Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Hebron
Encyclopedia
The Israeli–Palestinian conflict in Hebron is the site of frequent incidents within the wider Israeli–Palestinian conflict
. Hebron
is home to 160,000 Palestinians and 500-800 Israeli settlers. The Israeli settlers live in close proximity to the city boundary and require a constant Israeli military presence.
From December 1917, during World War I, the British occupied Hebron
, a move sanctioned by the League of Nations
. As a result of the 1929 Hebron massacre
, the Jewish community of 750 people was disbanded. In 1931, 160 Jews returned to the town, but after further Arab unrest, the British Government decided to move all Jews out of Hebron "to prevent another massacre".
At the beginning of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Egypt took control of Hebron. By late 1948 part of the Egyptian forces had been isolated around Hebron and Bethlehem, Pasha Glubb
sent 350 Arab Legion
naires and established a Jordanian presence in Hebron. With the signing of the Armistice agreements the city fell exclusively under Jordanian control
and in 1950 the West Bank was unilaterally incorporated into Jordan.
. The vacillations in the Israeli cabinet after the Six Day War, over annexation and the political realism in wanting to maintain the majority Jewish demographic of Israel left the Israeli leadership in a quandary in ways to deal with the newly occupied territories. Israel's position was that parts of the West Bank
be traded for peace
with Jordan. In what was called the Allon Plan
, Israel was to annex 45% of the West Bank and Jordan the remainder.
In an interview with the BBC
on July 12, 1967, Former Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion
declared that:
In 1968, a group of Jewish settlers led by Rabbi Moshe Levinger
, with the tacit support of Levi Eshkol
and Yigal Allon
, rented out the main hotel in Hebron and refused to leave. This was short lived and through a government compromise the Jewish presence was moved east to a nearby abandoned army camp. The new settlement
of Kiryat Arba
was established. According to the American Jewish historian Ian Lustik:
Beginning in 1979, some Jewish settlers moved from Kiryat Arba to found the Committee of The Jewish Community of Hebron
in the former Jewish neighbourhood near the Abraham Avinu Synagogue
, and later to other Hebron neighborhoods including Tel Rumeida
. They took over the former Hadassah Hospital, Daboya Hospital, now Beit Hadassah in central Hebron, founding the Committee of The Jewish Community of Hebron
. Before long this received Israeli government approval and a further three Jewish enclaves in the city were established with Israeli army assistance, and settlers are currently reported to be trying to purchase more homes in the city.
The sentiments of Jews who fled the 1929 Hebron massacre
and their descendants are mixed. Some advocate the continued settlement of Hebron as a way to continue the Jewish heritage in the city, while others suggest that settlers should try to live in peace with the Arabs there, with some even recommending the complete pullout of all settlers in Hebron. Descendants supporting the latter views have met with Palestinian leaders in Hebron. The two most public examples of the descendants' views are the 1997 statement made by an association of some descendants dissociating themselves from the then-current Jewish settlers in Hebron and calling them an obstacle to peace, and the May 15, 2006 letter sent to the Israeli government by other descendants urging the government to continue its support of Jewish settlement in Hebron in their names, and urged it to allow the return of eight Jewish families evacuated the previous January from the homes they set up in empty shops near the Avraham Avinu neighborhood. Beit HaShalom
, was established in 2007. One of the purchasers is a descendant of Jews who fled Hebron during Arab massacres.
A total of 86 Jewish families now live in Hebron.
On 25 February 1994, Israeli physician Baruch Goldstein
opened fire on Muslims at prayer in the Cave of the Patriarchs
, killing 29, before the survivors overcame and killed him. In the ensuing riots in the West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza Strip a further 25 Palestinians were killed. This event was condemned by the Israeli Government. The extreme right-wing Kach
party was banned outright by the Israeli cabinet
under 1948 anti-terrorism
laws, following the groups support of Golstein's actions.
The 1994 Shamgar Commission of Inquiry concluded that Israeli authorities had consistently failed to investigate or prosecute crimes committed by settlers against Palestinians. It was revealed in that inquiry that the IDF have 2 sets of instructions, one for dealing with settlers and one for dealing with Palestinians.
The first Temporary International Presence in Hebron
(TIPH) mission was established on May 8, 1994 as a UN response to the massacre. However the Palestinian Authority and the Israel
i government could not reach an agreement on the extension of the mandate and the observers were therefore withdrawn on August 8, 1994.
A year later, Hebron's mayor, Mustafa Abdel Nabi, invited the Christian Peacemaker Teams
to assist the local Palestinian community in opposition to what they describe as Israeli military occupation, collective punishment, settler harassment, home demolitions and land confiscation.
The redeployment of Israeli military forces in Hebron in accordance with the Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (the Interim Agreement or "Oslo II") of September 1995 was postponed on 28 March 1996. Since 17 January 1997, following re-negotiation of the Hebron Agreement, the city has been divided into two sectors: H1 and H2. The H1 sector, home to around 120,000 Palestinians, came under the control of the Palestinian Authority
, in accordance with Hebron Protocol, shortly afterwards, Israeli and Palestinian joint units began patrolling the sensitive parts of the city. H2, which was inhabited by around 30,000 Palestinians, remained under Israeli military control in order to protect some 500-800 Jewish residents living in the old Jewish quarter, now an enclave near the center of the town. Renovation work that was being carried out on Palestinian homes prior to the Hebron agreement was halted on Israeli military orders. During the years since the outbreak of the Second Intifada, the Palestinian population in H2 has decreased greatly, the drop in large part having been identified with extended curfews and movement restrictions placed on Palestinian residents of the sector by the IDF for security needs, including the closing of Palestinian shops in certain areas. Settler harassment of their Palestinian neighbours in H2 was a reason for several dozen Palestinian families to depart the areas adjacent to the Israeli population.
The Hebron Jewish community has been subject to attacks by Palestinian militants since the Oslo agreement, especially during the periods of the Intifadas; which saw 3 fatal stabbings and 9 fatal shootings in between the first and second Intifada (0.9% of all fatalities in Israel and the West Bank) and 17 fatal shooting (9 soldiers and 8 settlers) and 2 fatalities from a bombing during the second Intifada. and thousands of rounds fired on it from the hills above the Abu-Sneina and Harat al-Sheikh neighbourhoods. According to Human Rights Watch
, Palestinian areas of Hebron are frequently subject to indiscriminate firing by the IDF, leading to many casualties.
An international civilian observer force, the TIPH was subsequently re-established on 14 May 1996 to help the normalization of the situation and to maintain a buffer between the Palestinian Arab population of the city and the Jews residing in their enclave in the old city during the handing over period to the Palestinian Authority. On February 8, 2006, TIPH temporarily left Hebron after attacks on their headquarters by some Palestinians angered by the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy
. TIPH came back to Hebron a few months later.
The city of Hebron has been a major friction point, with Palestinians and Israeli human rights groups accusing the hard-line religious settlers of attacking the Palestinian population with impunity. According to Human Rights Watch
, the settler bias of the IDF was confirmed and clarified by Hebron commander Noam Tivon when he stated in an Ha'aretz article:
Tivon later suggested that the "Palestinian Authority is encouraging children to participate in clashes with the IDF by offering their families $300 per injury and $2,000 for anyone killed. He also said "the soldiers have acted with the utmost restraint and have not initiated any shooting attacks or violence."
The Islamic movement Hamas won an overwhelming victory in the 2006 elections.
The Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence, composed mostly of former soldiers, has documented abuses committed by Israeli soldiers
guarding the Hebron settlers, while Mario Vargas Llosa
has written that local Arabs are "subjected to systematic and ferocious harassment by settlers, who stone them, throw rubbish and excrement at their houses, invade and destroy their homes, and attack their children when they return from school, to the absolute indifference of Israeli soldiers who witness these atrocities."
The documentary Welcome to Hebron asserts that settlers often harass the local Palestinian population. In the film, a former commander of the Israeli army, one of the leading figures in Breaking The Silence, shared his experiences as a soldier in Hebron.
In September and October 2008 reports stated to leak out about the possibility of a transfer of authority for security operations.
22 December 1953. 4 Soldiers of the Israeli commando unit 101 under Meir Ha Tzion, attacked a house on the outskirts of Hebron and killed 2 men and a woman occupant.
1980
2 May 6 Jews were murdered and 16 injured at 7:30 pm Friday evening while returning home from prayer services on foot, in accordance with Jewish religious law on the Sabbath
. They were attacked from behind with gunfire and grenades from the rooftops around a small alley.
2 June Israeli settler group based in Kiryat Arba set a bomb off in Hebron market 11 Palestinians are injured.
1983
July 3 Arab students killed in an attack on the Islamic College in Hebron
.
July 7 The commander of the central region ordered the dismissal of the municipal council of Hebron and of acting mayor Mustafa Natche (the Mayor, Fahd Al Kawasme, having been expelled from the OTP on 2 May 1980) and appointed a Jewish member of the civilian administration to the post of mayor of Hebron municipality. Mustafa Natche was able to re-take his post again in April 1994.
