A tour of Hebron - with settlers

A sunny Saturday afternoon in the old city of Hebron can be spent with the barrel of a gun directed at you from a distance of four feet. It does not matter that a few Palestinians including old men, women and young children and my two team mates and I, are innocently standing in the hot sunshine. What matters is that Saturday is the day that the Settlers’ Tour of the old city takes place. Five hundred Israeli settlers are residing in the city in defiance of international law.  They have the protection of 2,000 Israeli military in spite of their illegal status.

The settlers are Israeli citizens who for economic or ideological reasons choose to live in colonies in the West Bank. The settlements are seen by the international community as illegal and as an obstacle to peace. They break up the territory and threaten the establishment of a future Palestinian state in a two-state solution. In Hebron, the settlers have imposed themselves on a hilltop in the very centre of town. They are civilians, but they are permitted to carry automatic weapons. A Palestinian living in a house near a settlement in Hebron tells us that he would be arrested if the military if they found so much as a breadknife in his house.

And why is this tour taking place? Hebron is the location of the second most important holy site for Jews and the fourth most holy site for Muslims. The settlers run tours to show their visitors the locations that are important in their religion, in particular The Tomb of the Patriarchs/Ibrahimi Mosque. Fair enough – but according to Hashem Al Azzeh, a Palestinian living near the Tel Rumaida settlement in central Hebron, the tour is political.

“The purpose of the tour is to teach young Israelis how to hate the Arabs and to encourage them to return to what they call their home country, which they say is promised to them by God. And to kick Palestinians out of their homeland,” he told EAPPI.

The settler’s tour leaves the Beit Romano settlement at the edge of the dim, tunnel-like old city streets and takes visitors to see the old city. We could see them gathering through the locked gate below the military outpost. They were wearing traditional black and white clothes. They have military protection and in spite of the wonderful aroma of the spices in the market, the atmosphere is tense.

While the tour takes place, Palestinians are kept back by the soldiers and blocked from entering the old city to their ancient shops and homes. There is an atmosphere of tension as the tour takes place. The Israeli military is there to protect the settlers from attacks by Palestinian militants. According to human rights groups, it has a poor record of intervening to protect Palestinians from violence by settlers.  

Around 500 settlers live in the centre of Hebron city, which was divided into two areas in 1994. The settlers are protected by about 2,000 Israeli military personnel. Hebron is the second largest city in the West Bank and outside of Jerusalem, it is the only city where Israeli settlers and Palestinians live in such close proximity. You can jump from the roof of a settlement in the old city to the roof of some of the Palestinian homes. They are so close to each other that one settler woman throws a bucket of water from her window at a 3 year old Palestinian boy if he sits on his window balcony.

40,000 Palestinians live in the Israeli controlled H2 area of the city, suffering the brunt of curfews and restrictions on their movement. They are not allowed to drive or walk through some of the streets and on occasions they have to walk on one side of the street inside a barrier, while Israelis and Internationals are allowed to walk on the other side with no barrier.

The 40 or so Israeli settlers on the tour in the market are surrounded by 18 heavily armed Israeli soldiers, their guns pointed at the Palestinians and at the internationals in the once-crowded marketplace. Indeed, settlers throughout the West Bank are protected by one of the best-resourced militaries in the world.

The settlers throw their rubbish from their windows on to the Palestinian streets. The Palestinians have responded by putting netting over their streets for protection. But this protection is only a stop-gap. What is needed is international protection, confronting the brutality of the occupation and pressuring the companies and governments that support and profit from it.

Rubbish and cinderblocks on wire grills over a

street in central Hebron (Photo: EAPPI).