Continued Israeli Settlement Expansion in the West Bank

The city of Hebron is in many respects typical of most cities in this region but it is the Old City which has become the scene of most of the conflict here. Dating back to the Canaanite period, the Old City is one of narrow, winding streets, flat-roofed sandstone buildings and numerous obscure lanes which lead between them. This area centres on the Ibrahimi Mosque and Tomb of the Patriarchs, two of the holiest sites in Islam and Judaism (built on the same steppe) and scene of a notorious massacre in 1994 when a US-born Israeli settler, Baruch Goldstein, murdered 29 Palestinian men and boys with an assault rifle during Friday prayers. The community of settlers from which Goldstein came is approximately a thousand strong and represent the most fanatical elements of the settler project. It is an unfortunate fact that Goldstein remains a hero to many of them today, as evidenced by the well-tended shrine to him that was only removed recently by the Israeli military.

Under the auspices of protecting this community, the Israeli Army retains exclusive control over a part of the city which has been designated “H2”. H2 has (a rapidly falling) population of 30,000 Palestinians and includes most of the Old City, including the holy sites. As a consequence of the occupation, the Old City is punctuated by scores of checkpoints where Palestinians often face arbitrary detention, searches and harassment. The flat roofs of Hebron are also chequered with military outposts where soldiers survey the population below, often through their rifle scopes. In keeping with the wider road system in the West Bank, some streets have also been declared Israeli-only. Perhaps the most prominent example of this is Suhana Street. Once a thriving economic thoroughfare, it is now barren walkway which bisects the city. As the road is closed to Palestinians, all of the shops have now folded with some losing everything. Most ludicrously of all, Palestinians whose homes face Suhana Street are forbidden from opening their front door; thus many of them are forced to utilise ladders in their back garden in order to traverse the roofs and alight on a different street.

Coupled with the military restrictions, Palestinians in H2 and the surrounding villages also have to contend with systematic and organised attacks from the settlers. As I walk through a deserted market street, I wonder as to the purpose of the netting and steel cages above the walkways. I don’t have to wait long for an answer as a rock thrown from the settler apartments above crashes off the thick steel frame. As well as rocks, Palestinian shoppers and traders are also pelted with rubbish, bags of human excrement and most sinister of all, chemicals such as bleach and acid. Houses facing onto the settler-designated areas have also been targeted with windows being broken and racist graffiti being daubed on doors and walls. Most Palestinians on this interface have now left. Economic activity and life in general in this zone has almost been made impossible. Unsurprisingly, no settler in Hebron has been convicted of attacking Palestinian inhabitants. As a result of the H2 occupation, people in this part of Hebron are suffering some of the most extreme poverty you will find in an already-impoverished country.