There are no winners here
Last year, I spent a month studying in an open minded Jewish institution in Jerusalem who’s motto is ‘Who is wise? The one who learns from everyone.’ Taking this to heart, I decided to check out the cities of Jericho, Bethlehem and Hebron.
This is a photo essay of what I saw in Hebron in August 2018. I wrote this piece in repsonse to the ‘everyone loses’ mentality that shuts down central Hebron.
A divided city; H1 and H2
Ancient Hebron. It all begins with the Cave of the Patriarchs (the Cave), a 2000 year old Herodian building.
The burial layout of the Cave was debated in the Talmud a very long time ago. Divisions of a different kind are contested today.
Since 1997 the city has been divided into the H1 Palestinian Authority controlled area and the H2 Israeli government administered area with approximately 220,000 Palestinians and 800 Jewish residents.
Friend
Originally, the name ‘Hebron’ meant something like ‘Friend’. Despite the current severe predicament, there are some seeking a better way, such as the Israeli Jewish man who established our tour and the Palestinian man he employs as a guide for H1.
The Two Narrative tour
Our guide has come up with a formula to enable us to learn both sides of the story (for foreigners only). Important — Israeli Jewish citizens are not allowed in West Bank cities, even if they wanted to do this tour, they couldn't.
Some context; acts of extreme violence have been committed here, the two most infamous:
- 1929 Hebron massacre 67 killed
- 1994 Baruch Goldstein massacre 29 killed.
We set off using Palestinian public transport to Hebron. After 40 minutes on our bus and clearing a couple of checkpoints we arrive.
Our group tour officially begins at the Cave which is now divided into a Muslim mosque and a separate Jewish area.
We leave the mosque and wander down a pleasant market street. We are introduced and handed over to our Palestinian guide for our H1 tour.
We stop at a pretty café and have a coffee. Our guide shares with us his history of the city and explains the living conditions of Palestinian residents. There’s a group of local kids here too and they want to practice English with us. Non political things like “where are you from?” and how to say “lemonade”. Who knows how they will feel as teenagers, but right now they are sparkly and eager to interact with us. A credit to their families, teachers and community.
We continue our journey through the market area of H2 leading into H1. A stall holder tells us his family story. He explains that wire mesh fences need to be put above his stall to stop rubbish being thrown down from above.
There is no obvious border or checkpoint heading into H1. We pass some grand decaying architecture that is gratifyingly Instagram-able. Then suddenly we are in a bustling market place.
H1 is a busy cheerful place with a vibrant market scene. It’s warm, funny and alive with Middle Eastern hospitality. Some of the people have fair skin/hair and appear northern European. Perhaps some crusaders lost their religion but left their genetics in Hebron.
After the main strip we start to see signs of a city being shut down. This was the former gold and silversmith area. After having lunch with a Palestinian family, we go back to H2 via a checkpoint.
We are reunited with our Jewish guide and wander round to the Avraham Avinu synagogue. We look at beautiful Sephardi Torah scrolls from the 1500’s rescued and returned to the synagogue. A Jewish resident tells us the fascinating history of the restoration of the synagogue. He talks about his reasons for living in fortified H2.
Our journey from here on in gets difficult. I don’t have many pictures because it was oppressively scary . I did not want to be fumbling round with the camera all that much in the seemingly ‘no go’ zone of H2.
A large section of the formally busy market precinct is shut down. It’s been (mostly) closed to Palestinian residents since 1994. This street is called Shuhada or King David. After every new incident less and less of central Hebron is livable. My understanding is that the street is open for Jewish residents of H2 but I can’t see anyone aside from soldiers. The market is closed and there are memorials everywhere to specific deaths. It is a heavily defended ghost town. As the sun bears down, the soldiers look twitchy and unhappy and our guide walks and talks us through this unbearable place. I stop taking in the details of each stabbing and shooting. I’m looking and listening for signs of life aside from soldiers and don’t see any. We spend about an hour here. At one point I spot a couple of kids about 7 on their way somewhere, and that’s about all I observe of civilian life on Shuhada Street on this August day.
Gate of Fear — this staircase near where soldiers have been stabbed fairly recently. The defense at this juncture is a rope which is used to shut the gate when it looks like there’s going to be trouble.
The walls do talk; there’s plenty of political graffiti in H2.
We hike up a hill to see some more historic sights including the toilet that could be the last remaining outpost of the British Empire in Hebron.
Not my pain
As I am neither Israeli nor Palestinian its is not my place to be making suggestions or appriopriating others difficult experiences.
However I hope that one day I get the opportunity to return to Shuhada/King David Street and find a thriving market place with different people going about their daily lives just like the Jerusalem shuk.
I made a friend on the tour, a French American Christian and we finish this eye-opening day smoking shisha at the market place with hundreds of others of rich and varied stories, having a drink, a smoke, a bite to eat.
Two very different women on pilgrimage to Israel, wanting to learn from everyone in the holy land.
