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Hebron -- in Arabic, Al Khalil -- "The Friend of God" is named after the prophet, Abraham -- "Khalil" in the Koran. In Hebrew, the word 'hebron' is related to the words 'haver' and 'havror' which mean 'friend'. In this city a long-standing conflict between Arabs and Jewish settlers festers. With a population of 145,000 it is the second most heavily populated West Bank city after Jerusalem and it serves as the commercial center of the Southern West Bank. Hebron is one of the oldest continuously inhabited places on earth. Its history, dating back 3700 years, has a legacy of pain and violence including occupation, dispossession, massacres, riots and counter-riots. Against this backdrop I met members of the Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT) http://www.prairienet.org/cpt/. They seek to walk the way of the Cross, fulfilling Christ's call to make peace and "get in the way" of violence. My desire to spend a summer in Jerusalem and travel throughout Israel/Palestine was motivated by an inner need to come to a better understanding of my Christian faith. Hebron was one of the places I found God. Anita Fast, a CPT member originally from Vancouver, Canada, now living in Hebron told me that "God is revealed in the places least likely to appear. As Christians we are called to go there and stay as witnesses to the power of resurrection and new life -- to displace hopelessness." No place in the Middle East can be explained in its present context without a review of its history. Hebron is a microcosm of the Arab-Israeli conflict, considered holy by all three monotheistic religions. The Cave of Machpelah is an ancient Jewish site and the second holiest place for the Jewish people after Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The cave was purchased by Abraham to bury his wife, Sarah. He was subsequently buried there along with Isaac, Jacob, Rebecca and Leah. A small Jewish community coexisted with Hebron's mainly Muslim residents until 1929, when riots lead to the death of 67 Jews. The survivors were protected from the mob by Muslim neighbors and later transferred from the city by British authorities. Hebron was captured by Israel in 1967 and Jews once again gained the right to pray at the Tomb. In 1968 an American Rabbi who was part of the ultra-conservative Gush Emunim (Bloc of the Faithful) checked into a hotel in Hebron and declared that he was not leaving. This was the beginning of the oldest settlement in the West Bank, Kiryat Arba. The government of Israel gave them land on what was an old Army base. Today this settlement has 6,000 residents and new homes continue to be erected. The settlements in the heart of the city were begun in 1979 when a group of Jewish women and children from Kiryat Arba moved into Beit Hadassah and refused to leave. In 1980, six Jews were killed on their way home from prayer. This attack prompted the government to agree to refurbish Beit Hadassah, and to permit Jews to move into the adjacent Beit Chason and Beit Schneerson, and on top of the Tel Rumeida hill, overlooking the Old City. Currently 500 Jews live in Hebron, protected by 1500 troops who live in what was the bus station. Both Jews and Muslims worship in the Ibrahimi Mosque/Cave of Machpela holy site. In 1994, with tensions surrounding the peace process rising, this dual access led to tragedy. During morning prayer, on February 25, in the holy month of Ramadan, thirty nine Muslims were killed and two hundred were wounded by Baruch Goldstein, a Jewish-American Zionist physician. Subsequently, an equal number of Muslims were killed by the Israeli Defense Force as they attempted to gain control of the city. The Muslims of the city were put under curfew for two months, while the Jewish settlers were allowed to roam freely. When CPT arrived, a year after the massacre, there was as much bitterness about the collective punishment as about the actual massacre. All of the main cities of the West Bank were evacuated by the Israeli Defense Force except Hebron, which was contrary to Oslo II. In January 1997, under a special agreement concerning the area, the IDF withdrew from 67% of the city but retained control of Qasba the geographic, economic, historic and religious center of Hebron. Thirty-five thousand live in this sector known as H2. The main street Al-Shuhada remains closed to traffic because this is where three of the four Jewish settlements of Hebron are located. The wholesale vegetable market adjacent to the Souq (Arab market), has remained closed. According to agreements between the Palestinian Authority and Israel, both Al-Shuhada street and the wholesale market are to be opened as part of the normalization of life in the city.
To get to either side of the building one must pass through two metal detectors and bag searches. The two sides can see each other through the bars that cover the two windows looking into the small room that holds the symbolic tomb of Abraham. Over the three days I spent in Hebron, I saw some hope for reconciliation and for resurrection from the conflict in Hebron particularly with CPT's ongoing presence. I believe it is this presence that has prevented a larger-scale violent conflict from occurring. Two CPT members met my friends and I in H1 where the shared taxis from Jerusalem let people off. We began to walk from H1 into H2 along the main road. The IDF check point consisted of meter-square cement blocks painted with faded yellow stripes on either side of the road and a turquoise booth which turned away all traffic except for Jewish vehicles and some taxis.