1988
In September Zein Moh’d Ghazi Karaki was shot to death.
September 30, Palestinian shoe store owner Kayed Hassan Salah was shot dead and a customer was wounded by Rabbi Moshe Levinger
.
1989
28 August Bayiha Najar Nawaj'a was killed in the centre of Hebron, allegedly by Israeli settlers.
1992
4 February Mustafa Akawi died under interrogation in the GSS interrogation wing of the Hebron prison.
1993
March 23, Israeli settler Yoram Skolnik fired several shots from his Uzi submachine gun and killed Musa Abu Sabha, a Palestinian who lay face down, his hands tied behind him. Abu Sabha had been caught near the "Susia" settlement, south of Hebron, carrying a knife and a grenade, and had stabbed and slightly wounded a settler before he was subdued.
September 16, Palestinians celebrating in support of the Israeli-Palestinian accord in Halhul
village came under fire from Israeli troops and as a result, a young Palestinian was injured.
October 5, Israeli troops shot and injured a Palestinian.
November 7, Efraim Ayubi of Kfar Darom, Rabbi Chaim Druckman's personal driver, was shot to death by Palestinian gunmen and the Rabbi wounded near Hebron. HAMAS publicly claimed responsibility for the murder. Settlers then rioted wounding 3 Palestinians.
November 14 Jewish settlers shot and killed a young Palestinian after he stabbed and injured a settler near the Ibrahimi Mosque.
November 16, Jewish settlers overturned market stalls, smashed cars and broke car windshields.
December 3 A young Palestinian was shot and injured by Jewish settlers in Hebron.
December 5, A group of Jewish settlers from Kiryat Arba ambushed and killed a Palestinian resident from Hebron. The killing triggered demonstrations and protests all over the West Bank.
December 6, 1993 Mordechai Lapid and his son Shalom Lapid, age 19, were shot to death by Palestinian gunmen near Hebron. HAMAS publicly claimed responsibility for the attack.
December 10 Three Palestinians, two brothers and a cousin, were assassinated by Jewish settlers while sitting in a parked car near Hebron.
1994
January 13 Three Israeli soldiers were injured after been shot at by Palestinians in an ambush near Hebron.
January 14, 1994 Israeli troops fired anti-tank rockets into a house near Hebron killing the four Palestinians who were barricaded in the house.
January 18, Israeli troops opened fire during clashes with Palestinian demonstrators injuring 9 in Hebron.
February 2, Three Israeli settlers were shot and injured by Palestinian gunmen in an ambush near Hebron.
February 17, Yuval Golan, stabbed on December 29, 1993 by a Palestinian gunman near Adarim in the Hebron area, died of his wounds.
February 18, An Israeli settler's car was ambushed by a Hamas unit near Hebron, killing a pregnant Jewish settler.
February 25, The Goldstein attack on Muslims at prayer in the Ibrahimi Mosque, 29 Palestinians killed. 25 more Palestinians killed in the ensuing suppression by Israeli police of a demonstration of protest.
April 7 It was claimed that a settler deliberately ran his car into a Palestinian and his 5 year old son. Israeli police said that it was a car accident.
May 17, Rafael Yairi (Klumfenbert), 36, of Kiryat Arba, and Margalit Ruth Shohat, 48, of Ma'ale Levona, were killed when their car was fired upon by gunmen in a passing car near Beit Haggai, south of Hebron.
June 4 A home-made grenade was hurled at an Israeli army post injuring 6 Palestinians. The IDF opened fire at stone throwers and injured 8 of them. In a clash following this incident, 4 soldiers and 6 Palestinians were injured.
June 17, Israeli troops shot and wounded four Palestinians during clashes.
July 8, Palestinian drive-by shooting
of a settler school girl.
July 18, Israeli troops shot and wounded two Palestinians.
July 22 17 Palestinians were injured in clashes with Israeli troops.
August 26 Israeli troops shot and wounded three Palestinians during a clash at the police square.
September Members of the "The Jewish Underground of Revenge" are arrested by the Israeli secret police.
September 22, Several thousand West Bank Jewish settlers and their supporters from Israel skirmished with Israeli border police for more than four hours before a group of religious Jews were able to brake into the Ibrahimi Mosque, which has been closed for 7 months after the massacre of 29 Muslims in February. At least four people were injured and 20 were arrested.
October 1, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian man who stabbed and wounded an Israeli soldier.
October 7, Razi Haymouni, 23, a Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli border police after he tried to pour acid on two policemen near the Ibrahimi Mosque.
October 16 Israeli troops shot dead Imad al-Adarba, 23 in Hebron.
October 23, Nidal Said al-Tamimi, 22, shot dead after he reportedly tried to stab a soldier. He had been recently released from an Israeli jail.
November 27, 1994 Rabbi Amiran Olami, 34, of Otniel was killed and an Israeli policeman wounded near Beit Hagai 10 km south of Hebron by shots fired from a passing car.
November 29, Israeli police arrested 10 Jewish settlers as they attempted to invade the Moslem-designated area in the Ibrahimi Mosque. Among those arrested was Yehuda Etzion, who was jailed for attempting to blow up the Dome of the Rock in East Jerusalem in 1984 and was granted amnesty after four years in jail.
1995
January 15, A shoulder-held anti-tank missile (LAW) was fired at a Jewish apartment in Hebron, 10 LAW missiles had been taken from an Israeli Military base on the West Bank.
March 14, 4 home made bombs were found by Israeli police on a road at the northern entrance to Hebron.
March 19, Nahum Hoss, 32, of Hebron and Yehuda Fartush, 41, of Kiryat Arba, were killed and 5 settlers wounded when Palestinian gunmen fired on an Egged bus at a crossroads close to the Kiryat Arba settlement near the entrance to Hebron Several settlers then went on a "rampage" in Halhul
village, near Hebron, shooting one Palestinian.
April 17, 3 Palestinians killed in IDF ambush.
June 4 A 13-year-old Palestinian boy was killed and his eight-year-old brother was wounded in Hebron when an Israeli army bomb exploded near their home.
June 29 Israeli special forces killed a senior member of Hamas movement in Hebron.
July 2, A 17-year-old Palestinian was killed by an Israeli soldier.
July 12 Settlers demonstrations against the expansion of self rule in the West Bank led to clashes, Israeli police arrested 38 Israeli settlers who blocked the main road leading from Jerusalem to Hebron in the West Bank. The spokesman of the Council of Jewish settlers in the West Bank, said this was the opening salve in a campaign of civil disobedience by the settlers to prevent the extension of Palestinian self-rule.
September 8 Five armed men in Israeli army uniforms, some of them masked, forced their way into private homes in Halhoul town 5 kilometres North of Hebron and interrogated the residents. During the assault they shot dead a young Palestinian man as his father watched. A Jewish extremist organization claimed responsibility for the attack.
September 9, Jewish settlers raided a Palestinian girls school and beat the schools headmistress also injured four pupils who had taken part in a street protest.
September 14, Hundreds of Palestinians clashed with Israeli troops, a Palestinian girl and a cameraman from the International Network were injured.
September 30 (Saturday) Yigal Amir
(Yitzhak Rabin's
assassin) was in a group of 20 Israeli who attacked Kathleen Kern and Wendy Lehman of Christian Peacemaker Team on Duboya Street while the women were filming. It was reported that the demonstrators were throwing stones, eggs and smashed the windows of 13 Palestinian cars and 5 houses.
October 13 The Israeli army closed three offices of the Palestinian Authority in Hebron including the offices of information, municipality and national solidarity, which were located next to Jewish settlers homes in the town.
1996
January 16, Sgt. Yaniv Shimel and Major Oz Tibon, both of Jerusalem, were killed when Palestinian gunmen fired on their car on the Hebron-Jerusalem road, reportedly in revenge for the assassination of Yehiya Ayyash.
March 22, The Israeli army arrested three Palestinians from Hebron believed to be involved in the suicide bombings in Israel.
April 2, More than 700 Palestinian marched through the city of Hebron protesting the Israeli closure of the West Bank and Gaza from February.
April 7 Two petrol bombs were thrown at an Israeli bus about 100 meters south of the entrance of Beit Omar near Hebron, injuring five Israelis.
1997
January 1, Hebron Market shot up by Israeli settler/soldier Noam Friedman, wounding seven Palestinians.
January 31 Israelis beat a Palestinian youth and detained him while he was trying to force his way into the Ibrahimi mosque. The incident set off further scuffles.
March 10 Israeli soldiers in Hebron beat Palestinians who tried to stop workers from opening a road for Jewish settlers through land claimed by the Palestinians.
March 21 -April 11, 3 weeks of protests throughout the West Bank demonstrating against the Israeli settlement construction at Jabal Abu Ghneim (Har Homa), Jerusalem. The protests in Hebron alone led to 2 Dead, Kamal al-Zaro, shot dead at a road block into H2 area and an Israeli settler shot dead Asem Arafeh, 24, a shopkeeper, with 276 injured in the clashes.
