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Hebron - public space... only for Jews

Place: Hebron
Observers: Hagit (reporting and photographing); Translator: Natanya
Apr-01-2019
| Morning
The space given to Abed
The space given to Abed

The public space around the Cave of the Patriarchs.

In February 1994, Baruch Goldstein of the Jewish community of Hebron murdered 29 Muslim worshipers in the Tomb of the Patriarchs.

That same week, a committee headed by Justice Shamgar, who was the president of the Supreme Court, established a committee to examine the sequence of events in Hebron until then.

One of the conclusions of the Shamgar Commission was to separate the space around the Cave of the Patriarchs into sections for Jews and Palestinians and a section in which only Jews could be.

Since then, the Palestinian part has been shrinking and the Jewish part is growing.

Today we met Abed, who told us that the commander had ordered him to fold the stand he had placed outside his shop and gave him 80 centimetres from the shop door to set up the stand.

The Jews who put out stands have  stands of two meters and more

Abed says that the initiative came from the settler Anat Cohen.

At the edge of the public space an additional checkpoint has been established for the settlers and to harm the Palestinian residents.

Public space … only for Jews.

Every additional word is superfluous ….the lords of the land.

  • Hebron

    See all reports for this place

    • According to Wye Plantation Accords (1997), Hebron is divided in two: H1 is under Palestinian Authority control, H2 is under Israeli control. In Hebron there are 170,000 Palestinian citizens, 60,000 of them in H2. Between the two areas are permanent checkpoints, manned at all hours, preventing Palestinian movement between them and controlling passage of permit holders such as teachers and schoolchildren. Some 800 Jews live in Avraham Avinu Quarter and Tel Rumeida, on Givat HaAvot and in the wholesale market.

       

      Checkpoints observed in H2:

       

      1. Bet Hameriva CP- manned with a pillbox
      2. Kapisha quarter CP (the northern side of Zion axis) - manned with a pillbox
      3. The 160 turn CP (the southern side of Zion axis) - manned with a pillbox
      4. Avraham Avinu quarter - watch station
      5. The pharmacy CP - checking inside a caravan with a magnometer
      6. Tarpat (1929) CP - checking inside a caravan with a magnometer
      7. Tel Rumeida CP - guarding station
      8. Beit Hadassah CP - guarding station

      Three checkpoints around the Tomb of the Patriarchs

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      Hebron - Yusri Jaber and part of his family
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