Israel/Palestine
Related: About this forumNew Israeli Anti-violence Moves Add Fuel to Fire in Hebron
http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.685249Anyone who didn’t voluntarily register last week with soldiers at the checkpoints suffered a nighttime raid on his house, during which soldiers and Civil Administration officials forced all residents of the household to register their status. Gradually, even those who initially refused to register were forced to do so.
“They even measured the size of the rooms in the apartment,” one resident told Haaretz last Wednesday. “Recording names and measuring the size of rooms – that’s very frightening.”
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The registration of Old City residents, the declaration of its neighborhoods as a closed military area and the forced closure of Palestinian shops in downtown Hebron are among the steps the army has taken to contain the recent escalation in violence since concluding that Hebron is the epicenter of this escalation. But the Palestinians don’t see these steps as measures that will calm down the situation.
On the contrary, such steps merely bolster their conclusion that Israel is exploiting the situation to execute yet another phase of a plan to empty central Hebron of Palestinians and to inject it with new clusters of settlements and settlers. It’s impossible to understand the situation in Hebron without taking into account the constant fear that Israel intends to expel all Palestinians from the Old City.
But what currently overshadows even the fear of expulsion from the Old City is fear of the soldiers. Women say they’ve stopped crossing checkpoints with any kind of bag, lest the soldiers suspect them of carrying knives and execute them.
At the Border Police checkpoint in the Al-Salaymeh neighborhood, a woman hesitated for several minutes on Monday of last week before passing with her two daughters through the metal detector, which meant going right by a policeman who sat in the guard post with his rifle at the ready. Only the presence of a journalist and a camera at the site persuaded her to pass through.
About 40 girls who must travel from Palestinian-controlled sections of Hebron to their high school in its Old City were absent from class last week. More than ever, they and their parents are afraid of the settlers and the soldiers, who aim their rifles at them and examine the backpack of every pupil, even if he or she is only 6 or 10.
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Every Hebron resident is familiar with pictures of the bodies of the dead, lying in pools of their own blood, while Israelis in both civilian clothing and uniforms stand alongside, photographing them with their smartphones and even sometimes smiling. Residents of the Old City say every time a Palestinian is killed, Israelis come to the scene and celebrate the killing.
On Tuesday last week, the IDF shut down the Al-Huriya Media Network, which is considered pro-Fatah, and destroyed or confiscated equipment worth about $350,000, claiming it incites to violence. But in Hebron, many people know Hebrew, and they surf Israeli websites and translate the anti-Arab slogans Israelis write there for the benefit of those who don’t know the language. They don’t need Al-Huriya to become enraged.
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Issa Amro, director of the Youth Against Settlements movement, said a Civil Administration officer told residents that the next step would be to give all the registered permanent residents special passes allowing them to enter and leave their homes and neighborhoods. But the new registry move means that relatives, friends, plumbers or doctors who don’t live there won’t be able to get in.
The feelings of isolation will grow. Elderly people who are dependent on their children’s help may be forced to abandon their homes. Young people who want a bit of normalcy in their lives may prefer to move to the other side of the city.
So far, the registration has been conducted on Shuhada Street and in Tel Rumeida. Another neighborhood east of the Tomb of the Patriarchs – Al-Salaymeh – was encircled last Friday by concrete barriers that force residents to enter and leave through a Border Police checkpoint.
The spokesman’s office of the IDF’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories didn’t reply to Haaretz’s queries as to whether the registration process would be expanded to other neighborhoods, or why the size of rooms in the apartments was being measured. Its response said merely that, “In light of the series of terrorist incidents in the city of Hebron, security officials recently imposed movement restrictions in this area, as part of which entry to Tel Rumeida is permitted only to residents of the neighborhood and in humanitarian cases.
Baruch Goldstein would not be displeased.
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oberliner
(58,724 posts)A very clear and definitive style.
Do you think Jews should be allowed to live in Hebron at all?
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)Are Palestinians allowed to live in Kiryat Arba? (kind of a moot point, since they probably wouldn't survive a night living next to the Baruch Goldstein fan club in that insane asylum).
oberliner
(58,724 posts)Unfortunately, the worst of the worst Israelis have decided to "make their stand" there and seem to derive pleasure from harassing the Palestinians whenever they get the opportunity.
It is a shame because Hebron was a city that had a vibrant Jewish population for generations - and I believe there is a particular attachment to the area for many Jews not only because of the religious significance but also because of the fact that the Jews of Hebron were massacred years ago and thus there is a desire to re-establish a Jewish community there.
Obviously, the current residents are bringing shame to not only themselves but to those they represent.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)wants them to do--help clear the area of Arabs.
The IDF and the Kahane Fan Club are operating with a common purpose, coordinated even.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)These are a fringe group of extremist Israelis who bring shame to the Israeli government.
There is no "clearing the area of Arabs" happening in Hebron. The IDF is no more coordinated with the "Kahane Fan Club" than the US police force is coordinated with the KKK (in spite of there being nasty racists in both).
Kahane's terrorist group is banned in Israel, incidentally. Still waiting for the Klan to get that treatment in the USA.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)and hired a Tea Party type from the yahoo! comments section to be the Nation's chief public diplomat.
The Israeli government is not capable of experiencing shame.
The Israelis are applying the "self-deportation" approach--make life unpleasant enough that the people will have to leave.
Did they arrest the terrorists behind the Duma arson murders?
oberliner
(58,724 posts)Who has also said similarly ridiculous things which has resulted in him leading in the polls.
In both Israel and the US there is a definite undercurrent of extremism and often times, when the right is in power, not enough is done to curb those extremists and in fact their support is often essential to maintaining Republican or Likud rule.
You are right to continue hammering at the Duma arson murders. It is embarrassing and offensive that they have not yet been arrested.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)will be the Republican nominee.
And Netanyahu is among the more moderate elements of his own government.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)Not sure what you are posting your claims on. ESP?
Crunchy Frog
(26,587 posts)The denial that I find on this board is absolutely mindboggling.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)The PM cannot rule without the backing of the extremist RW party under the Israeli system. The government has only a single seat majority right now. If Jewish Home pulls out of the government - it falls.
DetlefK
(16,423 posts)Unless they were interested in acquiring the real-estate.