The city changed as we passed this point. Rows of Israeli flags criss-crossed above our heads. Almost all the uniformly painted turquoise storefronts were closed. The very mood in this area is different. There is less freedom here and the IDF's numerous checkpoints restrict citizens' ability to travel freely. A local could easily be stopped at every checkpoint for five to ten minutes while officials inspected her identity papers. Our CPT guides described a typical incident where they have intervened at the checkpoints. They saw a young Palestinian man being beaten by an IDF soldier; they ran up and asked what was going on. It turned out he did not have his identification card with him and was carrying a pocket knife. The CPT volunteers loaned him their phone so that he could call and ask someone from his family to bring proper identification. A family member delivered his identity card within several minutes, it was approved, and the young man was allowed to go on his way. When a CPT worker asked the soldier why he beat the young man the soldier replied, "Did you see anything? I didn't see anything!" Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, is one of the most tense days in the city. Observant Jews do not ride in cars or use electricity during the Sabbath. This leads to groups of young male settlers, dressed in their "uniform" of white golf shirts, khaki pants and yarmulkes, walking down the streets in groups with sub-machine guns slung over their shoulders.
On a Saturday we walked past the first of the Jewish settlements in Hebron, Beit Hadasha. The Palestinian shops across from it were burned down "mysteriously" in the late 1980's, and lie in rubble. Beside the synagogue/community center is a building that is half-settlement. The dividing line on the facade of the building is clear -- the Palestinian half has slowly crumbled in disrepair after its occupants abandoned it because of the settlers' presence.
We passed a gas station that was to have reopened under agreements that were signed to "normalize" life in H2. It remains closed with no sign that it will open again soon. Next on our walking tour was the closed wholesale market. CPT has sent several delegations to sell vegetables in the market, most recently last winter. Several of the volunteers were arrested and later released. The market was to have recently reopened with the aid of money contributed by local merchants, but any renovations have been destroyed by attacks from Jewish settlers. A Jewish settlement at one end of the street has a sign that states their version of history: "This market was built on Jewish land stolen after the 1929 Massacre." In the nearby square is a Star of David statue and a flagpole flying an Israeli flag. This is the heart of the pedestrian market or 'souq'. As we approached the mosque we were told about the role of the soldiers in Hebron. Soldiers are disliked by all sides: The settlers don't like them because they do not believe that the soldiers support Jewish rights vigorously enough, and the Palestinians dislike them because they are the active agents of the occupation. The soldiers are young men serving their duty as part of Israel's mandatory three year military service. It is boring work. Most soldiers in Hebron spend 8 hours a day at their observation posts.
The observation posts are on the roofs of Palestinian homes next door to the settlements. These outlooks do not have separate entrances, so many Palestinian families suffer the inconvenience and indignity of having soldiers traipse through their homes every eight hours, making noise on their roof tops and even urinating in their roof top water tanks. CPT member Grace Boyer said that they talk to the soldiers at night when it is quiet, and empathize with them in this conflict too. They are young conscripts, 18 or 19, and by-and-large don't want to be there. We witnessed a typical expression of their boredom as the soldiers competed in an attempt to hit a Palestinian taxi with rocks as it passed beneath their station. Sitting down and sharing a snack with CPT volunteers gave us an opportunity to learn exactly what the organization does in Hebron. They stand between three groups: Jewish settlers, Arab residents and Israeli soldiers. Another neutral party in Hebron is the Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH) http://www.tiph.org/ comprised of representatives of six European countries, mandated by the Israeli Government and Palestinian Authority to observe with video and report on what they see, but to never take action. CPT, on the other hand, is there to take action to prevent violence and to bear witness to what they see by telling the world about what is happening in Hebron. To this end, they give tours each Saturday, send out a weekly e-mail newsletter, and publish the quarterly "Signs of the Times". Full time CPT workers commit to three years' service. They spend three months in a conflict zone and then spend one month in North America to recover and to give presentations to congregations and other groups about the work of CPT. Part time CPT members make a three year commitment to serve whenever they have time off from other commitments in their lives. Peacemaker delegations are short-term teams that engage in public witnessing and pass first-hand information on to churches in North America. A Delegation had just left Hebron before I