On Monday, February 8, 2004 an article appeared in the Jerusalem Post, authored by Matthew Gutman, called "Celebrating Purim in Hebron Under a Microscope." This article is a springboard for several topics of discussion.
The first of those is Dr. Baruch Goldstein. This year in particular, Hebron has come under attack, being the 10th anniversary of his killing of twenty-nine Arabs in Ma'arat HaMachpela.
This topic has been so overplayed in the past decade that, as a rule, I don't deal with it. But, for the record, there are a few points that must be clarified:
1. The Jewish Community of Hebron has always rejected any and all illegitimate violence towards anyone, Arab and Jew alike. In fact, over the past three-and-a-half years of warfare, when here in Hebron we were shot at day and night, in our homes and on the streets, for over two years, no one took out an M16 and started randomly shooting people. True, most people here are armed (and not only in Hebron, but throughout Judea, Samaria and Gaza and a good part of the rest of the State of Israel) for reasons of self-defense, and are licensed to carry arms by the Interior Ministry and the IDF. The difference between us and our enemies is that we carry weapons for self-protection. When they obtain arms, they use them to attack. This is, by itself, overwhelming proof that Dr. Goldstein's actions are not seen as a solution to the problems we face. If people did accept his approach, he certainly would not have been the only one to use it.
2. Almost all articles about Dr. Goldstein invariable mention his grave. For instance, in a recent article in the Sunday Times of London: "Hebron's children are encouraged by extremists to cherish Goldstein as a saint? they are taken to pay respects at his grave?"
I do not know who the 'extremists' are, and being that they are not named, my guess is that this is the author's supposition, based upon expectation and hearsay. I cannot say that I loiter around Dr. Goldstein's grave site, but it is located near the western entrance to Kiryat Arba, and over the years I have rarely noticed throngs of people, be they from Hebron or anywhere else, hanging around there.
3. Most articles equate Dr. Goldstein with Hebron/Kiryat Arba and the outlawed Kach movement, almost relating to them as synonyms. This is simply not true. It is true, there are Kach supporters in Hebron and Kiryat Arba, but there are also Kach supporters all over Israel. The number of such supporters is also greatly exaggerated. For example, about 12 years ago, before it was outlawed, the Kach list in Kiryat Arba received one seat out of nine. Another example: Hebron resident Baruch Marzel, a former Kach leader, was a candidate for Knesset on the Herut party list. The party received some 36,000 votes (most of which were cast thanks to Marzel). I can assure you that only slightly over 100 of those votes came from Hebron. Does that mean that over 36,000 Israelis are blood-thirsty extremists, or only those who voted for him from Hebron?
4. As for 'memorial services' held for Dr. Goldstein on the date of his death: All of these services are sparsely attended, and those participating are, by and large, not from Hebron or Kiryat Arba. Another service, held by the family, is small, private and identical to religious Jewish memorial services conducted for any family members who are no longer among the living.
Gutman seems to enjoy insinuating guilt by association. The prime example he uses is our old friend Avishai Raviv: "It was there [Hebron] that Avishai Raviv, an extremist settler provocateur turned controversial Shin Bet informer, used the city as the center for violent activity." In other words, Hebron is responsible for the fact that Raviv's Israeli intelligence controllers sent him to Hebron in order to cause violent disturbances that could then be blamed on Hebron's residents.
As for the 'charge' that Raviv was 'an extremist settler,' please note that he began his Shabak-initiated activities in 1989-1990, when he lived in Holon and studied at Tel Aviv University. After being expelled (!), the Shabak moved him to Bar-Ilan University and the Shomron community Ma'ale Levona. He arrived in Kiryat Arba (where the Shabak rented him an apartment) post-1994.
However, this is the minor problem with Gutman's article. The major difficulty lies with the statements made by Professor Aviezer Ravitzky. Ravitzky is active in the left-wing religious party Meimad, whose web site identifies him as the party council chairman. (Meimad, it should be recalled, participated in the Peres government in 1996 and later integrated into the Labor party, serving in the Ehud Barak fiasco.)
I would like to quote Ravitzky's gem, as reported by Gutman: "There is a type of symbiosis between the Arabs and Jews in Hebron. They become increasingly similar. Even in their dress and mindset? The fringes of both sides push the notion that 'violence is the single solution,' and that the dehumanization of the other side is the way to get there."
