Hebron is the only Palestinian city in the West Bank with an Israeli settlement encroaching from within. Israeli-installed barbed wire, fencing, gates, and concrete serve to segregate Palestinians and Israelis, further encouraging and legitimizing illegal settlements. [Click on photographs to enlarge]
Hebron’s Old City souq. Tarps serve as make-shift protection for Palestinian shoppers, store-owners and their property from bricks and trash Israeli settlers drop down from above.
A fenced-roof protects pedestrians from the garbage and bricks thrown down from Israelis above. This section of the souq was ordered closed by Israel, and prohibits Palestinian pedestrian traffic except to local residents as a project to “Judaize” the area.
One of various Israeli lookout towers peppering Hebron’s Old City. A soldier patrolling from the roof pauses near a staked Israeli flag.
Settler graffiti.
Throughout the day, soldiers wander the city seeking to legitimize their armed existence through harassment of Palestinian residents. Here, a driver is stopped by Israeli soldiers who request identification; twenty yards later they’ll find a home to raid.
Palestinian children in late-afternoon play.
Palestinian children in late-afternoon play, zig-zagging a soccer ball through Hebron’s old souq.
A checkpoint greets visitors to the Tomb of the Patriarchs entering from the souq (casbah).
In the males-only side of the Jewish section of the Tomb of the Patriarchs, an Israeli slings his M16 aside over his shoulder to pray.
At the Tomb of the Patriarchs, a soldier requests his photograph be taken. He warns not to enter the “dangerous” Islamic section of the tomb because Muslims “steal”.
A sign at the Jewish entrance at the Tomb of the Patriarchs near another checkpoint. The IDF would like you to know that the Tzomet Institute and Chief Rabbinate of Kiryat Arba of Hebron said it was okay.
This little girl would like you to know she wants peace. Or victory. Peace, victory – not mutually exclusive concepts.
[Tarboush tip: my Canon 10D]
Filed Under images, palestine, photography, QuiQui, travelogue
i was looking for that last pic as soon as i saw you put these up. great job overall.
Posted by Mohammad | December 31, 2007, 8:41 amThanks MHMD.
I tell you, Hebron is among the creepiest places I’ve ever been — gave me a serious case of the Heebie Jeebies.
(Pun absolutely intended).
Posted by QuiQui | December 31, 2007, 9:05 amThe one state solution died in Hebron in 1929. The Arabs rejected the Jews who lived there for thousands of years and massacred them. They have not repented since then are just getting what they deserve.
Posted by I remember | December 31, 2007, 10:24 amsounds like selective memory
Posted by Anonymous | December 31, 2007, 5:39 pmNo it isn’t. Check the massacre out yourself. Just google “Hebron massacre”. There was NO reason whatsoever for the Arabs to turn on the Jews in Hebron. This is the primary incident that convinced many Jews that a one state solution in which the Arabs are a majority can work.
Posted by I remember | January 1, 2008, 6:31 amOf course I meant “cannot work”.
Posted by I remember | January 1, 2008, 6:32 amThe riots of 1929 proved to many Jews, even those who had lived in the area since before 2000 years ago, that the Arabs wanted nothing less than their extermination.
Hebron was not the first massacre of Jews by Arabs, back in the good old days when the Jews were second class citizens, and the Arabs thought it was a sport to throw rocks at them, and it would not be the last.
Posted by Victor | January 7, 2008, 2:23 pm