1998
Aug. 20, Rabbi Shlomo Ra'anan, 63, was stabbed to death in the bedroom of his caravan in Hebron
Oct. 26, Danny Vargas, 29, of Kiryat Arba was shot to death in Hebron.
1999
Jan. 13, Sergeant Yehoshua Gavriel, 25, of Ashdod, was killed when gunmen opened fire at the Othniel junction near Hebron.
August 8, After a shooting at 2 settlers in Hebron city centre the Hamas military wing, the ‘Iz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades released a statement taking responsibility.
2000
February 10 A Palestinian woman from the West Bank town of Hebron died of a heart attack after Israeli soldiers delayed her transfer to a hospital while they were searching her house. Hebron municipal sources said Fatimah Abu Rmeileh, 62, began feeling ill and her husband asked for an ambulance, while 10 soldiers sealed and searched their house. The Army said it found weapons and anti-Israeli propaganda during routine checks.
October 20, Jordanian citizen Walid J'afreh killed by IDF in Tarqumya, Hebron district
On December 22, Muhammad Najib ‘Abido, killed by gunfire at Beit Hagai, near Hebron.
2001
February 1, Dr. Shmuel Gillis, 42, of Karmei Tzur, was killed by Palestinian gunmen who fired at his car near the Aroub refugee camp on the Jerusalem-Hebron highway.
March 26, Shalhevet Pass
, age 10 months, was killed by sniper fire at the entrance to the Avraham Avinu neighborhood in Hebron.
July 19, Muhammad Helmi a-Tameizi along with Diaa' Marwan a-Tameizi Under 1 year-old and Muhammad Salameh a-Tameizi was shot dead by settlers while driving by Idhna, Hebron district.
2002
March 27, Two Temporary International Presence in Hebron
observers were killed by Palestinian gunmen in a shooting attack on the road to Hebron, Cengiz Soytunc (Turkish) and Catherine Berruex (Swiss).
April 2002, During Operation Defensive Shield
, the IDF took control of the whole city and set up permanent guard towers in H-1. The official TIPH Internet site notes: "Since then, the Israeli army operates over the entire area in violation of the agreements."
April, Israeli raid on the West Bank city of Hebron. A least 1 Palestinian was killed early in the raid and then at an Israeli checkpoint 1 Palestinian policeman was killed and 4 others wounded.
July 28, 14 year old Nivin Jamjum was shot dead in Hebron, when settlers rioted in Hebron.
November 15, 12 Israelis were killed in an ambush
of Israeli security personnel in the Wadi an-Nasara neighborhood of Hebron. Of the 12 four were IDF soldiers, five Border Police, and three were from the Kiryat Arba Emergency Response Team
. Several high-ranking officers, among them Hebron Brigade commander Colonel Dror Weinberg, were killed. The three Palestinian gunmen were also killed in the 90 minuet fire fight.
November 16, Israeli forces re-enter H1 areas carrying out mass arrests (40) and demolishing 4 houses.
November 28, there are conflicting reports about the death of a 4 year old Palestinian child. IDF reports said the child had been hit by splinters from a hand grenade thrown at soldiers by Palestinian youths.
2003
May 17, a pregnant Israeli woman and her husband were killed when a suicide bomber detonated himself next to them in a public square in Hebron. Hamas claimed responsibility.
September 9, Thaer Monsur Noman al-Sayouri, aged 9, was killed by IDF tank fire to his head while in his home during an incursion in Hebron.
September 26, Eyal Yeberbaum, 27, and 7-month old infant Shaked Avraham were shot dead by a Palestinian who knocked on the door of a home in Negohot, 9 km west of Hebron, during a celebratory Rosh Hashana (Jewish New Year holiday) dinner. Islamic Jihad took responsibility for the attack.
In 2003 a company of Israeli border police was disbanded after an incident gained international notoriety where 2 border policemen beat a Palestinian and threw him from the back of the jeep which was traveling at approximately 80 km/h to celebrate their end of "tour of duty". In 2008 The 4 Israeli border guards involved in the incident were eventually convicted of the offences of falsifying records, robbery, abduction and the killing of Amran Abu Hamatiya.
2004
March 10, Thaer Mohammad Harun Eid al-Halika, 15, of Shioukh al-Aroob, near Hebron, killed by IDF gunfire to his back at close range on his way home near Route 60.
April 25, The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack in which killed Border Policeman Cpl. Yaniv Mashiah, 20, of Jaffa, and where three others were lightly wounded just an hour after the beginning of Memorial Day for Israel's fallen soldiers when shots were fired at their vehicle near Hebron.
September 29, A group of five Israeli settlers attacked and seriously wounded two U.S. citizens, members of an NGO, who were escorting Palestinian children to school near Hebron.
2005
January 6, Hamzah Abdul-Minem Jaber 9 years old, killed by an IDF jeep on the main road near his home in Hebron.
February 14, after being beaten Sabri Fayez Younis al-Rjoub, 17, of Dura, near Hebron was killed by IDF gunfire to his chest, abdomen, pelvis and right leg.
21 May In Hebron, 10s of Jewish settlers attack Palestinian homes to protest a solidarity visit to the Palestinians by several Israeli peace activists; Jewish settlers from Beit Hadasah settlement, chase and throw stones, eggs, tomatoes at Palestinian girls at a nearby elementary school.
26 May IDF soldiers break into, occupy a Palestinian home in Hebron to watch a soccer championship on the family's satellite TV. the IDF confirms the incident took place, says the cmdr. of the squad has been suspended.
29 May The IDF fatally shoots a Palestinian with a hearing problem who fails orders to halt near Hebron's Ibrahimi Mosque/Tomb of the Patriarchs.
2006
January 14, The TIPH said dozens of Israeli settler youths attacked five of its members, mostly US citizens, near the "Beit Hadassah" settlement. The workers were slightly injured, and two required medical treatment. Police informed the organization that it would be required to leave the area by 22 January, as all Jewish sections of the city would be closed as a military zone. Israeli security forces were able to suspended the military closure on Jewish areas of Hebron, removed roadblocks at the entrances to settlements and eased identity checks when most of the non-residents, who entered Hebron to support the rioting settlers left.
January 17, Amidst protests against an Israeli order to evict nine Jewish families squatting in an area taken from Palestinians in Hebron after the start of the intifada, Israeli police forcibly removed a handful of settler youths from the squat to try to end days of unrest. Late the previous day, the military had declared the area "a closed military zone" to non-residents.
January 18, Olmert ordered the IDF to immediately remove nine Jewish families (some 50 people) squatting illegally on a Palestinian fruit and vegetable market in Hebron. The decision followed consultations with security officials and the new Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni, who is also Justice Minister. The settlers have so far rejected the proposal. Five settlers there were arrested by security forces.
January 19, Israeli troops had shot dead a Palestinian teenager near Hebron IDF and witnesses said he was trying to throw a fire bomb at an IDF patrol near one of the settlements.
2007
January 21, The Jewish settler Yifat Alkobi pressed her face while repeatedly hissing "sharmuta" – whore – at her married Palestinian neighbour, Abu Ayesha. A Video of Settler abusing Palestinians in Hebron received International media attention and her actions widely condemned.
And where, according to testimony given by Taysir Abu Ayesha, Baruch Marzel broke into the house with 10 other settlers in the winter of 2002, beat him and attempted to drag him into the road before he was rescued by his stick-brandishing father.
March Israeli settlers escorted in the 'House of Contention'
June 8, Hijazi Muhammad Abdul-Aziz Rzaiqat, 17, of Taffouh, near Hebron, shot to death by IDF gunfire to his chest, abdomen, left shoulder and right thigh while hunting birds with a gun.
July 3, Ahmad Abdul-Muhsen Abdul-Rahim al-Skafi, 15, of Hebron, killed by IDF gunfire to his head while carrying a toy gun.
August Hillel Weiss
, father of Tehila Yahalom, verbally abused Hebron Brigade commander Col. Yehuda Fuchs, while IDF troops evacuated 2 settler families from the Hebron wholesale market. Bar-Ilan University
, where Weiss is a professor, has publicly distanced itself from his remarks and criticized Weiss.
2008
February 13, the 15-month prison sentence and reduction to the rank of private of Lieutenant Ya'akov Gigi was confirmed for a "wild rampage" in the West Bank where Gigi and five of his soldiers hijacked a Palestinian taxi in July 2007 in the West Bank village of Dahariya, near Hebron. The version of events that Gigi gave was found to be false. First Sergeant Dror, who shot a Palestinian in the neck severely wounding him claims that the way the Palestinian looked at him was enough to classify him as a "suspect" and to justify opening fire.
In February the IDF ordered an orphanage run by the Islamic Charitable Society
(ICS), that houses 240 orphans, in Hebron closed, based on the ICS's alleged promotion of terrorism. The ICS disputes these charges.
May 2, Khalil Ahmad Mahmoud a-Za'arir was killed after attempting to stab a soldiers at a Hebron checkpoint.
