First, they came in as tourists, and stole our land
Israel’s terrorist Jewish-only settlers entered Hebron in 1967 as “tourists” and then occupied one of the city’s hotels, creating a base to build a new racist settlement. Today, those settlers have murdered, brutalized and assaulted Christians and Muslims in Hebron as they expand their illegal settlement with the protection of Israel’s terrorist military.
You can do something to help stop this violent racism
Fifty years ago today, June 10, 1967,Israel completed its military take over of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem.
A year later, in 1968, the first illegal settlers arrived in our city. Disguised as tourists, they camped out in a hotel in the center of Hebron and refused to leave. Eventually, Israel moved them to the army compound of Kiryat Arba about a mile outside of the city.
Today, over 7,000 illegal Israelis live in the settlement of Kiryat Arba and around 850 illegal settlers live within Hebron’s city center (they successfully established the Beit Hadassah settlement in the center of the old city in 1979).
Hebron settlers are among the most violent and ideologically extreme of Israel’s settler movement. The carry machine guns, teach hatred to their children, and celebrate acts of violence against Palestinians. They even maintain a monument in Kiryat Arba to illegal settler Baruch Goldstein, who in 1994 opened fire in the Ibrahim mosque, killing 29 Palestinians.
Can you make a donation to help us continue
our resistance at 50 years of occupation?
As we continue to mark the years since the 1948 ethnic cleansing of Palestine; the 1968 occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem; and 1994 Ibrahim mosque massacre, which resulted in the matrix of checkpoints and closures we face today in Hebron; we also continue to mark the ways we remain hopeful and steadfast in our resistance.
The occupation is strong. But our determination to secure freedom and justice is stronger.
With your help, this year we will be amping up our resistance.
- We will teach more children how to use video cameras to document human right abuses
- We will counter the hateful signs settlers put up in Hebron.
- We will provide more tours and programming to educate the international community.
- We will continue our nonviolent direct actions to oppose the occupation.
Your generous gift of $50, $70, $100, or more will enable us to increase our work.
Together we can achieve justice for Palestine!
In resistance,
Issa, Ahmad, Murad, Muhanned, and everyone at Youth Against Settlements
P.S. There is now a letter in US congress calling for the protection of Issa Amro as he faces 18 charges in Israeli military court! If you are a US resident, make sure to tell your member of congress to add their name to the letter.
Working for Peace and Justice · United States
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Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.
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