From Bad to Worse
When I visited Hebron with Eyewitness Palestine in October 2016 the oppression of Palestinians was bad. In tours yesterday and today I saw that things are far worse.
There are more Israeli settlers, continued efforts to evict Palestinians from their homes and worst of all increased attacks on Palestinians in an effort to drive them out of this ancient city.
A few weeks ago the Israeli government refused to extend the mandate of the Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH), an international observer group that has been operating in Hebron since 1994. Observers for the group came from Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Italy, and Turkey, and issued regular reports to the parties and the UN. Their presence documented the brutality of the militant Israeli settlers committed to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from Hebron and may have curbed the worst behavior of the Israeli soldiers there to protect the settlers and enforce the occupation.
Media reports speculate that the expulsion was a political gesture by Netanyahu to build his electoral support from right wing Israelis. The Israeli election is scheduled for April 9.
The sad irony here is that Israel blamed the 6 Day War on Egypt’s expulsion of UN observers from the Israel/Egypt border the month before. Israeli leaders at that time ranted about Egypt’s actions and demanded the return of the peacekeepers. Expelling these neutral observers, who themselves were sometimes attacked by settlers, proves once again that Israel’s leader are committed to ethnic cleansing Palestinians from Hebron.
In meetings with local activists from Youth Against Settlements and other groups, every Palestinian we talked to expressed strong support for non-violent resistance in spite of the terrible increase in Israeli settler violence. That is why it is so important for more Americans to visit Hebron and the rest of the Occupied West Bank and Occupied East Jerusalem with Eyewitness Palestine to see for themselves how Palestinian residents of Hebron have to pass through checkpoints and are subject to arbitrary harassment just to get to school, to shop or to get medical care.
Sandus, an activist I spoke with last night told us about her uncle who fell ill and needed an ambulance. But Palestinians who live near Israeli settlements in Hebron need special permission from the Israeli military to get an ambulance. Getting such permission can take hours. So her uncle’s family carried him on a blanket to the checkpoint where he died waiting for Israeli approval to pass.
No human being should die because Israeli soldiers would not let an ambulance take them to a nearby modern hospital.