Comments on: Shuhada Street, Hebron

By: Open Shuhada Street « RIHLA SAIDA, photoblog from Egypt to Palestine and back

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:54:18 +0000

[...] check this website too: http://shawnduffy.com/blog/2010/01/shuhada-street-hebron/ CondividiLike this:LikeBe the first to like this [...]

By: Shawn

Shawn — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 02:29:00 +0000

I think that’s a perfectly reasonable idea. In fact, I don’t think many Palestinians would have a problem with it, either, so long as they had a real, sovereign state and could also move to, or worship, in Israel where they choose. Any person should be able to live and worship wherever they choose and be treated the same under the law.

By: Mikhael

Mikhael — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 02:24:00 +0000

Re:
“name of the city is still descended from its original Jewish name as opposed to the Arabic name of al-Khalil.”

Well, technically the name “Hevron” in Hebrew contains the root for the Hebrew word “friend”, and the Arabic “al Khalil” also means “friend”. Ideally, I would like to see Hebron as part of a sovereign state that offers its Jewish residents the right to live there either as: (a) Palestinian citizens (I doubt they would accept it) or (b) legal permanent residents. Although I am an agnostic, I would like them to continue to have the right to pray at Mearat haMakhpela, something Jews were unable to do from the Middle Ages until 1967. (They could only ascend to the 7th Step.)
My POV re: Hebron is much further to the “right” of Avraham Burg, an Israeli descended on his mother’s side from a Hebron family (and a distant cousin of mine) , but well to the left of David Wilder, the American-born spokesman for Hebron’s Jewish community.

By: Mikhael

Mikhael — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 02:15:00 +0000

Is it too late to proofread/edit my typos?

By: Shawn

Shawn — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 01:20:00 +0000

Thanks Mikhael. You make a very valid point and, believe me, it is not my intent to completely ignore the very real history of Jewish people in the area. In fact, on a previous trip to Hebron, our Palestinian guide pointed out the original Hebrew engraving over one of the doors in the Old City. So, yes, I definitely acknowledge Jewish roots there, as well, as do most Palestinians I know. In fact, as I’m sure you know, the name of the city is still descended from its original Jewish name as opposed to the Arabic name of al-Khalil.

So, thank you for your comment. It is definitely appreciated.

By: Mikhael

Mikhael — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 01:03:00 +0000

I happen to be descended from a Jewish family that lived in both Hebron and Jerusalem going back many centuries. I don’t necessarily believe that Hebron must remain under Israeli sovereignty nor do I justify the radical fundamentalist hardl line of most Hebrrob settlers. Post-1967, none of my father’s cousins chose to return to family property that had been abandoned in 1929.They were already resettled in Ramat Gan for many decades. I believe Israel should make territorial concessions in *most* (but not all) of the disputed areas. Nevertheless, it is a disingenuous omission in your paragraph entitled “Some background” when you glide over the fact that Jews were part of the fabric of life in Hebron for centuries, that is considered the second-holiest city to Jews (after Jerusalem) and that there was a terrible massacre and ethnic cleansing of Jews conducted by Arab rioters in that city, nearly two decades before the satte of Israel, which you and Palestinian Arab supporters refer to as a “Nakba”

By: Shawn

Shawn — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 14:47:58 +0000

Thank you Huntley!

By: Huntley Melinda

Huntley Melinda — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 03:39:28 +0000

This information is amazing, I never new how awful the restrictions are for Palestinians but how humiliating! The photo of the ladder says it all. Good work Shawn.

By: Shawn

Shawn — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 17:34:34 +0000

Thank you for the comment KMs. However, I have to disagree on your characterization of Israel as Nazi Germany. I think the situation is infinitely more complex. What I see, essentially, are two Israels. One acts as any other Western nation in that it is a liberal democracy (for the most part) and embraces most Western liberal values. Then, there is the Israel that exists for most Palestinians. This is the Israel we see in the West Bank and Gaza. A nation that puts its “security” above the most basic human rights and international law even though its actions really don't add to their security at all. It is a nation that seeks to preserve its own religious and ethnic superiority at all costs and has essentially become an apartheid state.

By: KMs

KMs — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 16:41:07 +0000

I have studied the Nazi expirement, and found out that Israel is behaving very much like Nazi Germany. I am sorry, but Israel is very much the nazis of our time. In the final analysis, when Jews think and behave and act like Nazis they become Nazis. I have not the slightest doubt that Jews in Israel today are behaving like Nazis.