CPTnet
7 September 2007
HEBRON REFLECTION: Respect and disrespect
by Maureen Jack
In most situations, people recognise that different religions have different
customs and do not seek to impose their own religious customs on others. We
know an elderly Muslim man in Hebron who as a boy acted as "Shabbos goy" to
a Jewish family, lighting their candles for them on Shabbat (Friday through
Saturday evening) because their Jewish beliefs did not allow them to do it
for themselves.
During Ramadan, Muslims allow nothing to pass their lips during the day.
However, sometimes when we visit Muslim families during Ramadan they serve
us tea. I remember one such occasion when teenage girls brought us tea. We
protested that it was Ramadan. "But you're not Muslim," they retorted
gently. We drank the tea while they took nothing themselves.
But this acceptance of difference is not apparent everywhere in Hebron. I
recently spent time with a Palestinian family whose land on the edge of the
city is now very close to the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba. Their land
has been bisected by a path and flight of steps built by Israelis to allow
settlers to walk from the settlement to the outpost. The Israelis took this
land without compensation; the loss of land reduces the family's ability to
grow hay to feed their goats.
On one Friday, Palestinians, internationals, and Israeli peace activists
worked together to gather fodder for the goats. As Shabbat approached, so
too did the army and the police. They wanted us to stop working before the
start of Shabbat. Jewish worshippers would be arriving shortly at the
synagogue and work on Shabbat is forbidden to observant Jews. Since we were
so near to the synagogue, they said we should respect their views about
working on Shabbat. The young army officer spoke to the Palestinian
landowner, a man of reduced physical stature. The soldier squatted down, so
that they were eye to eye. He spoke Hebrew and so I could not follow what he
said, but his voice was light and his smile reached his eyes. "Sheva,
sheva," he kept saying. Seven o'clock. Work must end then.
The Palestinian landowner too spoke calmly, smiling throughout. The officer
held out his hand and the Palestinian shook it warmly. They wished each
other, 'Shabbat shalom,' the traditional Jewish greeting, and the officer
left.
The synagogue to which the officer referred is a makeshift construction of
wood and tarpaulin, built earlier this year without permission. Built on
the Palestinian family's land.
One Israeli settler chased the landowner's children, shouting at them to
stop working because it was Shabbat. We continued to work after seven as
the Israelis worshipped. One of them had an automatic rifle slung across
his back as he prayed.
Were the Palestinians and we being disrespectful, working so near the
synagogue? Or was it the Jewish settlers who were showing disrespect,
worshipping in a synagogue they had built on stolen land?
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