Israel cannot be considered a state ruled by law, or a democracy, as long as the pogroms continue in Hebron. A state is judged by what takes place in its own backyard, and in the case of the "City of the Patriarchs" this is a particularly dark yard. What is involved here is not a political-diplomatic issue touching upon the existence or nonexistence of a particular settlement, but rather the character of the regime in Israel. This abscess should be uprooted immediately, unconditionally, before its malignancy spreads.
What is happening in Hebron is different than everything else in the occupied territories. In Hebron, the most severe atrocities of the settlement enterprise are being perpetrated. While the settlers are lamenting "their uprooting" from Gush Katif and the knights of sorrowful tears are preaching for reconciliation with them and empathy for their plight, the expulsion of Palestinians from Hebron is continuing at an alarming rate. There can be no reconciliation with these people, kin and kindred of the settlement enterprise, who treat their neighbors this way. Anyone who calls for compassion for the settlers evacuated from Gaza, yet remains silent about the action of the settlers in Hebron, exposes a distorted and sanctimonious sense of morality.
But the brutal behavior of the settlers is not the main thing that should be raising a storm, but rather the behavior of the state that does not stop them and even lends them assistance. Now there is talk about anarchy in Gaza? In Hebron, anarchy reigns under the malevolently closed eyes of a state that possesses sophisticated mechanisms for enforcing the law. The focus now is on the tragedy of uprooting people from their homes in Gush Katif? The act of uprooting and expulsion in Hebron is incomparably crueler. The number of people expelled is much larger, and they remain without anything. No one is worrying about their plight.
It is a bit difficult to believe that the reality in Hebron is hidden from the eyes of most Israelis and is not rocking Israel to its very core. During the past five years, some 25,000 residents have been transferred from their homes, less than an hour's drive from Israel's capital. And daily harassment continues under the auspices of the IDF and Israel Police, disregarded by the media. This harassment is aimed at expelling the remaining Palestinian residents from an area that until recently had a population of about 35,000 Palestinians and 500 Jews.
Those who have not visited the city in recent years would not believe their eyes. In the territory under Israeli control - H2, or Israeli territory, according to the Hebron accord - they will discover a ghost town. Hundreds of abandoned homes, like after a war, dozens of destroyed stores, burned or shuttered, their gates welded closed by the settlers, and an all-pervasive, deadly silence. According to unofficial assessments, no more than 10,000 residents remain in this place. The rest have left their homes and property after no longer being able to bear the harassment from the settlers and their children. This is the largest disengagement in recent years; this is the real expulsion.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/623227.html
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