attacked by the Zionist settlers many times and
was eventually driven out of their home. Now Hisham's home is behind a
metal door that he cannot pass.

Photo #4: Another watchtower over shops

Photo #5 more settler trash: Looking upward from the street - more trash from a settler building above

Photo #6 cpt: The Christian Peacemaker Team's (CPT) Hebron Project sends observers (known by soldiers and locals by their red caps) to Hebron to witness & document abuses. Pictured is our guide, Hisham, with his CPT friends. info see: http://www.cpt.org/ and look for the Hebron program.

Photo #7 Op and TIPH: Workers from the Temporary International Presence in
Hebron (TIPH). Like the CPT, the unarmed TIPH monitors and documents
abuses in Hebron. In a presentation to our delegation, TIPH members
explained to us their personal frustration with the project. A product of
the "peace process," TIPH's documentation of abuses is kept secret. Only
certain governments are allowed access and much of what TIPH volunteers
from seven European countries risk their lives to document is never
released to the public. Tuesday, when we visited, TIPH volunteers logged
20 incidents in Hebron. Pictured are Optimus from the B2P delegation, at
right, with two TIPH members.

Photo #8: Abraham's tomb: Baruch Goldstein, a Jewish settler from New
York, massacred Muslim worshippers here at Abraham's tomb, or the "Tomb of
the Patriarchs" in 1994. Hisham told us that Goldstein came in shooting at
worshippers with a machine gun and was loading his fourth clip when
survivors managed to beat him to death with a fire extinguisher. Over 100
Palestinians were wounded in the spray of fire, and twenty nine died.