July 9, Avner Inbar, an Israeli, taking a group of South African Human rights activists, that included Zackie Achmat
and Edwin Cameronon, on a tour of Hebron reported that the group was verbally abused by settlers. Three Israelis were arrested for disturbing the peace.
August, al-Ras Mosque, located next to al-Rajabi House settlement became the target of settler attacks during early August 2008 with large quantities of rubbish were placed at the entrance of the Mosque and was again attacked on August 11, 2008 when Israeli settlers from the al-Rajabi House settlement attempted to set fire to the mosque.
During the second week of August a total of five civilians – three Palestinians and two foreigners, including two UNRWA staff and one child, were physically assaulted and injured.
7 August Israeli settlers from Giv'at Ha'avot settlement (next to Kiryat Arba) attacked five nearby Palestinian houses with rocks and bottles.
August Hebron settlers attacked a group of visiting UK diplomats. Breaking the Silence only take small parties so as not to constitute a "group" as settlers regularly attacked "Breaking the Silence" tours.
October 25 Settlers destroyed Muslim graves and 80 Palestinian cars during a riot against the IDF, as the army dismantled a new settlement near Hebron.
6 December The Israeli settlers from the 'House of contention' are evicted by Israeli police.
7 December Hebron settlers angry at the eviction of occupants from a disputed house rioted, shooting three Palestinians and burning Palestinian homes and olive groves. Video footage of the attacks was recorded, leading to widespread condemnation in IsraelThe many Israeli settlers then went on a rampage as part of a 'price' policy. An Israeli soldier, Corporal Avraham Schneider of the elite Givati Brigade
and settler from Kiryat Arba, was arrested for taking part in the settler riots.
The attacks were characterized as "a pogrom
" by then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who said he was ashamed "as a Jew".
2010
In February 2010, in an incident compared to the Tapuah junction stabbing
, one of a group of militants who were throwing rocks at a Jewish home attempted to stab one of the soldiers who arrived to stop them.
In the June 2010 IDF Tik Tok
incident there was an internaitonal media flap when a group of Israeli soldiers was filmed dancing in the streets of Hebron while on patrol in full combat gear to Tik Tok, a song by pop by pop star Kesha
.
Israeli–Palestinian conflict
The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The conflict is wide-ranging, and the term is also used in reference to the earlier phases of the same conflict, between Jewish and Zionist yishuv and the Arab population living in Palestine under Ottoman or...
. Hebron
Hebron
Hebron , is located in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Nestled in the Judean Mountains, it lies 930 meters above sea level. It is the largest city in the West Bank and home to around 165,000 Palestinians, and over 500 Jewish settlers concentrated in and around the old quarter...
is home to 160,000 Palestinians and 500-800 Israeli settlers. The Israeli settlers live in close proximity to the city boundary and require a constant Israeli military presence.
Background
In the mid-19th century, Hebron was small town with a population of around 10,000, the majority of whom were Muslims.From December 1917, during World War I, the British occupied Hebron
Hebron
Hebron , is located in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Nestled in the Judean Mountains, it lies 930 meters above sea level. It is the largest city in the West Bank and home to around 165,000 Palestinians, and over 500 Jewish settlers concentrated in and around the old quarter...
, a move sanctioned by the League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...
. As a result of the 1929 Hebron massacre
1929 Hebron massacre
The Hebron massacre refers to the killing of sixty-seven Jews on 23 and 24 August 1929 in Hebron, then part of the British Mandate of Palestine, by Arabs incited to violence by rumors that Jews were massacring Arabs in Jerusalem and seizing control of Muslim holy places...
, the Jewish community of 750 people was disbanded. In 1931, 160 Jews returned to the town, but after further Arab unrest, the British Government decided to move all Jews out of Hebron "to prevent another massacre".
At the beginning of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Egypt took control of Hebron. By late 1948 part of the Egyptian forces had been isolated around Hebron and Bethlehem, Pasha Glubb
John Bagot Glubb
Lieutenant-General Sir John Bagot Glubb KCB, CMG, DSO, OBE, MC better known as Glubb Pasha , was a British soldier, scholar and author, best known for leading and training Transjordan's Arab Legion 1939-1956 as its commanding general...
sent 350 Arab Legion
Arab Legion
The Arab Legion was the regular army of Transjordan and then Jordan in the early part of the 20th century.-Creation:...
naires and established a Jordanian presence in Hebron. With the signing of the Armistice agreements the city fell exclusively under Jordanian control
Rule of the West Bank and East Jerusalem by Jordan
The West Bank and East Jerusalem were occupied by Jordan for a period of nearly two decades starting from the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. In 1950, the British extended formal recognition to the union between the Hashemite Kingdom and of that part of Palestine under Jordanian occupation and control -...
and in 1950 the West Bank was unilaterally incorporated into Jordan.
Israeli rule and Jewish re-settlement
Following the June 1967 Six Day War, Hebron came under Israeli control with the rest of the West BankWest Bank
The West Bank ) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan...
. The vacillations in the Israeli cabinet after the Six Day War, over annexation and the political realism in wanting to maintain the majority Jewish demographic of Israel left the Israeli leadership in a quandary in ways to deal with the newly occupied territories. Israel's position was that parts of the West Bank
West Bank
The West Bank ) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan...
be traded for peace
Land for peace
Land for peace is an interpretation of UN Security Council Resolution 242 which has formed the basis of subsequent Arab-Israeli peace making. The name Land for Peace is derived from the wording of the resolution's first operative paragraph which affirms that peace should include the application of...
with Jordan. In what was called the Allon Plan
Allon Plan
The Allon Plan was an Israeli proposal of the late 1960s to partition the West Bank, captured from Jordan in the Six-Day War of June 1967, between Israel and Jordan...
, Israel was to annex 45% of the West Bank and Jordan the remainder.
In an interview with the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
on July 12, 1967, Former Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion
David Ben-Gurion
' was the first Prime Minister of Israel.Ben-Gurion's passion for Zionism, which began early in life, led him to become a major Zionist leader and Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization in 1946...
declared that:
....in the cause of peace, Israel should take nothing in the conquered territories, with the exception of Hebron, which 'is more Jewish even than Jerusalem'. According to Randolph Churchill, he [Ben-Gurion] argued that "Jerusalem became Jewish three thousand years ago under King David. but Hebron became Jewish four thousand years ago under Abraham and included a number of settlements that were destroyed two days before Israel was established."
Moshe Levinger
Rabbi Moshe Levinger is an Israeli Religious Zionist who since 1967 has been a leading figure in the movement to settle Jews in the territories occupied by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War...
, with the tacit support of Levi Eshkol
Levi Eshkol
' served as the third Prime Minister of Israel from 1963 until his death from a heart attack in 1969. He was the first Israeli Prime Minister to die in office.-Biography:...
and Yigal Allon
Yigal Allon
Yigal Allon was an Israeli politician, a commander of the Palmach, and a general in the IDF. He served as one of the leaders of Ahdut HaAvoda party and the Israeli Labor party, and acting Prime Minister of Israel, and was a member of the Knesset and government minister from the 10th through the...
, rented out the main hotel in Hebron and refused to leave. This was short lived and through a government compromise the Jewish presence was moved east to a nearby abandoned army camp. The new settlement
Israeli settlement
An Israeli settlement is a Jewish civilian community built on land that was captured by Israel from Jordan, Egypt, and Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War and is considered occupied territory by the international community. Such settlements currently exist in the West Bank...
of Kiryat Arba
Kiryat Arba
Kiryat Arba or Qiryat Arba , lit. "Town of the Four," is an Israeli settlement in the Judean Mountains region of the West Bank on the edge of Hebron. Its settlers consist of a mix of Russian immigrants, American immigrants, and native-born Israelis numbering close to 10,000...
was established. According to the American Jewish historian Ian Lustik:
The government was caught by surprise. Internally divided, depending for its survival on the votes of the National Religious PartyNational Religious PartyThe National Religious Party ) was a political party in Israel representing the religious Zionist movement. Formed in 1956, at the time of its dissolution in 2008, it was the second oldest surviving party in the country after Agudat Yisrael, and was part of every government coalition until 1992...
, and reluctant to forcibly evacuate the settlers from a city whose Jewish population had been massacred thirty-nine years earlier, the Labor governmentIsraeli legislative election, 1965Elections for the sixth Knesset were held in Israel on 1 November 1965. Voter turnout was 85.9%.-Background:Prior to the elections, two major alliances were formed; Mapai and Ahdut HaAvoda united to form the Alignment, whilst Herut and the Liberal Party had formed the Gahal alliance towards the end...
backed away from its original prohibition against civilian settlement in the area and permitted this group to remain within a military compound. After more than a year and a half of agitation and a bloody Arab attack on the Hebron settlers, the government agreed to allow Levinger's group to establish a town on the outskirts of the city.
