Pearls and Irritations

In July last year I went on a study tour to Palestine with the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN). I witnessed apartheid but also resilience and resistance. I met with Palestinian and Israeli women and men dedicated to a just outcome for Palestinians. Unlike our Western politicians they were ‘walking the talk’.

Hebron a sad ancient city

For historical and political reasons, our visit to Hebron made the most impression on me. It’s a World Heritage listed city 30 kilometres from Jerusalem and has links to contemporary far right ‘Kahanist’ politics. We were to learn much on this visit and at a subsequent briefing session with Israeli investigative journalist David Sheen.

On the drive there you pass kilometres of Separation Wall, nine metres high – some concrete, some wire. As with other Israeli connecting roads, you get the feeling that you are in some endless cage with intermittent check points.

The Separation Wall does not follow the internationally recognised 1949 armistice line, known as the Green Line. Some 85 percent of the wall lies beyond, deep within the occupied West Bank, effectively ‘acquiring’ more Palestinian land, making the Wall’s trajectory more than twice the length of the Green Line, separating and bisecting Palestinian towns and farms along the way and destroying livelihoods.

Hebron is the home of the Tomb of the Patriarchs, one of the holiest sites for Muslims, Jews and Christians. It is the purported resting place of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Leah. The Ibrahimi Mosque was built over the caves where they are said to rest. Hebron should be a thriving tourist place but it is not.

Hebron is the only major Palestinian population centre with Israeli settlements within it. It’s split into two zones. H1, occupying 80 percent of the town, is under the control of the Palestinian Authority, whilst the remainder H2, is under Israeli control. H2 contains Palestinians and Israeli settlers who are growing in number. It corresponds to what used to be the city’s social, commercial, cultural, religious, and historical centre. Due to settler and army violence Palestinian numbers here are reducing– exactly what Israel wants. As a consequence of this split, Israeli Defence Force checkpoints and turnstiles restrict the movement of Palestinians who live there.

The Ibrahimi Mosque massacre

The Ibrahimi mosque is in the Old city and until one day in 1995, was managed entirely by Muslims. The mosque was open to all visitors and Jewish worshippers used to pray outside in front of the south-western corner. But things changed after that fateful day.

On February 25, 1995, during Ramadan, a US-born Jewish settler and member of the far-right Kach movement, entered the mosque. Hundreds of Palestinians were crammed inside, bowed and engaged in early Morning Prayer. The settler, dressed in his Israeli army uniform, entered the mosque, produced an assault rifle and began shooting indiscriminately. His name was Baruch Goldstein. Twenty-nine Palestinians, including children, were killed. At least 125 others were injured. Later that day, during the victims’ funerals, the Israeli army attacked the mourners and more Palestinians were killed. Goldstein also died that day.

The events that followed were in stark contrast to Israel’s cry that it only acts to punish perpetrators. Israel intensified restrictions on Palestinians in the city. It divided the city into the two zones. Most of H2 and the entry to this area, became regulated by Israeli military checkpoints. Palestinians had no right to free movement in the city and to this day fear settler attacks if they enter H2. Sixty percent of the mosque was designated for Israeli settler worship.

Current Israeli politics and links to the Mosque massacre

In spite of there being a large number of parties, there are five main political ideologies in Israel today – the Theocrats who want one state with the elimination of non-Jews from all of Palestine; the Monarchists who want one state with the elimination of all Palestinians but are not waiting for the messiah to do this; the Nationalists who want one state but with privileges to Jews; the Socialists who want one secular state and the Liberalists who want two states living together with equality. The ‘elimination’ groups, the Theocrats and Monarchists, get around 20 percent of the vote whilst the ‘domination’ group, the Nationalists, get around 60 percent.

The most extreme group is the Monarchists, the third largest sector in current politics. Parties in this group hate Christians more than Muslims and espouse that Non- Jews should leave or be killed. They want to destroy East Jerusalem’s Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa mosque and build a Jewish temple and sacrifice 10,000 animals there every Jewish holiday. They want to strip away democracy and introduce a Monarchist religious government. They have links back to the Ibrahimi mosque massacre.

The Monarchists’ founder Meir Kahane was a terrorist, and responsible for a bombing in the USA. He was used by the 0FBI to attack the Black civil rights movement & anti-Vietnam war protests. He was only concerned for the plight of right-winged Jews – those from the Eastern European block not those from South America. He founded the Jewish Defence League in the USA and Canada and was once a member of the Knesset. He founded the Kach party. Mass murderer Baruch Goldstein was a supporter. Although the Kach party was outlawed after the mosque massacre, Kahane’s ideology persists in today’s Monarchists.

Itamar Ben Gvir and links to the mosque massacre

Now to Itamar Ben Gvir. You’ve no doubt heard of him of late, in the mainstream media. He’s the minister for Security, and since October 7 he wants to hand out 10,000 rifles to settlers in the West Bank. Last year, at an ultra-orthodox educational institution, founded by Kahane, he gave a speech glorifying mass murderer Baruch Goldstein. And two days after the International Criminal Court ruling, along with many other members of the Netanyahu government, Itamar Ben Gvir attended a conference calling for Israeli resettlement of the Gaza Strip and ‘voluntary migration’ of the Palestinian population.

