Hebron: Israeli savages & unprotected Palestinians

The sword is mightier
An unarmed civilian observer mission can't offer balanced policing to Palestinians in Hebron, a city where the IDF runs the show     Seth Freedman in Guardian Comment is Free


Temporary International Presence in the City of Hebron (TIPH). What I saw during my six-hour shadowing of the dedicated yet ultimately toothless members of the TIPH team made me question the wisdom of their presence in the troubled city.

Established in the wake of Baruch Goldstein's shooting spree in a local mosque, TIPH's raison d'etre is to "monitor the situation in Hebron and record breaches of international law." In essence, they are stationed in the city to bear witness to the almost daily violent incidents that erupt between the Jewish settlers of Hebron and their Palestinian neighbours.

...incident they were called to appeared far more clear cut. In a busy street underneath a barred window of one of the settlement buildings, a couple of tin cans with unidentifiable viscous liquid oozing from them lay on the edge of the pavement. 

"They tried to light it before hurling it at us," declared a middle-aged Palestinian man breathlessly, pointing up in the direction of the offenders' homes.  "They were 16 or 17," he continued, "not small kids at all." 

Hanging from the bars of the windows were sandbags filled with stones, which Sibyll said, "are prepared by the children, who then throw the rocks down at the Palestinians. The IDF come, but always deny that anything has happened."

As we continued along the route of the patrol, we came across a gaggle of teenagers surrounding a dishevelled-looking man sitting askew in a wheelchair. His T-shirt badly ripped from shoulder to shoulder and covered in bloodstains, he shook as he turned plaintively to Mortens and Sibyll and pleaded for their help. "The army did this," he began. "They beat me, and there are 15 of them still in my house now - you've got to go and do something."

Well-meaning but ultimately impotent foreigners wielding notebooks and pens are no match for M16-toting soldiers when it comes to delivering justice to the city's residents. Therefore it is no surprise that, despite what TIPH was set up to deliver, the Palestinians feel no better looked after now than they did before 1994. And that is no more likely to assuage their frustration and fears than any other half-hearted internationally-led initiative - meaning that their ongoing feeling of abandonment is entirely understandable while the best they've got is TIPH.