CPTnet
25 August 2005
HEBRON LETTER: The way things used to be
[Note: The following is an excerpt from a letter that CPT reservist
Christina Gibb, of Dunedin, New Zealand, sent her supporters.]
30 August 2005
In other parts of the West Bank, we hear news of settler violence in the
aftermath of the 'disengagement' from Gaza. But for us in Hebron, last week
was quiet; we have been able to visit Palestinian friends in a leisurely
way, without having to respond to emergencies.
On our way home from a visit with our former neighbors who had moved out of
the Old City, we passed an open gateway and were called in by Khalid (not
his real name), who was sitting in his grape arbour with family members.
Other internationals, from the World Council of Churches Ecumenical
Accompaniment Programme--with whom we keep in close touch--were already
there, and we all enjoyed fruit juice and Coke together. Police appeared to
be installing an observation post on his roof, but he did not seem too put
out by this--it seemed to be for observing the settlers.
Talk turned to the close relations between the old Hebron Jewish community
and their Moslem neighbours. A peaceful Jewish community had lived here from
the sixteenth century (when the Inquisition had turned them out of Spain)
until 1929, when, Khalid told us, Arabs from villages outside Hebron had
massacred sixty-nine of them. Many local Muslim families are proud of having
sheltered and saved their Jewish friends and close neighbours at that time.
Khalid's grandfather had been among them.
On Wednesday we held our monthly dinner, which usually has a discussion
theme, for Palestinian and international friends. This time, the topic was
the pre-1929 community. Members of three families who had saved their Jewish
neighbours came and told their stories. Yahya, a lawyer, brought an old
photograph album with accounts in Hebrew of the old Jewish community, and of
the 1929 massacre. Rajeb, from another family, said his grandfather had
been head of their household in 1929. He said there were nineteen members of
a Jewish family living with them in the old house. They were like one
family, with the Jewish and Moslem mothers even suckling each other's
children. When the Arabs from the villages came rampaging down the street,
Rajeb's grandfather, having hidden the Jews in a back room, stood in the
doorway with his sword drawn and told them there were no Jews there. Rajeb's
grandmother stood on the roof, crying out to the mob as they returned. She
tore off her hijab (head scarf) and rent her clothes in a dramatic gesture
that brought them to a halt and sent them shamefaced on their way.
We all hope for some positive news of next steps after the "disengagement."
But we are skeptical. Sharon has agreed several times that all settlement
outposts built since 2001 should be dismantled, so that at the very least
should be happening forthwith --but there is no sign of any action of that
sort--in fact, the settlement outpost by the village of Tuwani where our
second team lives, is actually expanding.
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