Hope for Hebron?

by erikasnyder | May 29, 2007 at 01:58 pm

681 views | 7 Recommendations | 2 comments

A man stands in the Resistance Café. The walls are bare save for scattered bullet holes and the dark sand stains ever present on exposed surfaces in the Middle East. A small coffee maker sits lonely on a back table. We sit on a once green metal table half in the sun half in the shade. Notebook ready, I watch Muhammad purse his lips fishlike and raise and lower his eyebrows in rapid succession; a nervous habit acquired over six stays in Israeli prison. “Welcome,” he says, “to Hebron.”

A man stands in front of the Caveof Machpela. Its ancient stone walls shine in the heat of the midday Middle Eastern sun. We sit in a courtyard on the steps leading tothe entrance listening to Yossi Barnoul recount Abraham’s purchase of this cave. Notebook ready, I watch Yossi turn into the dry wind rising from the hills of my forefathers to climb the steps to its entrance. “Welcome,” he says, “to Hebron.”

Israeli settlers hail Hebron as the paragon of their movement and Palestinians bemoan it as the beginning of the bane of their existence. Usually, settlements surround Palestinian towns. The Jewish community of Hebron, however, sits directly in the center ensuring access to the Cave of Machpela, the burial place of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their wives.

Now, depending on whose numbers you trust, anywhere between a few hundred to a few thousand Jews live in the settlements that spread from the middle of town up into the Hebron Hills, where the Bible said that Abraham walked.

Since the Jewish settlers and Palestinians live in such close quarters, the conflict between the two groups is a daily routine. Following a dramatic increase in the Israeli military presence here during the second intifada as a means to stem terrorist activity in the West Bank, a low intensity war fought in cafes, falafel stands, and in exchanges of rocks hailed at both Jewish and Palestinian children has been waged largely under the radar.

That has not always been the case. Henious violence has been committed by both groups with Palestinians targeting civilians and perhaps the most notable suicide attack carried out by a Jew in Israel. Baruch Goldstein shot to death 29 Palestinians in the Abraham Mosque which is the Muslim side of the Cave of Machpela. Today, though the level of violence has subsided considerably, the memory of the not so distant past is close at hand.

Muhammad, who requested his real name not be used for fear of being identified, said he was a Colonel in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The PFLP is best known for a spate of hijacked El-Al flights during the 1960s and 70s. They also claim responsibility for a number of suicide attacks during the Al-Aqsa or second Intifada.

During the first Intifada, Muhammad claimed that he helped smuggle guns to the PFLP’s army. However, he declined to say exactly what he did during the second, adding with a smile, that it wouldn’t take much of an imagination to guess.

“Once,” said Muhammad, “I fought with guns. But, now, I am fifty and it is no longer my time to fight. That is for the next generation. I don’t need guns anymore, I,” he said dramatically sweeping his arm across the small café, “have my café. The Jews say this shop is theirs,
but you will never see me leave or close.”

“Though, the soldiers come here every day, I stay open. Once, I had to resist with guns. Now, I resist with coffee.”

Asked what he sees as the solution to the conflict, Muhammad sat pursing his lips and raising his eyebrows. The gesture looked remarkably similar to that of an illicitly blown kiss.

“A Palestinian state free of Jewish settlers,” he said definitively and without pause.

“Someday,” said Yossi B. the executive director of the Hebron Fund, “We will even have a Jewish presence in Bethlehem.”

The Hebron Fund, designed to ensure a Jewish presence in Hebron “from now until the end of days” raises significant amounts of money to help provide for the Jewish settlers living here, and to insure that schools, shuls and hospitals are open and operational.

Yossi does not usually lead tours. Yet, on Monday, the high number of people interested caused an overflow onto a second tour bus and Yossi offered his oratory skills to guide the group through Rachel’s Tomb just outside Bethlehem and Jewish Hebron.

Sitting in the small café just outside of theCaveofMachpela,I asked Yossi to tell me what he saw as the resolution to the conflict.

“Well, think of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” said Yossi. “It ended the war and at the end of the day it saved both American and Japanese lives. I, of course, think it is a tragedy when civilians die. But, when you are dealing with Arabs, you have to have a heavy hand.

“I don’t think an atomic bomb is the answer, but I think we should obliterate the areas where kassams are falling. If you run from them, they will run after you. But, if you run towards them, Arabs run away.

“Our best bet is to collapse the Palestinian authority,” he continued.

I asked if he is concerned about what that will do to the Israeli democracy – which currently has a Jewish majority.

“Well, there is no need to let them vote. The Arab woman with her 55 children is not a demographic threat if we don’t let her vote. They are used to being governed by others.”

Not counting the donations coming from American synagogues,the Hebron fund raises hundreds of thousands of dollars annually from the tours alone.

While on tour of the Palestinian side of Hebron, the guide took us to see a house that Israeli settlers had illegally occupied. A group of Palestinian children ran back and forth in front of the young soldiers guarding the house who eyed them without reaction. Muhammad had said to me earlier that day, “I am tired now and I have been broken in prison. But, I can rest here in my coffee shop as my job is as good as done for me.”

By who? “The Israeli soldiers.”

During the tour of Jewish Hebron, one family from Long Island, New York had brought along their five young children to learn the history of the Jewish people here. While listening to Yossi speak outside the Cave of Machpela, they ran up and down the ancient stone terrace chasing the numerous cats previously lounging in the sun. Their mother grabbed at the eldest to stop him from running and said, “Shh, this is important. Someday, this will be yours.”