Hebron is an ancient city, now home to over 150,000 Palestinians and around 800 Jewish settlers. According to the Bible, Hebron was the hometown of Abraham (the father of both the Jewish and Muslim faiths) and the location of his tomb (the famous Cave of the Patriarchs is believed to also contain the remains of Sarah, Isaac, Rebbecca, Joseph, and Leah). In the modern period, Hebron had been a major center of Jewish life in Eretz Yisrael until the 1929 Hebron Massacre, when Arab nationalists murdered 67 Jews. Hebron's Jewish community was removed for safety concerns, but slowly permitted to return after the 1967 Six-Day War, a movement aided by the religious rhetoric of conservative rabbis. The growing Jewish presence in Hebron created a problem for the new State of Israel--how would the Jews in Hebron remain protected? Heavily fortified, military-guarded Jewish settlements now exist in Hebron, and much of the historically-Arab areas (which contain formerly Arab shops) are completely off-limits to Hebron's Palestinian residents. Breaking the Silence rightly described Hebron's downtown (which is off-limits to Arabs) as a "ghost town."
The Jewish settlers in Hebron are notorious for their attitude and acts of violence toward Palestinians--in 1994, a Jewish doctor opened fire on a crowd of Muslims praying in the Cave of the Patriarchs, killing 19. In addition to the military restrictions on Palestinian freedom of movement in Hebron, the settlers frequently throw stones at the Arab residents, or damage property. What's worse, the IDF who guard the Jewish settlements do not have the power to prevent settler violence, which is under the jurisdiction of a settler-run local police force.
When we arrived at Hebron, a 40 minute drive from Jerusalem, our group was denied entry by the civilian police force who controlled the checkpoint. Though no reason was provided for denying us entry, our tour guide from Breaking the Silence suggested that the officers feared that the Jewish settlers might throw stones at us--left-leaning groups such as JStreet and Breaking the Silence are not held in high esteem by Hebron Jews. Instead, our tour took us to the southern hills of Hebron, where a number of other settlements and illegal outposts are visible. The picture below shows our tour guide disputing the warrant issued by the civilian checkpoint officials.
The tour guide explained that though Israel never official annexed the West Bank, it employs a number of tactics to gain land in the properly-Palestinian area. For example, one law dating from the Ottoman Period states that farmland which has not been used in 10 years automatically becomes the property of the state. By citing "security concerns" as a reason for preventing Palestinian farmers from working their land, Israel eventually gains the unused land as territory. Another method is to build a sterile "buffer zone" around Jewish settlements into which Palestinians cannot enter. When Israeli settlements expand, however, so does the buffer zone, and Israel gains the surrounding territory.
Our tour concluded in the displaced Palestinian "village" (which was in actuality more of a temporary town of tarps and tents) of Susiya. Israel confiscated the original Palestinian land for use in an archaeological excavation of an ancient synagogue. The IDF poisoned Susiya's supply of well-water by dumping car-parts into the underground cistern, claiming that the well was built without Israel's permission (even though the well was built before the Six-Day War). As a result, the Palestinians are forced to purchase water from the IDF at outrageously expensive prices. By contrast, water and electricity are provided by the State of Israel to the Jewish settlers, even those ones who are considered illegal under international--or even under Israeli--law. Indeed, the extreme poverty of Susiya is self-evident... there were no problem buildings in which Susiya could receive our tour group. A picture of our discussion is below.
Overall, the tour to Hebron was a telling look into Israel's attitude towards the West Bank. Though Israel would never admit that it seeks to possess Palestinian land, the policies and practices of the IDF indicate otherwise. That the Jewish settlers in Hebron would attack not only Arabs, but left-leaning Israeli Jews, is further proof of the ideology of entitlement that has brought the peace process to a halt.
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