Joodse fundamentalisten met steun van christelijke extremisten maken onder andere van Hebron een hel.'Hebron, the ultimate family experience in Israel!
Isn't it about time you took your children to visit your great- grandparents in Hebron?
New armored buses, inspiring guides like Rabbi Simcha Hochbaum, Yossi Baumol & David Wilder, Hebron's historic sites and our pioneering spirit - all come together to make this tour your most moving day in Israel!
Celebrate Jewish history with those who keep writing it!
http://www.hebron.com/english/tour.php
Isn't it about time you took your children to visit your great- grandparents in Hebron?
New armored buses, inspiring guides like Rabbi Simcha Hochbaum, Yossi Baumol & David Wilder, Hebron's historic sites and our pioneering spirit - all come together to make this tour your most moving day in Israel!
Celebrate Jewish history with those who keep writing it!
http://www.hebron.com/english/tour.php
En dit is de wertkerlijkheid: 'Underwriting the Conflict in Hebron
When it comes to U.S. fundraising for Israeli settlements, donating to the Hebron Fund is not merely an expression of support for Israel, it's a perpetuation of the systematic oppression of Palestinians.
Matthew Duss December 20, 2007 web only
When it comes to U.S. fundraising for Israeli settlements, donating to the Hebron Fund is not merely an expression of support for Israel, it's a perpetuation of the systematic oppression of Palestinians.
Matthew Duss December 20, 2007 web only
On Nov. 18, in the beautifully appointed ballroom of Manhattan's posh Grand Hyatt Hotel at Grand Central Station, the Hebron Fund held its annual fund-raising gala. According to organizers, guests paid upward of $300 a head, with anything above the cost of the dinner considered tax-deductible. The evening began with a reception in an anteroom featuring a buffet of gourmet foods. A chef in a tall hat worked a stir-fry station; another expertly sliced sashimi and rolled sushi. A dessert table overflowed with cakes and chocolate mousse. A flute and piano duo played easy-listening versions of vaguely recognizable classics.
The Hebron Fund is a Brooklyn-based charity that supports the "continued Jewish presence" in the West Bank city of Hebron, which is considered holy by Jews, Christians, and Muslims. One of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Hebron was home to a vibrant Jewish community until 1929, when a series of conflicts between Jews and Arabs culminated in riots. During those riots 67 Palestinian Jews were murdered by Arabs. (The Zionist Archives preserve a list of 435 Jews who were given refuge by their Palestinian Arab neighbors.) Soon after, the British authorities ordered Jews out of Hebron in order to avoid more violence. After the 1948 war, and until 1967, the West Bank was occupied by the Jordanian Army.
Israeli forces took over the city after conquering the West Bank in the 1967 Six Day War. In 1968, a group of religious students obtained permission from the Israeli occupation authorities to observe a Passover seder in one of Hebron's old hotels. Soon after, they founded the settlement of Kiryat Arba on the outskirts of Hebron. The first settlers moved into Hebron itself in 1979, and since then, Hebron has become a magnet for extremists. Today there are between 500 and 600 settlers living in the center of the city, guarded by 4,000 Israeli troops. They live among nearly 200,000 Palestinians.
The opulence of the recent Grand Hyatt event in New York stands in stark contrast to the brutal reality of life for the Palestinians who must live amid the settlements supported by the Hebron Fund's charity. Like most of the West Bank and the entirety of Gaza, the Israeli occupation has transformed Palestinian Hebron into an open-air prison in which any sort of normal life is impossible. Hebron's Palestinian citizens regularly endure round-the-clock curfews. They are effectively under house arrest, sometimes for weeks at a time. Violence at the hands of settlers is also a fact of Palestinian life in Hebron. The Israeli human-rights organization B'Tselem states that attacks by settlers "include beatings, blocking of passage, destruction of property, throwing of stones and eggs, hurling of refuse ... urinating from the settlement structure onto the street," and that "the soldiers and police who witness attacks fail to take sufficient action to stop the attacks and enforce the law. At times they do nothing."
In their book Lords of the Land, Israeli journalists Idith Zertal and Akiva Eldar recount the history of the settlements and the impossible situation that Israel has created for itself by allowing these communities to take root. Despite attempts by hard-line elements to describe the territory conquered in 1967 as "disputed," the territory is broadly understood as occupied land that falls under the purview of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which relates to the protection of civilians under occupation by a foreign power. As article 49 of the Convention states, "the Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies," the settlements are considered as illegal under international law. Observers of the Israel-Palestine conflict recognize the settlements as one of the biggest obstacles to peace. Most Americans are unaware of how the settlements function as tools to consolidate Israeli control over land around Jerusalem and over water sources throughout the West Bank, how provocative these settlements really are to Palestinians, and how constant settler violence and continued settlement growth -- irrespective of promises made by the Israeli government -- strengthen the appeal of Palestinian extremists.
