A traumatic Sarah's day in the old city of Hebron

45,000 religious Jews came to Hebron for the weekend of November 22 and 23, 2019 to celebrate a special sabbath in memory of Sarah, the wife of Abraham. The event was supported and promoted by The Hebron Fund, a Brooklyn based US "charity' with  501C3 tax deductible status that operates as the fundraising arm of the settler community of Hebron. 

 The old city was crowded with visitors, especially  along Shuhada Street, the former main street of the old city that is now closed to Palestinians, and around the Ibrahimi mosque. The Ibrahimi mosque is  known to Jewish people as the Tomb of the Patriarchs.

Legend has it that Abraham, his wife Sarah, Abraham’s son Isaac, Isaac’s wife Rebecca, Isaac’s son Jacob, and Jacob’s wife Leah are all buried beneath the Ibrahimi mosque. So both patriarchs and  matriarchs are believed to be buried there. Abraham is the legendary father of both Arabs and Jews and so the Ibrahimi mosque/Tomb of the Patriarchs is holy to both Jews and Muslims.

The old city of Hebron is an occupied and militarized city. Israeli settlers and the Israeli military have imposed five settlements within the old city and the military maintains a policy that they themselves refer to as “Separation” (or “Apartheid” in Dutch) between the Jewish Israeli settlers and the indigenous Palestinians.  The Separation is maintained by checkpoints, street closures, barriers, razor wire, watch towers, cameras, arrests and military incursions that have severely crippled the life of Palestinians in the old city. 

The restrictions and humiliation placed upon Palestinians are aimed at forcing Palestinians to leave the old city and allow it to become an Israeli Jewish city.  Sarah’s day was surely intended to contribute to the  "depalestinianizing" and Judaizing of Hebron.  

Hebron Fund Banner near the Ibrahimi mosque (CPT photo)

The celebration of Sarah’s day in Hebron may have been a simple day of religious and cultural observance for some but for others it was an opportunity to enhance Judaization with serious acts of intimidation and even violence against the Palestinians of Hebron. 

Settler with gun on Shuhada St. (CPT photo)

 Soldier throwing sound grenade (CPT photo)

The first episode of serious violence occurred on Friday evening November 22^nd on the so-called “prayer road” that connects the large settlement of Kiryat Arba just outside the city limits of Hebron with the Ibrahimi mosque.  As religious settlers and visitors walked down the road toward the tents near the mosque where the celebration of Sarah was being held, some of the settlers attacked a Palestinian barber shop and home on the side of the road using pepper spray. A melee ensued between some Palestinians and the settlers that was broken up by the soldiers and police. Nine Palestinians were injured and some went to the hospital in ambulances. Soldiers came later that night and invaded the home. 

                                                                                           

A second incident of serious violence occurred in the afternoon of the next day, November 23, within the Hebron neighborhood of Tel Rumeida where an Israeli settlement was established some years ago in the midst of Palestinian homes. Violent confrontations between settlers and Palestinians  occur frequently in Tel Rumeida. The incident took place in the afternoon at the home of Emad Shamsiyeh, an activist who has been a particular target of settler hostility since he filmed the execution style killing of Abed Al-Sharif by the Israeli soldier Elor Azaria in March of 2016. Settlers shouted insults, climbed on the roof of the house and threw rocks at Emad’s house and yard.  One of the rocks broke through a window and hit one of Emad’s grandchildren in the head, a baby boy of 1 ½ years old. The baby went to the hospital but thankfully was not seriously hurt.  

Videos of the incidents on November 22 and 23 may be seen at the Christian Peacemaker Team Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/cptpalestine

Settlers jeering outside Emad Shamsiyeh's house. A soldier stands between the settlers and the house.
(CPT photo)

Man holding Emad’s grandson and pointing to wound (CPT photo)

There were other incidents also. Settlers installed a stone plaque with three menorahs on an arch near the middle of the old city in the afternoon of November 22 under the protection of Israeli soldiers. The plaque was torn down and smashed by someone during the middle of the same night.

Settlers shouted insults and threw rocks at a Palestinian home below the settlement of Beit Hadassah, a crowd of settlers shouted insults and threw rocks from behind  a gate between a settler area and an area near the entrance to the old city, and  Israeli soldiers confronted stone throwing Palestinian youth with tear gas, sound grenades and rubber bullets near the checkpoint to Tel Rumeida. 

One imagines that many of the visitors who came to Hebron for Sarah's day from other settlements, from Israel and from abroad went away with nice feelings about their history and the events of the day, but with no knowledge at all of the trauma that Palestinians were experiencing at the same time.  Certainly, that is the impression one gains from the Hebron Fund's glowing report about the events of Sarah's day (https://www.hebronfund.org/record-breaking-numbers-visit-hebron-for-shabbat-chayei-sarah/).  The  report does not mention anything about the the violence, the confrontations or the heavy presence of Israeli military throughout the day.

The goal of the Hebron Fund and the settlers it supports is to push the Palestinians out of the old city. This cannot be done without harming Palestinians and taking away their rights, and we know that settlers have been behaving violently against Palestinians for decades. This is not "charity" and should not be subsidized by US citizens  as tax deductible.  In 2015 AVAAZ requested the US Internal Revenue Service to revoke the tax-exempt status of The Hebron Fund (https://avaazimages.s3.amazonaws.com/HebronFundComplaint%20-%20Avaaz%20public%202.pdf ) but little seems to have come of that request.

The lack of fellow feeling shown by some extremist settlers on Sarah's day reminds one of the biblical story of Sarah persuading Abraham to send Haggar and her son Ishmael out into the desert. Sarah was jealous of  Haggar because Haggar had given a son, Ishmael, to Abraham but she had not been able to. Legend has it that Haggar and Ishmael survived and that Ishmael gave rise to the Arabic people.

That story in turn gives rise to a particularly poignant memory of mine concerning the wonderful, but sadly now deceased, Rabbi Aryeh Hirschfield of Portland, Oregon.  Rabbi Hirschfield was participating in an event about Palestine/Israel at the First Unitarian Church in Portland.  He stood on the stage playing the guitar and singing with his five year old son Dov beside him. He sang a song that  he had written himself called "Sarah's apology to Haggar."