Palestinians & Israelis join in protest against Hebron settlement
Joint demonstration by Palestinians and Israelis in central Hebron, Feb. 24, 2017, to protest racist Jewish-only settlement in Hebron and violence by Hebron settlers and soldiers against Arab residents.
Israeli citizens – Jewish and Palestinian alike – will join local Palestinian residents of Hebron for a protest in the center of the divided West Bank city on Friday, February 24 2017 under the banner “Dismantle the ghetto, take the settlers out of Hebron.”
The protest is organized by the Hebron Defense Committee (HDC), the Hebron branches of national Palestinian political parties, and Palestinian civil society organizations. Despite the tensions, Israeli citizen activists from the Hithabrut-Tarabut movement – both Jews and Palestinians – will join the demonstration as well.
This protest will be held on the anniversary of the 1994 Ibrahimi Mosque Massacre, in which American-Israeli settler Baruch Goldstein killed 29 Palestinian worshippers and wounded 125. Palestinian and Israeli activists also seek to protest the hundreds of lives lost and the thousands of lives permanently impacted by Israel’s illegal military occupation.
The massive Israeli military presence in Hebron, aimed at serving a few hundred Israeli settlers, has made the daily life of Hebron’s Palestinian residents intolerable for years.
Over 500 Palestinian-owned businesses in the center of Hebron have been shut down by Israeli military orders, and close to 800 additional Palestinian shop owners have been forced to close their business over the last several years due to economic and social strains caused by roadblocks, check points, and traffic prohibitions.
A young occupied Arab in a protest on Nakba Day 2010, Hebron, West Bank. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
At the same time, armed Israeli settlers are permitted to move around freely in the areas where Palestinians are now forbidden to enter. Violence – often fatal – is common and 22 people have been killed in the city since October 2015.
Israeli authorities often prohibit human rights organizations, medical personnel, and other services from accessing certain neighborhoods in central Hebron.
tarabut@gmail.com * www.tarabut.info
Ray Hanania is an award winning political and humor columnist who analyzes American and Middle East politics, and life in general. He is an author of several books.
Hanania covered Chicago Politics and Chicago City Hall from 1976 through 1992 at the Daily Southtown and the Chicago Sun-Times. He began writing in 1975 publishing The Middle Eastern Voice newspaper in Chicago (1975-1977). He later published “The National Arab American Times” newspaper (2004-2007).
Hanania writes weekly columns on Middle East and American Arab issues as Special US Correspondent for the Arab News ArabNews.com, at TheArabDailyNews.com, and at SuburbanChicagoland.com. He has published weekly columns in the Jerusalem Post newspaper, YNetNews.com, Newsday, the Orlando Sentinel, Houston Chronical, and Arlington Heights Daily Herald.
Hanania is the recipient of four (4) Chicago Headline Club “Peter Lisagor Awards” for Column writing. In November 2006, he was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New American Media. In 2009, Hanania received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for Writing from the Society of Professional Journalists. He is the recipient of the MT Mehdi Courage in Journalism Award. He was honored for his writing skills with two (2) Chicago Stick-o-Type awards from the Chicago Newspaper Guild. In 1990, Hanania was nominated by the Chicago Sun-Times editors for a Pulitzer Prize for his four-part series on the Palestinian Intifada.
His writings have also been honored by two national Awards from ADC for his writing, and from the National Arab American Journalists Association.
Hanania is the US Special Correspondent for the Arab News Newspaper, covering Middle East and Arab American issues. He writes for the Southwest News newspaper group writing on mainstream American issues.
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