Breaking the Silence in Hebron
“One of the reasons the occupation has been able to last so long is because so few people know what it actually looks like.”
Hebron is the second largest city in the West Bank in occupied Palestine with approximately 220,000 Palestinians. It is also the frontline for the occupation (going 55 years now) with illegal settlements, segregated streets, and the destruction of Palestinian communities and livelihoods.
I signed up for a tour with Breaking the Silence, a group formed and led by Israeli Defense Force (IDF) veterans who have seen the realities on the ground in the West Bank and Gaza. These people participated in military actions that changed them immensely, and now lead tours in Hebron and in the South Hebron Hills in the West Bank to build awareness of the injustices of the military occupation with the goal of ending the occupation.
Our tour started off in Jerusalem and headed about an hour south to Hebron. On the bus, our tour leader, Benzi, gave us an overview about the West Bank, how the geography is divided between Palestinian and Israeli control, and about Israel’s settlement program which is illegal under international law but how the lack of enforcement has resulted in 620,000 Israeli settlers illegally living in settlements in the West Bank. The USA’s official position on settlements is that they are illegal.
“We strongly oppose the expansion of settlements, which is completely inconsistent with efforts to lower tensions and to ensure calm, and it damages the prospects for a two-state solution. “We also view plans for the retroactive legalization of illegal outposts as unacceptable.” — U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price in 2021
On the bus, we learned about the realities of occupation — separate and unequal. There are separate highways for settlers and Palestinians in the West Bank (and more settler highways are being built as you read this). Separate water resources and infrastructure that run 24/7 for settlers and limited water supplies for Palestinians. Checkpoints control the movement of Palestinians and soldiers and the state dictates where they can and cannot go. A separation wall, deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice, has been built around 85% of the West Bank, effectively annexing land within the “green line” that is supposed to belong to the Palestinian state.
While settlers are Israeli citizens and can vote in Israeli elections, Palestinians living in the majority of occupied Palestine are not — they are effectively living under a military dictatorship in which they have no say. The state justifies the presence of the soldiers in places like Hebron for the protection of the settlers (who are living in occupied Palestine illegally) and creates controls and restrictions of movement of Palestinians living near settlements. The power rests with the state and the military who are there to protect the settlers, and this imbalance has led to unchecked settler violence against Palestinians and settlers literally squatting and stealing Palestinian homes. Additionally, while Israeli law applies to settlers, and international law applies to tourists, military law applies to Palestinians living in the occupied territories under Israeli control. Under military law, someone arrested is guilty until they prove they are not as opposed to the presumption of innocence that you and I enjoy.
Hebron is considered a holy city amongst all the Abrahamic faiths because it is home to the Cave of the Patriarchs, the tombs of Prophet Abraham and a number of other religious figures revered in Judaism, Islam and Christianity. Because of its religious significance, it has become a focus for the settler project with the goal of turning this majority Palestinian city (200,000 Palestinians; 8,800 settlers) into a Jewish city.
Once we arrived in Hebron, our tour started near the settlement of Kiryat Arba at the grave of Baruch Goldstein who was a follower of Meir Kahane, a Jewish Supremacist who became a politician in Israel and also led a terrorist organization. In 1994, Goldstein murdered 29 Muslim Palestinian worshippers in the Ibrahimi Mosque at the Cave of the Patriarchs, injuring 125. This terrorist’s grave has essentially become a shrine among Kahanists, right-wing extremists. We stopped here first to get a sense of the ideological forces at play in the settler program and occupation.
As we entered the city center of Hebron, IDF soldiers stopped us and asked us to identify our religious backgrounds. Since I am a Muslim and the IDF has created separate entrances for Muslims and Jews for the Cave of the Patriarchs, they rerouted our entire group to a different entrance. Once we came to the second entrance, an IDF soldier shouted at us “who’s the Muslim in the group?” and I identified myself. She then instructed us that the bathrooms were also separated by faith and we had to use them accordingly. Although some of the members in my group were stunned by this turn of events, this is something that did not surprise me given the level of surveillance and soldier presence I had experienced in the Old City of East Jerusalem the previous night. It was oppressive and I assumed things would be worse in the occupied territories. A different set of soldiers also held up our group for 30 minutes while they checked approvals for our approved-in-advance tour.