Beginning in 1979, some Jewish settlers moved from Kiryat Arba to found the Committee of The Jewish Community of Hebron
Committee of The Jewish Community of Hebron
The Committee of the Jewish Community of Hebron is the municipal body of the Israeli settlers of the city of Hebron, on the West Bank. The community constitutes a Regional Committee, included the Har Hebron Regional Council. The mayor/spokesman of the community is David Wilder. Beit HaShalom, , was...
in the former Jewish neighbourhood near the Abraham Avinu Synagogue
Abraham Avinu Synagogue
The Abraham Avinu Synagogue was built by Hakham Malkiel Ashkenazi in the Jewish Quarter of Hebron in 1540. The domed structure represented the physical center of the Jewish Quarter of Hebron, and became the spiritual center of the Jewish Community there and a major center for the study of Kabalah...
, and later to other Hebron neighborhoods including Tel Rumeida
Tel Rumeida
Tel Rumeida is a tell most identified as the location of biblical Hebron. Today, it is the site of a Jewish Israeli settlement. The most famous resident is Baruch Marzel, a rightist activist and head of the Jewish National Front, who lives there with his family...
. They took over the former Hadassah Hospital, Daboya Hospital, now Beit Hadassah in central Hebron, founding the Committee of The Jewish Community of Hebron
Committee of The Jewish Community of Hebron
The Committee of the Jewish Community of Hebron is the municipal body of the Israeli settlers of the city of Hebron, on the West Bank. The community constitutes a Regional Committee, included the Har Hebron Regional Council. The mayor/spokesman of the community is David Wilder. Beit HaShalom, , was...
. Before long this received Israeli government approval and a further three Jewish enclaves in the city were established with Israeli army assistance, and settlers are currently reported to be trying to purchase more homes in the city.
Views on the re-settlement
The Jewish Sephardic community had been in Hebron continuously for approximately 800 years and the Ashkenazi community had roots there that went back at for about one century. Jews living in the new settlements and their supporters claim that they are resettling areas where Jews have lived since time immemorial. However, some reports, both foreign and Israeli are sharply critical of the settlers.The sentiments of Jews who fled the 1929 Hebron massacre
1929 Hebron massacre
The Hebron massacre refers to the killing of sixty-seven Jews on 23 and 24 August 1929 in Hebron, then part of the British Mandate of Palestine, by Arabs incited to violence by rumors that Jews were massacring Arabs in Jerusalem and seizing control of Muslim holy places...
and their descendants are mixed. Some advocate the continued settlement of Hebron as a way to continue the Jewish heritage in the city, while others suggest that settlers should try to live in peace with the Arabs there, with some even recommending the complete pullout of all settlers in Hebron. Descendants supporting the latter views have met with Palestinian leaders in Hebron. The two most public examples of the descendants' views are the 1997 statement made by an association of some descendants dissociating themselves from the then-current Jewish settlers in Hebron and calling them an obstacle to peace, and the May 15, 2006 letter sent to the Israeli government by other descendants urging the government to continue its support of Jewish settlement in Hebron in their names, and urged it to allow the return of eight Jewish families evacuated the previous January from the homes they set up in empty shops near the Avraham Avinu neighborhood. Beit HaShalom
Beit HaShalom
Beit HaShalom, , or the Al Rajabi House settlement is a four-story structure that housed a local Hebron Jewish community of 25 families, youth and yeshiva students. The structure is located on the main road linking Kiryat Arba to the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron...
, was established in 2007. One of the purchasers is a descendant of Jews who fled Hebron during Arab massacres.
A total of 86 Jewish families now live in Hebron.
Post-Oslo Accord
Baruch Goldstein
Baruch Kopel Goldstein was an American-born Jewish Israeli physician and mass murderer who perpetrated the 1994 Cave of the Patriarchs massacre in the city of Hebron, killing 29 Palestinian Muslim worshipers and wounding another 125....
opened fire on Muslims at prayer in the Cave of the Patriarchs
Cave of the Patriarchs
The Cave of the Patriarchs or the Cave of Machpelah , is known by Muslims as the Sanctuary of Abraham or Ibrahimi Mosque ....
, killing 29, before the survivors overcame and killed him. In the ensuing riots in the West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza Strip a further 25 Palestinians were killed. This event was condemned by the Israeli Government. The extreme right-wing Kach
Kach and Kahane Chai
Kach was a far-right political party in Israel. Founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane in the early 1970s, and following his Jewish nationalist ideology , the party entered the Knesset in 1984 after several electoral failures...
party was banned outright by the Israeli cabinet
Cabinet of Israel
The Cabinet of Israel is a formal body composed of government officials called ministers, chosen and led by the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister must appoint members based on the distribution of votes to political parties during legislative elections, and its composition must be approved by a...
under 1948 anti-terrorism
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
laws, following the groups support of Golstein's actions.
The first Temporary International Presence in Hebron
Temporary International Presence in Hebron
Temporary International Presence in Hebron or TIPH is civilian observer mission in the in the West Bank city of Hebron. Both the Israeli Government and Palestinian Authority called for its creation...
(TIPH) mission was established on May 8, 1994 as a UN response to the massacre. However the Palestinian Authority and the Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i government could not reach an agreement on the extension of the mandate and the observers were therefore withdrawn on August 8, 1994.
A year later, Hebron's mayor, Mustafa Abdel Nabi, invited the Christian Peacemaker Teams
Christian Peacemaker Teams
Christian Peacemaker Teams is an international organization set up to support teams of peace workers in conflict areas around the world. These teams believe that they can lower the levels of violence through nonviolent direct action, human rights documentation, and nonviolence training. CPT sums...
to assist the local Palestinian community in opposition to what they describe as Israeli military occupation, collective punishment, settler harassment, home demolitions and land confiscation.
The redeployment of Israeli military forces in Hebron in accordance with the Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (the Interim Agreement or "Oslo II") of September 1995 was postponed on 28 March 1996. Since 17 January 1997, following re-negotiation of the Hebron Agreement, the city has been divided into two sectors: H1 and H2. The H1 sector, home to around 120,000 Palestinians, came under the control of the Palestinian Authority
Palestinian National Authority
The Palestinian Authority is the administrative organization established to govern parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip...
, in accordance with Hebron Protocol, shortly afterwards, Israeli and Palestinian joint units began patrolling the sensitive parts of the city. H2, which was inhabited by around 30,000 Palestinians, remained under Israeli military control in order to protect some 500-800 Jewish residents living in the old Jewish quarter, now an enclave near the center of the town. Renovation work that was being carried out on Palestinian homes prior to the Hebron agreement was halted on Israeli military orders. During the years since the outbreak of the Second Intifada, the Palestinian population in H2 has decreased greatly, the drop in large part having been identified with extended curfews and movement restrictions placed on Palestinian residents of the sector by the IDF for security needs, including the closing of Palestinian shops in certain areas. Settler harassment of their Palestinian neighbours in H2 was a reason for several dozen Palestinian families to depart the areas adjacent to the Israeli population.
The Hebron Jewish community has been subject to attacks by Palestinian militants since the Oslo agreement, especially during the periods of the Intifadas; which saw 3 fatal stabbings and 9 fatal shootings in between the first and second Intifada (0.9% of all fatalities in Israel and the West Bank) and 17 fatal shooting (9 soldiers and 8 settlers) and 2 fatalities from a bombing during the second Intifada. and thousands of rounds fired on it from the hills above the Abu-Sneina and Harat al-Sheikh neighbourhoods. According to Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
, Palestinian areas of Hebron are frequently subject to indiscriminate firing by the IDF, leading to many casualties.
An international civilian observer force, the TIPH was subsequently re-established on 14 May 1996 to help the normalization of the situation and to maintain a buffer between the Palestinian Arab population of the city and the Jews residing in their enclave in the old city during the handing over period to the Palestinian Authority. On February 8, 2006, TIPH temporarily left Hebron after attacks on their headquarters by some Palestinians angered by the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy
Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy
The Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy began after 12 editorial cartoons, most of which depicted the Islamic prophet Muhammad, were published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on 30 September 2005...
. TIPH came back to Hebron a few months later.
The city of Hebron has been a major friction point, with Palestinians and Israeli human rights groups accusing the hard-line religious settlers of attacking the Palestinian population with impunity. According to Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
, the settler bias of the IDF was confirmed and clarified by Hebron commander Noam Tivon when he stated in an Ha'aretz article:
Let there be no mistake about it. I am not from the UN. I am from the Israeli Defense Force. I did not come here to seek people to drink tea with, but first of all to ensure the security of the Jewish settlers.
Tivon later suggested that the "Palestinian Authority is encouraging children to participate in clashes with the IDF by offering their families $300 per injury and $2,000 for anyone killed. He also said "the soldiers have acted with the utmost restraint and have not initiated any shooting attacks or violence."
The Islamic movement Hamas won an overwhelming victory in the 2006 elections.
The Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence, composed mostly of former soldiers, has documented abuses committed by Israeli soldiers
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal , are the military forces of the State of Israel. They consist of the ground forces, air force and navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel...
guarding the Hebron settlers, while Mario Vargas Llosa
Mario Vargas Llosa
Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquis of Vargas Llosa is a Peruvian-Spanish writer, politician, journalist, essayist, and Nobel Prize laureate. Vargas Llosa is one of Latin America's most significant novelists and essayists, and one of the leading authors of his generation...
has written that local Arabs are "subjected to systematic and ferocious harassment by settlers, who stone them, throw rubbish and excrement at their houses, invade and destroy their homes, and attack their children when they return from school, to the absolute indifference of Israeli soldiers who witness these atrocities."
