Israelis settlers escalate their attacks and steal the joy of Ramadan inside Hebron’s old city

 

Israeli settlers in Hebron’s old city have escalated their attacks and aggressions against the Palestinian citizens and property. Amongst the latest  aggressions, according to Hebron Rehabilitation Committee  was the construction of stone walls and small basins in a piece of land owned by the family of Hirbawi and located near the Al Shuhada (martyrs) street in the heart of the city. As part of this aggression the settlers, also, introduced an electric generator in the land and plantd it with olive seedlings in preparation for total confiscation.

 

The city of Hebron dates back to the early bronze age about 3500 BC when Tel Arumaida was built by the Arab Canaanites and it has been continuously inhabited ever since. The city is located 34 km south of Jerusalem and, currently, it is the second largest city in the West Bank after Nablus with a total municipal borders of  50.15 and a population of about 200 000. Its elevation  ranges from 930M to 1027M.

 

The city was divided into Hebron 1 and Hebron 2 ( HI & H2) by the Hebron protocol agreement that was signed on January 7^th, 1997 between Israel and the PLO. According to this agreement, about 20% of the total area of Hebron city, including the whole of the old city and the Ibrahimi mosque,  remained under Israeli security and civic affairs while the remaining 80% became under the Palestinian security and civic affairs, although, after the Israeli military re-occupation of all zone A in the West Bank in April 2002 the whole city falls now under the Israeli security affairs. In H2 there are between 400 -600 Israeli settlers living in four colonial posts protected by 2000 Israeli soldiers amidst 45,000 Palestinians. The settlers enjoy a network of roads banned for Palestinian use inside the city

 

The family of eleven members live in miserable conditions inside its old house in the back of the colony in the old Suq and they continuously face attacks and threats either from the soldiers manning a near by house roof or  settlers who last January set the whole house in ablaze during the settlers’ rampage campaign in the city protesting the evacuation of the ar Rajabi building by the Israeli army after about two years of occupation. 

 

In another interview, Mr. Mohammed an Natsha who owns a grocery in the old Suq sinfe the fifties of the last century said to LRC field researcher that: ‘ The settler’s ongoing violence has forced many merchants to shut down and move to safer places in the city. I work from early morning until 2 PM to gain few Shekels to support my family. The commercial life here is almost dead as people are reluctant to come to this part of the city because of  the presence of settlers. Sometimes, the settlers steal and/or destroy our exhibits. In general, this situation has ruined the old city and this ruin can be clearly seen on the eve of Ramadan’.

 

 

 

 An owner of a sweet shop in the old Suq, Mr. Abdul Mu’iz Sider, told  LRC field that the Israeli occupation’s systematic policy, in general, aims at emptying the old city of its indigenous people for the benefit of Israeli settlers. He added that his sweet factory used to produce a variety of sweets, but nowadays the only produce is the Halqum ( Turkish delights ) because of the lack of buyers.

 

 

As part of its ongoing policy of closure, cantonization  and imprisonment, the Israeli occupation authorities have introduced more than 101 forms of closures inside H2 for the purpose of protecting the settlers. According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) the following is classification of these closures: 

 

Closure type	Number on ground
checkpoint	17
Inner metal gates	7
Fence	9
Cement blocks	29
Iron gates	14
Barrels filled with cement	12
Earth and rock mounds	13
Total	101

 

 

 

[1] Source: GIS unit at LRC

[2] Source: Hebron’s municipality