Springtime in Hebron

[Scurrilous]

The festive atmosphere on the way to the Tomb of the Patriarchs contrasts with the desolate, caged-in existence of local Palestinians.

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"On the armored bus of the Society for the Development of the Southern Hebron Hills Ltd. - one of the vehicles taking Israeli pilgrims to and from a parking lot - a passenger was overheard saying: "They have to be done away with while they're still in the hospital, when they're born. Straight to the grinders. They can be used to pave roads: grind them into gravel and top them with asphalt."

Laughter swept the packed bus. Encouraged by the response, the man continued: "Everything they earn, those Arabushim, should go to cover medicines, Inshallah, ya-rabi. We let them eat and we let them drink, and they want everything. Let them eat grass and then see how they behave. Let them eat our grass. That's what has to be done. Make them stop working. And then, when we kick out all the Arabushim we won't need an army or police."

The bus took us from the Tomb of the Patriarchs through the abandoned part of Hebron to the "business park" of Kiryat Arba, the adjacent settlement. No one voiced objections to the man's remarks.

Shuttle No. 8 had left the parking lot for the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the late morning. All the passengers, traveling in large family units, were Orthodox or ultra-Orthodox. There were two armed soldiers at the front of the bus, and hundreds of armed soldiers and police at every corner of every lane and on every rooftop en route. There were no other secular-looking people there.

"We've got collaborators here, collaborators," someone growled at us. Hundreds of cars and dozens of buses were in the parking lot, bearing the logos of Happiness Tours and the Hebron Hills, Southern Hebron Hills and Benjamin District development companies."

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[Scurrilous]

1. 65% of Hebron district land confiscated for settlements

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"Abdul Hadi Hantash, a member of the Land Defense Committee in Hebron, reports that Israeli settlements in the Hebron district expanded by 20% during 2011 and are expected to expand an additional 30% this year.

Hantash claims that "the number of settlement units will be doubled". He further adds that 65% of the district’s area, which exceeded 1103.5 square kilometers, has been confiscated since 1967 for settlements, military camps and bypass roads.

The city of Hebron is located in the southern West Bank, 30 km south of Jerusalem. It is the largest city in the West Bank and home to an estimated 175,000 Palestinians, with some 500 Jewish settlers concentrated in and around Hebron’s Old City. Hebron is a busy hub of West Bank trade, responsible for roughly a third of the area's gross domestic product, largely due to the sale of marble from quarries, but also from its agriculture, pottery workshops and glassblowing factories.

Israeli settlement activities in the Hebron district began in 1968 when Rabbi Moshe Levinger rented rooms for a Passover seder in the Al-Naher Al-Khaled Hotel on Hebron’s main street. Levinger and his followers later refused to leave the hotel and, in a deal with the Israeli government, they moved to a former Jordanian army base northeast of Hebron. Here with the state’s active cooperation, they established the settlement of Kiryat Arba. According to Hantash, "for this purpose the Israeli government confiscated more then 3,000 dunams in the area."

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[Scurrilous]

2. More Racism From West Bank Settler's Leading Rabbi

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"Addressing the fifth annual Ramle Conference on the Problem of Foreign Workers and the Phenomenon of Infiltrators into Israel today, Rabbi Dov Lior, the Chief Rabbi of Hebron and Kiryat Arba on the West Bank said:

The entry of immigrants from African states is a sophisticated move to get terrorists into Israel under the guise of family reunification and all sorts of these types of pronouncements. These are things which could hurt the security of the state of Israel. We have a divine commandment to return to Israel. There are positive commandments to inherit the land, to settle it and to establish Jewish rule. Those who disrupt this should not be among us. This is our home and an Arab who wants to express his nationalism has many countries in which to do so. We don't have another land. We don't have another state."

http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2012/04/more-racism-from-west-bank-settlers-leading-rabbi-123.html#more