The Ancient City of Hebron

A week ago we visited the ancient city of Hebron which is about an
hour south of Bethlehem. Hebron is a city of 150,000 , crowded and
bustling. It is known for its conservativism ... nary a bar in
town.

It is also known for its tension and conflict.

In the heart of this city a few hundred Orthodox Jewish settlers have
taken over buildings and rooms piece by piece. They are protected
by 2000 soldiers. Most of the Old City is now shut down as the
settlers are circled by guard posts and cars are not permitted so
store-owners have trouble getting their goods to store and the
foot-traffic is reduced to near nil.

The settlers goal is take over more and more of the area. According
to numerous reports they threaten local people, harrass kids going
to school, and take over adjacent buildings if they are unused.
We met with a couple members of Christian Peacemakers Team - an
American and a Scot. These people live in the Old City, escort kids
as they walk by the settlement area, and generally serve as
witnesses or advocates whenever something bad is happening. In factual straight forward prose they describe their activities each week. In
addition to CPT there is another non-religious group doing similar
work: TIPH (Temporary International Presence in Hebron).

Eileen Hansen from CPT described the situation as we stood on the
roof of their building in the Old City. She said that these
settlers are much more fanatical than most. They are 'beyond the
pale' even by Israeli standards. For example they have a memorial
honoring Baruch Goldstein, the American Israeli who opened fire in
the local mosque wounding 150 and killing 29 Muslim worshippers.

Some Israeli soldiers have spoken out against the injustice and IDF reservists prepared a photo exhibition showing what goes on in Hebron in a brave attempt to change policy.

Unfortunately the situation continues and most IDF just follow orders.

A few days ago IDF killed an old man and critically wounded his wife and two kids in Hebron. Video footage was shown on Al Jazeera TV. They were after the old man's son. There are conflicting reports how the soldiers ended up shooting the old man, his wife and the young kids.