The next stop for our tour was Shuhada Street. Following the Goldstein massacre, the IDF applied a “policy of separation” amongst the settlers and Palestinians in Hebron, imposing curfews and restricting access to the mosque, and installing checkpoints worshipers have to move through. Between the Goldstein massacre in 1994 and the Second Intifada in the early 2000s, various methods of separation, control and “sterilization” have been applied in the name of keeping settlers “safe.” Today, the once vibrant Shuhada street, the main street leading to the Cave/Tomb, and city center of Hebron has become a ghost town due to banning Palestinians from accessing this street.
There are 650 IDF soldiers stationed in Hebron and charged with protecting the settlers. Per sources on the ground, many engage in intimidation and humiliation of the Palestinian residents and participate in patrols, lockdowns and curfews to “make their presence known.” Additionally, settler violence takes place on a daily basis — in the form of destruction of property, assault, intimidation, etc. And this brutality continues with impunity because there are no consequences for the settlers. The soldiers are present to protect them, not the Palestinians. Soldiers are instructed to shoot to kill Palestinians for criminal acts but the guidance is “more complex” for settlers. Soldiers are instructed to use tear gas and fire rubber coated bullets during Palestinian protests, but regularly share meals and build relationships with settlers. These relationships hold them back from stopping settlers from actions taken to hurt Palestinians, such as burning their agricultural fields. Additionally, the soldiers survival and political and professional progression is dependent on making the settlers happy. Making the settlers happy means upholding the occupation. And until the occupation ends, a two-state solution will never be possible.
Given these dynamics, what it comes down to is that Palestinians will always pay the price for “security.” But the situation in Hebron is not about security — it’s about control and land. Per Breaking the Silence, security professionals assessed the security situation in Hebron and made recommendations to the IDF on what protocols could be established so that the Palestinians could maintain their way of life without the severe separation restrictions that are currently in place. The IDF ignored the recommendations. This clearly demonstrates how the principle of separation is prioritized above security.
At the end of our tour, we met with a volunteer with Youth Against Settlements (YAS) to hear more from the Palestinian perspective. Muhanned told us about life in Hebron, soldier intimidation, settler harassment, and how the separation policy impacts their daily lives. Ambulances are delayed and Palestinians die waiting for them because the policy of separation and security (using different roads and longer routes) is prioritized over Palestinian life. Palestinians in the West Bank have to travel to Amman, Jordan to access an airport; they cannot travel out of the closest airport to them in Tel Aviv. They also have to apply to get special permission to go to Jerusalem. There is no freedom of movement.
Muhanned also told us about organizations like the Hebron Fund which sends lobbyists to meet with American elected officials and U.S. State Department officials. He asked for our support since many officials don’t openly speak out against the settlements.
This experience made the following clear: a military occupation will always necessitate violence and different sets of rules and laws for different people living in one place creates an unequal and apartheid system. I firmly believe that human beings have a right to self determination and equal rights — and that should be no different for the Palestinian people. The occupation must end.
“When most people on this planet witness how the Israeli government treats Palestinians, they know in their heart of hearts that it is wrong.” — Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib
This post is part of a series of posts of my visit to Israel and Palestine in July 2022. The essays cover an overview of my trip + a look at American responsibility; my experience with surveillance, policing and profiling in Jerusalem; visiting the West Bank separation wall and a Palestinian refugee camp in Bethlehem; why justice means freedom for the Palestinian people.
Resources:
- Breaking the Silence — Tours, video, reports on firsthand accounts from IDF veterans on their service in Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). They also offer virtual tours of Hebron which you can take from the comfort of your own home.
- Short Film: “Mission Hebron” via The New York Times
- B’Tselem’s interactive map of the West Bank