He’s a member of the far-right party Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power). He reportedly goes to Kahane’s seminary for Independence Day celebrations every year. Until a few years ago he was reported as having a photo of Baruch Goldstein in his living room. His Jewish Power party is considered Kahanist and anti-arab. He lives in a settlement on the outskirts of Hebron. Today, the Jewish Power party has six members in the Knesset and is part of Netanyahu’s far-right government.

Another political player with Hebron links

Baruch Meir Marzel, who lives in a settlement in Hebron, is another political player who encourages and takes part in aggressive activities against Palestinian residents there. He was Kahane’s ‘right-hand man’ and a spokesman for his Kach party. The mainstream Israeli press has described him as an ‘extreme right-wing activist’. He was a founding member of the Jewish Party but left it to form an even more far-right party Hazit Yehudit LeUmit that made the Jewish Party seem more moderate.

The old city area

When I visited Hebron, few shops were open in the old market. It was once a thriving place for tourists, but now it is virtually deserted. Solid canopies above some alleys separate those on the ground from the rocks and toxic wastes thrown from the settlers above. Due to settler complaints other alleys could only be protected by wire. The Palestinian shop owners had received funding for solid protection but the settlers complained they could not see what was happening below so the Palestinians had to beg to use to wire protection instead. The shops looked fresh as they had received funding for painting a few years back but the oppression of Hebron still kept the tourists away.

The new Israeli settlement area

One road we went down during our visit had several turnstiles and checkpoints within a few hundred metres of each other and armed soldiers in groups along the road. We had a constant reminder that all was not well. The street down to the new, ever expanding illegal settlement area was almost deserted. This area is a ‘no go’ for Palestinians.

We were permitted to pass the first group of soldiers and could see the settlement just around the corner and were about to proceed past the second group when the soldiers from the first group had second thoughts. We got turned back, even though another APAN study group had been ok’ed less than two weeks earlier. No reason needs to be given by those ‘in command’.

As we retraced our steps things got a bit tense. A young Palestinian man saw what had happened and walked up to the first group of soldiers. He was agitated in his exchange with them and for a minute I hoped I was not about to witness a violent event. Things can quickly take a turn for the worse in Hebron. The young man then turned to us and requested that we tell people back home what was happening. We agreed.

Young Palestinians, particularly men, absolutely have had enough. They are largely unemployed and see no future. The Palestinian Authority is held in low regard. There is no sign of an emerging leader with a plan for the unification and liberation of Palestinian lands. That’s why the youth exert their frustration by rocki throwing and martyrdom. I hope that young man is still free and alive.

Feeding your family

In a narrow street not far from the Ibrahim mosque we noticed a constant to and fro stream of people. They ranged from the very young to the very old. They carried containers of various sizes, from about three litre to washing bucket size. Their mission was to collect sustenance for their families provided by Al Tkiya Al Ibrahimiya, a community organisation dating back to the thirteenth century.

We were in this street on one of the soup days. Two days a week are solid meal days and four or five are soup days. Some of the containers were so big that the children could only carry them if they were a 1/3 or 1/2 full.

These Palestinians, young and old, walked proudly on this day, but we were told that some years back you could see dejection in their demeanour as they made these trips. Now free meals have become normalised and something to look forward to.

We walked down to the food preparation centre to see staff preparing the soup in very large vats. Some study group members told me that the barley thickened, chicken soup that day was very tasty.

This kitchen is the place where about two thousand people get their only hot meal of the day. There are other free meal centres throughout the old city. The demise of tourism and the difficulty in obtaining employment outside Hebron has resulted in much unemployment and poverty.

Since October 7 things have only become worse for Palestinians living in H2. A military curfew has been imposed in 11 neighbourhoods imprisoning 750 families in their homes and completely disrupting life in this zone. Palestinians have also been shot by the Israeli military.

Reflection

For me, comprehending the ongoing Palestine-Israel conflict is tied to an understanding of antisemitism and imperialism. The conflict is a consequence not only of antisemitism and the atrocities of World War 2 but of those which existed for centuries. The conflict is also a consequence of the Allied countries aversion to accepting Jewish refugees in spite of what they had suffered. The conflict is also a consequence of the Imperialism that saw the ‘carve up’ of Palestine resulting in 60 percent of it being apportioned to Jewish refugees, as if it were a land without people. The conflict is a consequence of ongoing selective support from Western powers. This study tour showed me the grim result and the role of far right politics.

To treat the current bombardment of Gaza as simply a consequence of the October 7 incursion is at best simplistic. October 7 is not day one. The origin lies further back in time. For Western governments and their media, to maintain this ‘day one’ focus makes them complicit in the ongoing oppression and deaths of Palestinians and their expulsion from their land. It is left to us citizens to stand up and demand better.

 

Article updated February 19, 2024.