The documentary Welcome to Hebron asserts that settlers often harass the local Palestinian population. In the film, a former commander of the Israeli army, one of the leading figures in Breaking The Silence, shared his experiences as a soldier in Hebron.
In September and October 2008 reports stated to leak out about the possibility of a transfer of authority for security operations.
List of incidents of Israeli–Palestinian conflict in Hebron
195322 December 1953. 4 Soldiers of the Israeli commando unit 101 under Meir Ha Tzion, attacked a house on the outskirts of Hebron and killed 2 men and a woman occupant.
1980
2 May 6 Jews were murdered and 16 injured at 7:30 pm Friday evening while returning home from prayer services on foot, in accordance with Jewish religious law on the Sabbath
Shabbat
Shabbat is the seventh day of the Jewish week and a day of rest in Judaism. Shabbat is observed from a few minutes before sunset on Friday evening until a few minutes after when one would expect to be able to see three stars in the sky on Saturday night. The exact times, therefore, differ from...
. They were attacked from behind with gunfire and grenades from the rooftops around a small alley.
2 June Israeli settler group based in Kiryat Arba set a bomb off in Hebron market 11 Palestinians are injured.
1983
July 3 Arab students killed in an attack on the Islamic College in Hebron
Hebron
Hebron , is located in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Nestled in the Judean Mountains, it lies 930 meters above sea level. It is the largest city in the West Bank and home to around 165,000 Palestinians, and over 500 Jewish settlers concentrated in and around the old quarter...
.
July 7 The commander of the central region ordered the dismissal of the municipal council of Hebron and of acting mayor Mustafa Natche (the Mayor, Fahd Al Kawasme, having been expelled from the OTP on 2 May 1980) and appointed a Jewish member of the civilian administration to the post of mayor of Hebron municipality. Mustafa Natche was able to re-take his post again in April 1994.
1988
In September Zein Moh’d Ghazi Karaki was shot to death.
September 30, Palestinian shoe store owner Kayed Hassan Salah was shot dead and a customer was wounded by Rabbi Moshe Levinger
Moshe Levinger
Rabbi Moshe Levinger is an Israeli Religious Zionist who since 1967 has been a leading figure in the movement to settle Jews in the territories occupied by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War...
.
1989
28 August Bayiha Najar Nawaj'a was killed in the centre of Hebron, allegedly by Israeli settlers.
1992
4 February Mustafa Akawi died under interrogation in the GSS interrogation wing of the Hebron prison.
1993
March 23, Israeli settler Yoram Skolnik fired several shots from his Uzi submachine gun and killed Musa Abu Sabha, a Palestinian who lay face down, his hands tied behind him. Abu Sabha had been caught near the "Susia" settlement, south of Hebron, carrying a knife and a grenade, and had stabbed and slightly wounded a settler before he was subdued.
September 16, Palestinians celebrating in support of the Israeli-Palestinian accord in Halhul
Halhul
Halhul is a Palestinian city located in the southern West Bank, north of Hebron in the Hebron Governorate. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the city had a population of 22,108 mostly Muslim inhabitants in 2007.- History :...
village came under fire from Israeli troops and as a result, a young Palestinian was injured.
October 5, Israeli troops shot and injured a Palestinian.
November 7, Efraim Ayubi of Kfar Darom, Rabbi Chaim Druckman's personal driver, was shot to death by Palestinian gunmen and the Rabbi wounded near Hebron. HAMAS publicly claimed responsibility for the murder. Settlers then rioted wounding 3 Palestinians.
November 14 Jewish settlers shot and killed a young Palestinian after he stabbed and injured a settler near the Ibrahimi Mosque.
November 16, Jewish settlers overturned market stalls, smashed cars and broke car windshields.
December 3 A young Palestinian was shot and injured by Jewish settlers in Hebron.
December 5, A group of Jewish settlers from Kiryat Arba ambushed and killed a Palestinian resident from Hebron. The killing triggered demonstrations and protests all over the West Bank.
December 6, 1993 Mordechai Lapid and his son Shalom Lapid, age 19, were shot to death by Palestinian gunmen near Hebron. HAMAS publicly claimed responsibility for the attack.
December 10 Three Palestinians, two brothers and a cousin, were assassinated by Jewish settlers while sitting in a parked car near Hebron.
1994
January 13 Three Israeli soldiers were injured after been shot at by Palestinians in an ambush near Hebron.
January 14, 1994 Israeli troops fired anti-tank rockets into a house near Hebron killing the four Palestinians who were barricaded in the house.
January 18, Israeli troops opened fire during clashes with Palestinian demonstrators injuring 9 in Hebron.
February 2, Three Israeli settlers were shot and injured by Palestinian gunmen in an ambush near Hebron.
February 17, Yuval Golan, stabbed on December 29, 1993 by a Palestinian gunman near Adarim in the Hebron area, died of his wounds.
February 18, An Israeli settler's car was ambushed by a Hamas unit near Hebron, killing a pregnant Jewish settler.
February 25, The Goldstein attack on Muslims at prayer in the Ibrahimi Mosque, 29 Palestinians killed. 25 more Palestinians killed in the ensuing suppression by Israeli police of a demonstration of protest.
April 7 It was claimed that a settler deliberately ran his car into a Palestinian and his 5 year old son. Israeli police said that it was a car accident.
May 17, Rafael Yairi (Klumfenbert), 36, of Kiryat Arba, and Margalit Ruth Shohat, 48, of Ma'ale Levona, were killed when their car was fired upon by gunmen in a passing car near Beit Haggai, south of Hebron.
June 4 A home-made grenade was hurled at an Israeli army post injuring 6 Palestinians. The IDF opened fire at stone throwers and injured 8 of them. In a clash following this incident, 4 soldiers and 6 Palestinians were injured.
June 17, Israeli troops shot and wounded four Palestinians during clashes.
July 8, Palestinian drive-by shooting
Drive-by shooting
A drive-by shooting is a form of hit-and-run tactic, a personal attack carried out by an individual or individuals from a moving or momentarily stopped vehicle without use of headlights to avoid being noticed. It often results in bystanders being shot instead of, or as well as, the intended target...
of a settler school girl.
July 18, Israeli troops shot and wounded two Palestinians.
July 22 17 Palestinians were injured in clashes with Israeli troops.
August 26 Israeli troops shot and wounded three Palestinians during a clash at the police square.
September Members of the "The Jewish Underground of Revenge" are arrested by the Israeli secret police.
September 22, Several thousand West Bank Jewish settlers and their supporters from Israel skirmished with Israeli border police for more than four hours before a group of religious Jews were able to brake into the Ibrahimi Mosque, which has been closed for 7 months after the massacre of 29 Muslims in February. At least four people were injured and 20 were arrested.
October 1, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian man who stabbed and wounded an Israeli soldier.
October 7, Razi Haymouni, 23, a Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli border police after he tried to pour acid on two policemen near the Ibrahimi Mosque.
October 16 Israeli troops shot dead Imad al-Adarba, 23 in Hebron.
October 23, Nidal Said al-Tamimi, 22, shot dead after he reportedly tried to stab a soldier. He had been recently released from an Israeli jail.
November 27, 1994 Rabbi Amiran Olami, 34, of Otniel was killed and an Israeli policeman wounded near Beit Hagai 10 km south of Hebron by shots fired from a passing car.
November 29, Israeli police arrested 10 Jewish settlers as they attempted to invade the Moslem-designated area in the Ibrahimi Mosque. Among those arrested was Yehuda Etzion, who was jailed for attempting to blow up the Dome of the Rock in East Jerusalem in 1984 and was granted amnesty after four years in jail.
1995
January 15, A shoulder-held anti-tank missile (LAW) was fired at a Jewish apartment in Hebron, 10 LAW missiles had been taken from an Israeli Military base on the West Bank.
March 14, 4 home made bombs were found by Israeli police on a road at the northern entrance to Hebron.
March 19, Nahum Hoss, 32, of Hebron and Yehuda Fartush, 41, of Kiryat Arba, were killed and 5 settlers wounded when Palestinian gunmen fired on an Egged bus at a crossroads close to the Kiryat Arba settlement near the entrance to Hebron Several settlers then went on a "rampage" in Halhul
Halhul
Halhul is a Palestinian city located in the southern West Bank, north of Hebron in the Hebron Governorate. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the city had a population of 22,108 mostly Muslim inhabitants in 2007.- History :...
village, near Hebron, shooting one Palestinian.
April 17, 3 Palestinians killed in IDF ambush.
June 4 A 13-year-old Palestinian boy was killed and his eight-year-old brother was wounded in Hebron when an Israeli army bomb exploded near their home.
June 29 Israeli special forces killed a senior member of Hamas movement in Hebron.
July 2, A 17-year-old Palestinian was killed by an Israeli soldier.
