Palestinians, Activists Protest Israeli Settlement in Hebron
Nowhere are Israeli settlement policies more evident and combustible than in the Palestinian city of Hebron, Daoud Kuttab writes.
As devout Palestinian believers were kneeling for their dawn prayer at the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron, an Israeli soldier entered and began shooting at the worshippers from behind. He emptied one magazine after another, mercilessly killing Palestinians. The shooter, later identified as an Israeli-American (from Brooklyn), settler Barouch Goldstein was finally killed by Palestinians using the only available weapon in the mosque, the fire extinguisher. By the time the mayhem was over, 29 Palestinians were declared killed and dozens of others were wounded.
This Hebron massacre took place on Feb. 22, 1994, just five months after the PLO and Israel recognized each other and signed the Oslo Accords. Goldstein was buried in the nearby Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba and his grave has become a shrine to some of right-wing Israelis and settlers. The Palestinians who succeeded in stopping him have never been identified.