visited a second time. Grace described a moving ceremony that was the focus of their trip. They took stones from a demolished house and wrote prayers for peace on them. They placed the stones around a plum tree that they planted just outside Kirat Arba. Earlier in the year a delegation participated by selling tomatoes at the closed wholesale market. They were arrested and released later in the day. The most direct peacemaking with CPT occurs with their street patrol presence. All wear red arm-bands that read "CPT" in large white letters. The women wear their hair down and tied back, and wear slacks and long sleeves, so as to be modest about their dress but at the same time so as not to be mistaken for Jewish women, who cover their hair and wear skirts. When they see violence occur, they make their presence known to all parties involved. If, for example, a young Palestinian is being harassed by a soldier, they will stand beside him. This action does two things: it makes the soldier aware that someone is watching, and it reassures the Palestinian that someone supportive is there, which in turn helps him choose not to react in a hostile manner. CPT members do "get in the way." The best example is an incident that occurred this winter. There was a nonviolent march from H1 to H2 to pray in the Mosque and protest that H2 was under curfew. CPT went ahead of the march to tell the soldiers at the check point that the march was peaceful. As the march aproached IDF soldiers took aim while a commander gave orders to shoot. CPT and their action of "getting in the way" by waving their arms and yelling prevented the IDF soldiers from shooting into the crowd. A different IDF commander arrived soon after and calmed the soldiers down. Negotiations ensued between the leaders of the march and the IDF to let the march continue. The call to prayer rang out through the valley and instead of continuing with the march the entire group knelt down and prayed in the street. What chould have ended in the deaths of dozens of people ended in peaceful prayers. The next day the curfew on H2 was lifted. House demolitions. are a major problem throughout Palestine and Hebron is no exception. CPT has a campaign to secure dwellings in the surrounding areas and to provide support to Palestinian families whose homes are under threat. This is done in partnership with the Israeli Coalition against House Demolition and the Palestinian Land Defense Committee. The support CPT provides often includes spending the night at the homes of those threatened. Families in this region often have up to ten children. Specific families are also matched with congregations or other religious communities for support. On my second visit to Hebron I stayed in a guest-house belonging to Naffez Assaily. The guest lodging is located 70 meters across a grape vineyard from the settlement to Kirat Arba. A new house was being built on the other side of the fence while we were there. Its proximity to the settlement puts it under threat of demolition. Settlers have been known to attack houses in this area in the middle of the night. Settlements often 'expand' down hills (they are always on hill-tops) during the night as settlers pick up the fence posts and move them.
Naffez Assaily and his family used to spend half the year in Jerusalem and half in Hebron, but no longer. Evidence of what can happen was just 50 meters in the remains of a house demolished in 1983. I asked what happened to it and was told that it was built without a permit. Naffez,
a Muslim, has made a commitment to live a non-violent life in the midst
of this volatile situation. The guest house is also a center for nonviolence,
where neighbors can come and chat and learn more about nonviolent living.
The nonviolence pledges are clearly displayed: When I asked CPT members what drew them to this work, their responses were similar. Anita said it was a chance to put into practice the theology of peace. Grace, like me, came to Israel/Palestine with little understanding of the situation, but when she learned more about the ongoing injustices she felt compelled to serve in the Violence Reduction Project. She explained the origins of CPT, citing a speech by Ron Sider at the Mennonite World Conference in 1984. Sider proposed that the church develop a peace force of 100,000 prepared to put there lives on the line for their belief in the way of the cross and nonviolence. In 1996 CPT was founded. There are currently 18 full time CPT members and 100 reservists. When I asked Anita what she would say to the church as a whole if she had a chance, she said, "Mainstream churches must confront the reality of silence around the State of Israel and guilt surrounding anti-Semitism because the churches are once again being complicit in grave injustice. Mainstream churches have an interest in liberation theology but are largely unaware of the realities of the Palestinian situation. Looking at and doing something about real-life situations of injustice is what Christianity is about. As the body of Christ, denominations have the potential to create an incredibly powerful witness in the world today." Web Sites Temporary International Presence Hebron
Related Links
The Fate of Christianity in the Land Called Holy Will There Ever Be Peace in the Middle East? At What Cost Peace? U.S. Foreign Relations
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