In Old Hebron, Home Is No Refuge from
Political Violence, Chris Smith, Pacific News
Service
Unfortunately, reports of violence from the Middle East are nothing
new. But, while we hear much about suicide bombers and helicopter
missile attacks, the people of this region experience violence on a
more personal basis every day. Reporting from the ancient
Palestinian town of Hebron for Pacific News Service,
Chris Smith reveals some of the ugly atrocities facing those living
in the midst of this raging conflict. This town of 120,000
Palestinians and 450 Orthodox Jewish settlers was divided into two
sections by an interim peace agreement in 1997, but that has done
nothing to relieve the animosity felt by both sides. Gunshots and
assaults are commonplace in these streets, and the Israeli police
and Israeli Defense Force (the Israeli army) are unwilling or
unable to do anything about it. A member of the Christian
Peacemakers Team, an independent observer group, states ‘The vast
majority of violence in the area is instigated by settlers,’ but a
spokesman for the Israeli settler community claims that ‘The
Palestinians are very good at lying’ and that ‘it has been turned
all around.’ Regardless of who’s most at fault, this climate of
violence is no place to live.
–Al Paulson
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