Mustafa Barghouti, a Palestinian democracy activist and former candidate for president of the Palestinian Authority, says we should have no illusions about what the Hebron Fund is supporting. "This is helping people in an act of theft, stealing people's land. [Israeli settlers] harass the people in the Old City constantly. They block freedom of passage from one area of the city to another. [Children] who go to schools are prevented from reaching schools. ... The attacks are so severe and so frequent that [Palestinians] have to build special nets to put on top of houses and streets so that thrown bottles and stones will not fall on [their] heads."
The Hebron Fund tells its donors about none of this. In the Fund's promotional materials and photo exhibits at its fundraising gala, as well as on the group's Web site, there is no indication of the deeply provocative and controversial nature of the settlements and no discussion of the measures against Palestinians required to maintain the settlements. Indeed, their materials offer scant evidence that the Palestinians exist at all. When I spoke to attendees at the Hebron Fund gala, it was clear that some were less than fully aware of the violence and misery their donations support, and are primarily interested in "supporting Israel" in a general sense. One elderly woman told me she was at the fundraiser because she believed that Jews should be free to live anywhere in the land of Israel.'
The Hebron Fund is a Brooklyn-based charity that supports the "continued Jewish presence" in the West Bank city of Hebron, which is considered holy by Jews, Christians, and Muslims. One of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Hebron was home to a vibrant Jewish community until 1929, when a series of conflicts between Jews and Arabs culminated in riots. During those riots 67 Palestinian Jews were murdered by Arabs. (The Zionist Archives preserve a list of 435 Jews who were given refuge by their Palestinian Arab neighbors.) Soon after, the British authorities ordered Jews out of Hebron in order to avoid more violence. After the 1948 war, and until 1967, the West Bank was occupied by the Jordanian Army.
Israeli forces took over the city after conquering the West Bank in the 1967 Six Day War. In 1968, a group of religious students obtained permission from the Israeli occupation authorities to observe a Passover seder in one of Hebron's old hotels. Soon after, they founded the settlement of Kiryat Arba on the outskirts of Hebron. The first settlers moved into Hebron itself in 1979, and since then, Hebron has become a magnet for extremists. Today there are between 500 and 600 settlers living in the center of the city, guarded by 4,000 Israeli troops. They live among nearly 200,000 Palestinians.
The opulence of the recent Grand Hyatt event in New York stands in stark contrast to the brutal reality of life for the Palestinians who must live amid the settlements supported by the Hebron Fund's charity. Like most of the West Bank and the entirety of Gaza, the Israeli occupation has transformed Palestinian Hebron into an open-air prison in which any sort of normal life is impossible. Hebron's Palestinian citizens regularly endure round-the-clock curfews. They are effectively under house arrest, sometimes for weeks at a time. Violence at the hands of settlers is also a fact of Palestinian life in Hebron. The Israeli human-rights organization B'Tselem states that attacks by settlers "include beatings, blocking of passage, destruction of property, throwing of stones and eggs, hurling of refuse ... urinating from the settlement structure onto the street," and that "the soldiers and police who witness attacks fail to take sufficient action to stop the attacks and enforce the law. At times they do nothing."
In their book Lords of the Land, Israeli journalists Idith Zertal and Akiva Eldar recount the history of the settlements and the impossible situation that Israel has created for itself by allowing these communities to take root. Despite attempts by hard-line elements to describe the territory conquered in 1967 as "disputed," the territory is broadly understood as occupied land that falls under the purview of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which relates to the protection of civilians under occupation by a foreign power. As article 49 of the Convention states, "the Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies," the settlements are considered as illegal under international law. Observers of the Israel-Palestine conflict recognize the settlements as one of the biggest obstacles to peace. Most Americans are unaware of how the settlements function as tools to consolidate Israeli control over land around Jerusalem and over water sources throughout the West Bank, how provocative these settlements really are to Palestinians, and how constant settler violence and continued settlement growth -- irrespective of promises made by the Israeli government -- strengthen the appeal of Palestinian extremists.
Mustafa Barghouti, a Palestinian democracy activist and former candidate for president of the Palestinian Authority, says we should have no illusions about what the Hebron Fund is supporting. "This is helping people in an act of theft, stealing people's land. [Israeli settlers] harass the people in the Old City constantly. They block freedom of passage from one area of the city to another. [Children] who go to schools are prevented from reaching schools. ... The attacks are so severe and so frequent that [Palestinians] have to build special nets to put on top of houses and streets so that thrown bottles and stones will not fall on [their] heads."
The Hebron Fund tells its donors about none of this. In the Fund's promotional materials and photo exhibits at its fundraising gala, as well as on the group's Web site, there is no indication of the deeply provocative and controversial nature of the settlements and no discussion of the measures against Palestinians required to maintain the settlements. Indeed, their materials offer scant evidence that the Palestinians exist at all. When I spoke to attendees at the Hebron Fund gala, it was clear that some were less than fully aware of the violence and misery their donations support, and are primarily interested in "supporting Israel" in a general sense. One elderly woman told me she was at the fundraiser because she believed that Jews should be free to live anywhere in the land of Israel.'
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