The Face of Jewish Settlers In Hebron: The Sheriff

I admit that there is a lot I don’t know, and don’t understand, about Hebron.  But when you walk along the deserted Shuhada street,  the former busy main road of Hebron which under occupation is renamed "King David" street, it makes you cringe.

The walking tour of Hebron included all the tiny Jewish settlements right in the heart of the old city. It was hard not to notice that the signs of the streets were written in Hebrew. Opposite Beit Hadassah settlement U saw steps with the name "The Steps of Hope."

There was very little hope in this tour, Palestinians are not allowed in those areas,  and Hebron is just like a ghost town in an American Western. It is a desolate city where the streets are controlled by a strong man, a kind of self appointed sheriff aided by young loyal deputies.

The sheriff's name is Ofer Ohana, he lately became a household name when, among his other feats in Hebron, he was involved in the case of Elor Azaria, an IDF soldier that shot and killed a neutralized Palestinian terrorist. Ohana was the ambulance  driver who was filmed kicking the knife toward the Palestinian terrorist, (allegedly to cover up for Azaria shooting an unarmed man) (Ynet June 26th)

I was in Hebron twice and in both times I saw Sheriff Ohana controlling the streets with his young deputies. Since most tours to Hebron are perceived by them as a threat, they were there to  protest.  They used mega phones, boom boxes with loud music, jumped in front of cameras, shouted, and mingled with the visitors holding big flags of Israel. It was clear that the show was orchestrated by Ohana  and that the boys were there at his beck and call.

The Israeli police did not interfere and the soldiers who were there kept quiet.  Nobody said anything to the boys who were harassing the visitors.  Actually I read testimonies of soldiers who wrote that Ohana was very warm and hospitable toward them, and invited them over for Shabbat dinner. I wonder if this type of fraternization should be allowed. The soldiers in Hebron have an impossible assignment, surely by feeding them and making them feel at home, Ohana forms alliances in the army as he exploits the plight of those young soldiers to promote his political and ideological agenda.

Ohana is not only an ambulance driver in Hebron, he is also the head of the Gutnik  visitor center next to the Cave of the Patriarchs. No doubt he is the face of the Jewish settlers in Hebron.

But on the walk back to the van, I was followed by another settler, a middle aged woman who kept filming me. Finally she said, “you haven’t heard our side of the story.” I told her that I was aware that there was  more to the story, and that in my previous tour when we visited the hilltop Tel Rumeida (the most extremist settlement), a distressed older woman pushed me and threw water in my face. I wasn't angry because I found out that she was the widow of Rabbi Shlomo Ra’anan, who was murdered in 1998 by a Palestinian terrorist.

The settler listened quietly and then said, “ this was my mother, Rabbi Shlomo Raanan was my father.”

This is a losing proposition, even a powerful sheriff like Ofer Ohana could not protect his flock from thousands of imprisoned Palestinians who have nothing to lose. The murder of Rabbi Shlomo Ra’anan is just one example. The tragedies of recent days should finally convince our government to take responsibility and declare that the state of Israel should not allow its citizens to live in Hebron.
The essay appeared in the Times Of Israel

http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-face-of-jewish-settlers-in-hebron-the-sherif/

About 'My brother wanted to be a jihadi' by Robb Leech

Reading Robb Leech‘s poignant article about his stepbrother: “My brother wanted to be a jihadi – and society is creating many more like him” in The Guardian this morning, one paragraph has struck me as particularly significant .

After his brother Rich had converted to Islam, he constantly talked about fighting Western oppression, but according to Leech:

“I never saw Rich as a terrorist, and didn’t see any of the people he surrounded himself with as terrorists either. What I saw were, and I hate to say it – vulnerable young men – with massive great chips on their shoulders. With their radical new status they felt empowered, superior and perhaps most annoyingly for me, righteous”

Please read more in The Times Of Israel

http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/about-my-brother-wanted-to-be-a-jihadi-by-robb-leech/

Terrorism Against People And Olive Trees

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Ordinarily I don't like to write about political issues, but yesterday was no ordinary day: I took part in a tour of the Israeli occupied territories in the West Bank, and here are some of my impressions.

 For years Israel was paralyzed by Islamic terrorism, it included, among others, exploding cars, suicide bombs inside buses and at crowded places, such as shopping malls. All of us were scared to congregate and to travel by buses. Till this day the United States Military,for example, does not allow American soldiers to use public transportation in Israel. 

The threat of terrorism  was our difficult reality until recently, and when finally it almost ceased we heard that Jewish settlers started to attack their Palestinian neighbours. Many of us were shocked: we were unprepared, perhaps even unwilling, to associate the word "terrorist" with an Israeli.

Ariel,  The only Israeli city across the green line,  is less than half an hour east of Tel Aviv, but most Israelis, including me, have never been there, we do not have a reason to go there. 

That's why when I read  that Peace Now was organizing bus tours  to educate The public about the effects of  Israeli terrorism in the occupied territories, I immediately signed up. I needed to see for myself the other side, to check how the map looked in reality, and to hear more about this disturbing phenomenon.

 Peace Now is  an non-partisan political movement which was founded in 1978. Its main objective is to end Israeli occupation and to promote peace agreement between the israelis and the Palestinians, which consists of two states for the two nations.

The tour's destination were the areas which were the targets of settlers’ terrorism. We visited the Palestinian village of Kousra where only recently ten settlers from a nearby settlement were caught after they had come to vandalize the village

Then we drove up to the next hill to see the  area where the settlers came from. On the way up we saw a group of young women and men with their small children engaged in some educational  activity. They seemed peaceful and devoted to their children. Watching those settlers it was hard to imagine that among  them were the 10 extremists who went attacking their neighbours.

The Peace Now guide was a knowledgeable and dedicated young man; his explanations were professional,  and he  kept reminding us that most settlers were not terrorists. But he also said that too often, although the identity of the criminals is known, they are not brought to justice. He didn't offer the reasons but, I assume that having a right wing government in Israel doesn't help much.

I had a feeling that in spite of the gravity of the actions, he did not want us to forget that there were human beings on both sides. The even tempered and straight forward way he talked is typical to the discourse of the Peace Now movement.

Out of thev 325,000 people who live beyond  the green line only few take part in terrorist activities, and those acts vary in the degrees of severity. According to the dictionary, destroying a neighbour’s olive tree may not qualify as an act of terrorism, but symbolically and  practically it is. The olive tree is a symbol of stability for both Palestinians and Israelis and most Palestinians in the rural areas which we visited were farmers who worked the land.

The Israeli terrorists are young men, and as religious people they marry young and many of them are already parents; what kind of example will they set for the next generation? 

I feel that as an Israeli it is my responsibility to know about the criminal offences of the settlers and to protest against them; hence I declare: those rotten apples do not belong to me!

I was never a member of a political movement, but in light of the recent events, I seriously consider joining Peace Now.

  

PS. for information on Peace Now:  http://peacenow.org.il/eng/