By Yoni Hamo
This coming February marks the 25th anniversary of the massacre of Muslims at the Ibrahimi Mosque by a right-wing American-Jewish settler. We publish here the first article from a new contributor, Yoni Hamo, on a Palestinian demonstration to commemorate the massacre and the reaction of the Israeli Defence Force, showing the casual every-day violence to which Palestinians are subjected.
The impact of the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre in Hebron was not limited to blood, martyrs and wounded; but rather, since day one of the massacre, the place has been transformed into a tight Israeli security complex, in which all kinds of oppression are practiced against the Palestinian people.
US-born doctor Baruch Goldstein, 38, burst into the mosque in the Machpela Cave and fired up to 100 bullets at Muslim worshipers in the Ibrahimi Mosque during the dawn prayers, killing 29 worshipers and injuring 150 others.
This was the history of that dreadful day, never to be forgotten by the Muslim community.
It is a beautiful spring morning in the Palestinian city of Hebron (Al-Khalil). The Holy Day’s prayers had finished as the demonstrators wishing to commemorate the massacre congregated at the starting point. The media covering this were mainly Palestinian media and a few of us freelancers.
Among the demonstrators we about 10-15 traditional Jews who had turned up, with banners and flags, to show their support for the Palestinian people on this day of remembrance and against the Zionist occupation of Palestine. As you can imagine the media were all over these Jews at the start point.
The demonstration started off down old narrow streets of the Old City and eventually emerged in the city centre. There must have been a good 150 -200 demonstrators and media.
Killing Zone
As the demonstration moved down the main street through the city it was met by a single line of Israeli Occupation Force soldiers. This was at a clearing in the road and is what you could call “a killing zone”.
The demonstration was stopped by the soldiers at this point and after a lot of pushing and shouting the demonstration was fragmented by soldiers who were on the roof tops either side of the road firing tear gas and stun grenades directly into the demonstrators.
At the front the demonstrators were being roughly handled, abused physically and verbally and weapons were pointed at them. The soldiers tried to stop the media recording this.
Tear gas and stun grenades were also fired at people going about their normal daily routine and into shops that were open.
The front of the demonstration gradually moved forward about 300 metres down the road while the rest stayed out of the “killing zone”.
The Jewish demonstrators who supported us decided to leave after about two hours and were fondly waved off and back to Jerusalem. The demonstrators then turned to demonstrating on Shuhada Street, well actually Checkpoint 56.
Some of the demonstrators came to within 20 metres of the checkpoint waving flags, placards and shouting at the Israelis. This brought the usual response from the Occupation forces of more tear gas and stun grenades, again straight at the demonstrators.
Within five minutes two jeeps appeared and around 30 soldiers arrived. These come with a set plan which was prearranged for today, and was rolled out on the bonnet of one of the jeeps (pictured above).
This extra show of manpower caused the demonstrators back up but only 200-300 metres, to where they set fire to tyres and started throwing stones at the soldiers. The demonstration slowly came to an end, but some carried on into the night tyre burning and stone throwing.
One of the demonstrators, Mohammad Zein al-Jabari, who was deaf and dumb, and who took part in every demonstration in Hebron, was fatally murdered by the Occupation forces a week later.
The reason? Who knows? R.I.P. my dear friend.
December 17, 2018
