The Way Violence Works

by Katharine Maycock

From: Bullet Points

There was a swift Israeli reaction to the murders by armed Palestinians of 12 Israeli military and security officers in Hebron a week last Friday (Nov16th).This house was demolished a few hours after the ambush because gunmen were reportedly seen shooting from the roof.

Some things are hard to prove: the initial and widely broadcast story of it being 'a massacre of worshippers' was untrue. Though attractive in its simplistic polarisationof 'Palestinian terrorists' shooting 'innocent Jewish worshippers', the story was demythologised whenTzvi Katzover, the leader of the settlement Kiryat Arbaadmitted that the shooting started 15 minutes after the last of the Jews who had worshipped in the synagogue (the Tomb of the Patriarchs) was back inside the settlement.

It was a horrible loss of life. But the gun battle was between armed Israeli soldiers, armed guards from the settlement and armed Palestinians. Military officials have now confirmed that no unarmed Israeli civilian was shot or wounded. Most of the fatalities (4 IDF soldiers, 5 Israeli border patrolmen, 3 armed Israeli settlement security guards and 3 armed Palestinians - whose bodies were seen by my colleague John Lynes, as you will have read)occurred when waves of backup soldiers and security officials ran or drove into the dark unlit lanes between Palestinian homes in the direction of gunfire.

As usual, knowing the context of the incident, is important in trying to understand - not excuse - the reason for the battle. Hebron, under the Oslo Accords, is an autonomous Palestinian area (Area A) in the West Bank. Yet, 400 armed Jewish settlers who live in the heart of the city basically hold the Palestinian population of c. 130,000 hostage. 2000 Israeli soldiers protect the 400 and curfews are regularly enforced on the Palestinians, particularly on Fridays when the Shabbat (Sabbath) begins and settlers including those from Kiryat Arba (on the outside of Hebron) come to pray.

A settlement in embryo

In a chain reaction, a brand new Jewish settlement has begun to take seed in Hebron this week. I saw young Israeli settler girls (see below) camping in tents on the newly bulldozed ground near the Kiryat Arba settlement, guarded by security and IDF soldiers. The tents, I am told, will be continuously occupied until they are turned into permanent buildings. Meanwhile the Palestinian families whose houses are simply 'in the way' of this settlement are facing increasing harassment. I heard an extension kitchen of one house being demolished this Thursday, just as the Ramadan fast was breaking. And I could not repeat the language in this email which the settlers literally spat at us, when they discovered that some 'internationals' were staying overnight with some of the Palestinian families.

Less than a week later (Thursday 21 Nov) a Palestinian suicide bomber in Jerusalem killed 11 Israeli civilians and injured more than 40, the first fatal attack in Jerusalem since July 31st. The family of this 23 year old from the Bethlehem area, have now had their house demolished too, along with those of several other suspected militants. Bethlehem is a 'closed military zone' and has been under curfew since Friday morning. Today I climbed up to the top of one of the hills near my flat to see if the shop was open. As I stopped to catch my breath, I heard 'Katrin