July 12 Settlers demonstrations against the expansion of self rule in the West Bank led to clashes, Israeli police arrested 38 Israeli settlers who blocked the main road leading from Jerusalem to Hebron in the West Bank. The spokesman of the Council of Jewish settlers in the West Bank, said this was the opening salve in a campaign of civil disobedience by the settlers to prevent the extension of Palestinian self-rule.
September 8 Five armed men in Israeli army uniforms, some of them masked, forced their way into private homes in Halhoul town 5 kilometres North of Hebron and interrogated the residents. During the assault they shot dead a young Palestinian man as his father watched. A Jewish extremist organization claimed responsibility for the attack.
September 9, Jewish settlers raided a Palestinian girls school and beat the schools headmistress also injured four pupils who had taken part in a street protest.
September 14, Hundreds of Palestinians clashed with Israeli troops, a Palestinian girl and a cameraman from the International Network were injured.
September 30 (Saturday) Yigal Amir
Yigal Amir
Yigal Amir is the Israeli assassin of Prime Minister of Israel Yitzhak Rabin. The assassination took place on November 4, 1995 at the conclusion of a rally in Tel Aviv. Amir is currently serving a life sentence for murder plus six years for injuring Rabin's bodyguard, Yoram Rubin, under...
(Yitzhak Rabin's
Yitzhak Rabin
' was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–77 and 1992 until his assassination in 1995....
assassin) was in a group of 20 Israeli who attacked Kathleen Kern and Wendy Lehman of Christian Peacemaker Team on Duboya Street while the women were filming. It was reported that the demonstrators were throwing stones, eggs and smashed the windows of 13 Palestinian cars and 5 houses.
October 13 The Israeli army closed three offices of the Palestinian Authority in Hebron including the offices of information, municipality and national solidarity, which were located next to Jewish settlers homes in the town.
1996
January 16, Sgt. Yaniv Shimel and Major Oz Tibon, both of Jerusalem, were killed when Palestinian gunmen fired on their car on the Hebron-Jerusalem road, reportedly in revenge for the assassination of Yehiya Ayyash.
March 22, The Israeli army arrested three Palestinians from Hebron believed to be involved in the suicide bombings in Israel.
April 2, More than 700 Palestinian marched through the city of Hebron protesting the Israeli closure of the West Bank and Gaza from February.
April 7 Two petrol bombs were thrown at an Israeli bus about 100 meters south of the entrance of Beit Omar near Hebron, injuring five Israelis.
1997
January 1, Hebron Market shot up by Israeli settler/soldier Noam Friedman, wounding seven Palestinians.
January 31 Israelis beat a Palestinian youth and detained him while he was trying to force his way into the Ibrahimi mosque. The incident set off further scuffles.
March 10 Israeli soldiers in Hebron beat Palestinians who tried to stop workers from opening a road for Jewish settlers through land claimed by the Palestinians.
March 21 -April 11, 3 weeks of protests throughout the West Bank demonstrating against the Israeli settlement construction at Jabal Abu Ghneim (Har Homa), Jerusalem. The protests in Hebron alone led to 2 Dead, Kamal al-Zaro, shot dead at a road block into H2 area and an Israeli settler shot dead Asem Arafeh, 24, a shopkeeper, with 276 injured in the clashes.
1998
Aug. 20, Rabbi Shlomo Ra'anan, 63, was stabbed to death in the bedroom of his caravan in Hebron
Oct. 26, Danny Vargas, 29, of Kiryat Arba was shot to death in Hebron.
1999
Jan. 13, Sergeant Yehoshua Gavriel, 25, of Ashdod, was killed when gunmen opened fire at the Othniel junction near Hebron.
August 8, After a shooting at 2 settlers in Hebron city centre the Hamas military wing, the ‘Iz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades released a statement taking responsibility.
2000
February 10 A Palestinian woman from the West Bank town of Hebron died of a heart attack after Israeli soldiers delayed her transfer to a hospital while they were searching her house. Hebron municipal sources said Fatimah Abu Rmeileh, 62, began feeling ill and her husband asked for an ambulance, while 10 soldiers sealed and searched their house. The Army said it found weapons and anti-Israeli propaganda during routine checks.
October 20, Jordanian citizen Walid J'afreh killed by IDF in Tarqumya, Hebron district
On December 22, Muhammad Najib ‘Abido, killed by gunfire at Beit Hagai, near Hebron.
2001
February 1, Dr. Shmuel Gillis, 42, of Karmei Tzur, was killed by Palestinian gunmen who fired at his car near the Aroub refugee camp on the Jerusalem-Hebron highway.
March 26, Shalhevet Pass
Shalhevet Pass
The murder of Shalhevet Pass was a shooting attack which was carried out on March 26, 2001 in Hebron, in which a Palestinian sniper killed the ten-month-old Israeli infant Shalhevet Pass...
, age 10 months, was killed by sniper fire at the entrance to the Avraham Avinu neighborhood in Hebron.
July 19, Muhammad Helmi a-Tameizi along with Diaa' Marwan a-Tameizi Under 1 year-old and Muhammad Salameh a-Tameizi was shot dead by settlers while driving by Idhna, Hebron district.
2002
March 27, Two Temporary International Presence in Hebron
Temporary International Presence in Hebron
Temporary International Presence in Hebron or TIPH is civilian observer mission in the in the West Bank city of Hebron. Both the Israeli Government and Palestinian Authority called for its creation...
observers were killed by Palestinian gunmen in a shooting attack on the road to Hebron, Cengiz Soytunc (Turkish) and Catherine Berruex (Swiss).
April 2002, During Operation Defensive Shield
Operation Defensive Shield
Operation Defensive Shield was a large-scale military operation conducted by the Israel Defense Forces in 2002, during the course of the Second Intifada. It was the largest military operation in the West Bank since the 1967 Six-Day War. The operation was an attempt by the Israeli army to stop the...
, the IDF took control of the whole city and set up permanent guard towers in H-1. The official TIPH Internet site notes: "Since then, the Israeli army operates over the entire area in violation of the agreements."
April, Israeli raid on the West Bank city of Hebron. A least 1 Palestinian was killed early in the raid and then at an Israeli checkpoint 1 Palestinian policeman was killed and 4 others wounded.
July 28, 14 year old Nivin Jamjum was shot dead in Hebron, when settlers rioted in Hebron.
November 15, 12 Israelis were killed in an ambush
2002 Hebron ambush
The 2002 Hebron ambush took place in the Wadi an-Nasara neighborhood in Hebron in the West Bank on November 15, 2002. Israeli forces were subjected to a series of ambushes by fighters from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Twelve Israeli combatants, including three officers, were killed in the battle,...
of Israeli security personnel in the Wadi an-Nasara neighborhood of Hebron. Of the 12 four were IDF soldiers, five Border Police, and three were from the Kiryat Arba Emergency Response Team
Emergency Response Team
The Emergency Response Team is the paramilitary tactical police arm of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.- Purpose and history of the ERT :...
. Several high-ranking officers, among them Hebron Brigade commander Colonel Dror Weinberg, were killed. The three Palestinian gunmen were also killed in the 90 minuet fire fight.
November 16, Israeli forces re-enter H1 areas carrying out mass arrests (40) and demolishing 4 houses.
November 28, there are conflicting reports about the death of a 4 year old Palestinian child. IDF reports said the child had been hit by splinters from a hand grenade thrown at soldiers by Palestinian youths.
2003
May 17, a pregnant Israeli woman and her husband were killed when a suicide bomber detonated himself next to them in a public square in Hebron. Hamas claimed responsibility.
September 9, Thaer Monsur Noman al-Sayouri, aged 9, was killed by IDF tank fire to his head while in his home during an incursion in Hebron.
September 26, Eyal Yeberbaum, 27, and 7-month old infant Shaked Avraham were shot dead by a Palestinian who knocked on the door of a home in Negohot, 9 km west of Hebron, during a celebratory Rosh Hashana (Jewish New Year holiday) dinner. Islamic Jihad took responsibility for the attack.
In 2003 a company of Israeli border police was disbanded after an incident gained international notoriety where 2 border policemen beat a Palestinian and threw him from the back of the jeep which was traveling at approximately 80 km/h to celebrate their end of "tour of duty". In 2008 The 4 Israeli border guards involved in the incident were eventually convicted of the offences of falsifying records, robbery, abduction and the killing of Amran Abu Hamatiya.
2004
March 10, Thaer Mohammad Harun Eid al-Halika, 15, of Shioukh al-Aroob, near Hebron, killed by IDF gunfire to his back at close range on his way home near Route 60.
April 25, The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack in which killed Border Policeman Cpl. Yaniv Mashiah, 20, of Jaffa, and where three others were lightly wounded just an hour after the beginning of Memorial Day for Israel's fallen soldiers when shots were fired at their vehicle near Hebron.
September 29, A group of five Israeli settlers attacked and seriously wounded two U.S. citizens, members of an NGO, who were escorting Palestinian children to school near Hebron.
2005
January 6, Hamzah Abdul-Minem Jaber 9 years old, killed by an IDF jeep on the main road near his home in Hebron.
February 14, after being beaten Sabri Fayez Younis al-Rjoub, 17, of Dura, near Hebron was killed by IDF gunfire to his chest, abdomen, pelvis and right leg.
21 May In Hebron, 10s of Jewish settlers attack Palestinian homes to protest a solidarity visit to the Palestinians by several Israeli peace activists; Jewish settlers from Beit Hadasah settlement, chase and throw stones, eggs, tomatoes at Palestinian girls at a nearby elementary school.
26 May IDF soldiers break into, occupy a Palestinian home in Hebron to watch a soccer championship on the family's satellite TV. the IDF confirms the incident took place, says the cmdr. of the squad has been suspended.
29 May The IDF fatally shoots a Palestinian with a hearing problem who fails orders to halt near Hebron's Ibrahimi Mosque/Tomb of the Patriarchs.
2006
January 14, The TIPH said dozens of Israeli settler youths attacked five of its members, mostly US citizens, near the "Beit Hadassah" settlement. The workers were slightly injured, and two required medical treatment. Police informed the organization that it would be required to leave the area by 22 January, as all Jewish sections of the city would be closed as a military zone. Israeli security forces were able to suspended the military closure on Jewish areas of Hebron, removed roadblocks at the entrances to settlements and eased identity checks when most of the non-residents, who entered Hebron to support the rioting settlers left.
January 17, Amidst protests against an Israeli order to evict nine Jewish families squatting in an area taken from Palestinians in Hebron after the start of the intifada, Israeli police forcibly removed a handful of settler youths from the squat to try to end days of unrest. Late the previous day, the military had declared the area "a closed military zone" to non-residents.
January 18, Olmert ordered the IDF to immediately remove nine Jewish families (some 50 people) squatting illegally on a Palestinian fruit and vegetable market in Hebron. The decision followed consultations with security officials and the new Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni, who is also Justice Minister. The settlers have so far rejected the proposal. Five settlers there were arrested by security forces.
January 19, Israeli troops had shot dead a Palestinian teenager near Hebron IDF and witnesses said he was trying to throw a fire bomb at an IDF patrol near one of the settlements.
2007
January 21, The Jewish settler Yifat Alkobi pressed her face while repeatedly hissing "sharmuta" – whore – at her married Palestinian neighbour, Abu Ayesha. A Video of Settler abusing Palestinians in Hebron received International media attention and her actions widely condemned.
And where, according to testimony given by Taysir Abu Ayesha, Baruch Marzel broke into the house with 10 other settlers in the winter of 2002, beat him and attempted to drag him into the road before he was rescued by his stick-brandishing father.
March Israeli settlers escorted in the 'House of Contention'
June 8, Hijazi Muhammad Abdul-Aziz Rzaiqat, 17, of Taffouh, near Hebron, shot to death by IDF gunfire to his chest, abdomen, left shoulder and right thigh while hunting birds with a gun.
July 3, Ahmad Abdul-Muhsen Abdul-Rahim al-Skafi, 15, of Hebron, killed by IDF gunfire to his head while carrying a toy gun.
August Hillel Weiss
Hillel Weiss
Hillel Weiss is a professor of literature at Bar Ilan University in Israel.-Academic career:Hillel Weiss is a tenured professor at the Joseph & Norman Berman Department of Literature of the Jewish People, Faculty of Jewish Studies, Bar-llan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel...
, father of Tehila Yahalom, verbally abused Hebron Brigade commander Col. Yehuda Fuchs, while IDF troops evacuated 2 settler families from the Hebron wholesale market. Bar-Ilan University
Bar-Ilan University
Bar-Ilan University is a university in Ramat Gan of the Tel Aviv District, Israel.Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is now Israel's second-largest academic institution. It has nearly 26,800 students and 1,350 faculty members...
, where Weiss is a professor, has publicly distanced itself from his remarks and criticized Weiss.
2008
February 13, the 15-month prison sentence and reduction to the rank of private of Lieutenant Ya'akov Gigi was confirmed for a "wild rampage" in the West Bank where Gigi and five of his soldiers hijacked a Palestinian taxi in July 2007 in the West Bank village of Dahariya, near Hebron. The version of events that Gigi gave was found to be false. First Sergeant Dror, who shot a Palestinian in the neck severely wounding him claims that the way the Palestinian looked at him was enough to classify him as a "suspect" and to justify opening fire.
In February the IDF ordered an orphanage run by the Islamic Charitable Society
Islamic Charitable Society
The Islamic Charitable Society is a non-profit charitable organisation located in Hebron in the West Bank. The charity was founded in 1962 to take care of orphans and expanded through years...
(ICS), that houses 240 orphans, in Hebron closed, based on the ICS's alleged promotion of terrorism. The ICS disputes these charges.
May 2, Khalil Ahmad Mahmoud a-Za'arir was killed after attempting to stab a soldiers at a Hebron checkpoint.
July 9, Avner Inbar, an Israeli, taking a group of South African Human rights activists, that included Zackie Achmat
Zackie Achmat
Zackie Achmat is a South African activist, most widely known as founder and chairman of the Treatment Action Campaign and for his work on the behalf of people living with HIV and AIDS in South Africa.-Early life:...
and Edwin Cameronon, on a tour of Hebron reported that the group was verbally abused by settlers. Three Israelis were arrested for disturbing the peace.
August, al-Ras Mosque, located next to al-Rajabi House settlement became the target of settler attacks during early August 2008 with large quantities of rubbish were placed at the entrance of the Mosque and was again attacked on August 11, 2008 when Israeli settlers from the al-Rajabi House settlement attempted to set fire to the mosque.
During the second week of August a total of five civilians – three Palestinians and two foreigners, including two UNRWA staff and one child, were physically assaulted and injured.
7 August Israeli settlers from Giv'at Ha'avot settlement (next to Kiryat Arba) attacked five nearby Palestinian houses with rocks and bottles.
August Hebron settlers attacked a group of visiting UK diplomats. Breaking the Silence only take small parties so as not to constitute a "group" as settlers regularly attacked "Breaking the Silence" tours.
October 25 Settlers destroyed Muslim graves and 80 Palestinian cars during a riot against the IDF, as the army dismantled a new settlement near Hebron.
6 December The Israeli settlers from the 'House of contention' are evicted by Israeli police.
The settlers at the Hebron house - called the House of Peace by settlers but the House of Contention by the media - claimed they had bought the building legally two years ago from a Palestinian. The Palestinian has denied selling the building to the settlers, and last month the Israeli supreme court said the house should be evacuated until the ownership dispute was settled.
7 December Hebron settlers angry at the eviction of occupants from a disputed house rioted, shooting three Palestinians and burning Palestinian homes and olive groves. Video footage of the attacks was recorded, leading to widespread condemnation in IsraelThe many Israeli settlers then went on a rampage as part of a 'price' policy. An Israeli soldier, Corporal Avraham Schneider of the elite Givati Brigade
Givati Brigade
The Givati Brigade is an infantry brigade of the Israel Defense Forces, and serves as its amphibious force. Givati soldiers are designated by purple berets...
and settler from Kiryat Arba, was arrested for taking part in the settler riots.
The attacks were characterized as "a pogrom
Pogrom
A pogrom is a form of violent riot, a mob attack directed against a minority group, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes and properties, businesses, and religious centres...
" by then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who said he was ashamed "as a Jew".
2010
In February 2010, in an incident compared to the Tapuah junction stabbing
Tapuah junction stabbing
The Tapuah junction stabbing occurred on February 10, 2010 in the West Bank when Palestinian Authority police officer Muhammad Hatib stabbed Druze Israeli soldier Ihab Khatib to death as the latter was sitting in a jeep at a traffic light.-Incident:...
, one of a group of militants who were throwing rocks at a Jewish home attempted to stab one of the soldiers who arrived to stop them.
In the June 2010 IDF Tik Tok
IDF Tik Tok
IDF Tik Tok, originally uploaded to YouTube as Batallion 50 Rock the Hebron Casbah and posted on Facebook under the name Rock the Casbah, is a viral amateur dance video in the flash mob style produced by soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces .The video was filmed in 2010 by soldiers serving in the...
incident there was an internaitonal media flap when a group of Israeli soldiers was filmed dancing in the streets of Hebron while on patrol in full combat gear to Tik Tok, a song by pop by pop star Kesha
Kesha
Kesha village is a small village nestled in the mountains of Yongshun County, northwestern Hunan province, China, located at latitude 29 05' 50", longitude 109 57' 9". The name is pronounced in Standard Chinese. The official language is Manderin Chinese....
.
See also
- Israeli–Palestinian conflictIsraeli–Palestinian conflictThe Israeli–Palestinian conflict is the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The conflict is wide-ranging, and the term is also used in reference to the earlier phases of the same conflict, between Jewish and Zionist yishuv and the Arab population living in Palestine under Ottoman or...
- Violence in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict
- Media coverage of the Arab–Israeli conflict