In April, 1995 similar statements were made by Prof. Moshe Zimmerman, who compared Hebron's children to Nazi youth. Almost ten years later, another professor is comparing Hebron residents to Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists. In his opinion, we are all the same. In other words: We explode on buses full of innocent men, women and children, we blow ourselves up in restaurants, and kill as many kids as we can at discotheques. Our dress is quite discerning: one can distinguish the difference between a Hebron resident, and a Jew from, say, Jerusalem, Beit El, or even Tel-Aviv, quite easily. We look more like Arabs than our fellow brethren. And of course, we teach our children, (as can be found on the Hebron web site, in Hebron school textbooks, at Hebron summer camp activities and in movies we produce) to kill, kill, kill!
The article concludes with another Ravitzky treasure: "The issue of Hebron and Baruch Goldstein's message does not reach the rest of Israel. If we didn't read about the parades in the press, we would never know about them."
Again ? Hebron is responsible for the killing of 29 Arabs, simply because we are here. Just as Herzliya is responsible for Rabin's assassination, because Yigal Amir lived there? right? And this is, according to Ravitzky, Hebron's message.
Nothing could be farther from the truth, and to connect them is odious. Hebron's message is short and simple: Jews should be allowed to live freely and securely in Eretz Yisrael. Surely, Jews have a right, a G-d-given right, a cultural right, a historic right, to live in the first Jewish city in the land of Israel, where they lived for hundreds and thousands of years, prior to the 1929 riots, massacre and expulsion. We have no aspirations to kill anyone or to instigate violence. To the contrary, our goal is to live peacefully and normally, just like any other person, anywhere else in the world. If only our neighbors would let us!
We believe that 'our job' is to live here ? our security is in the hands of G-d and the Israeli security forces. It is their responsibility to see to it that we are safe.
The very fact that Ravitzky has the gall to compare us to Hebron's Arab terrorists, who shot at us for over two years, is repulsive. The fact that a supposedly 'responsible' and 'serious' journalist, like Matthew Gutman would see fit to print such rubbish is detestable.
But in the end, it's the headline that says it all: "Celebrating Purim in Hebron Under a Microscope" When everything is said and done, Hebron must be 100% perfect ? anything less will find its way into another yellow journalistic expose. I don't know of anywhere else where people are expected to be faultless. Only here. And I admit, we are not flawless. So what? We are people ? skin and bones, just like everyone else. Is being less that perfect a crime to be examined under a microscope?
According to Ravitzky, Gutman and too many others, yes, definitely, if you live in Hebron.
In truth, I don't mind being less than perfect. As long as I can be less than perfect in Hebron.
The first of those is Dr. Baruch Goldstein. This year in particular, Hebron has come under attack, being the 10th anniversary of his killing of twenty-nine Arabs in Ma'arat HaMachpela.
This topic has been so overplayed in the past decade that, as a rule, I don't deal with it. But, for the record, there are a few points that must be clarified:
1. The Jewish Community of Hebron has always rejected any and all illegitimate violence towards anyone, Arab and Jew alike. In fact, over the past three-and-a-half years of warfare, when here in Hebron we were shot at day and night, in our homes and on the streets, for over two years, no one took out an M16 and started randomly shooting people. True, most people here are armed (and not only in Hebron, but throughout Judea, Samaria and Gaza and a good part of the rest of the State of Israel) for reasons of self-defense, and are licensed to carry arms by the Interior Ministry and the IDF. The difference between us and our enemies is that we carry weapons for self-protection. When they obtain arms, they use them to attack. This is, by itself, overwhelming proof that Dr. Goldstein's actions are not seen as a solution to the problems we face. If people did accept his approach, he certainly would not have been the only one to use it.
2. Almost all articles about Dr. Goldstein invariable mention his grave. For instance, in a recent article in the Sunday Times of London: "Hebron's children are encouraged by extremists to cherish Goldstein as a saint? they are taken to pay respects at his grave?"
I do not know who the 'extremists' are, and being that they are not named, my guess is that this is the author's supposition, based upon expectation and hearsay. I cannot say that I loiter around Dr. Goldstein's grave site, but it is located near the western entrance to Kiryat Arba, and over the years I have rarely noticed throngs of people, be they from Hebron or anywhere else, hanging around there.
3. Most articles equate Dr. Goldstein with Hebron/Kiryat Arba and the outlawed Kach movement, almost relating to them as synonyms. This is simply not true. It is true, there are Kach supporters in Hebron and Kiryat Arba, but there are also Kach supporters all over Israel. The number of such supporters is also greatly exaggerated. For example, about 12 years ago, before it was outlawed, the Kach list in Kiryat Arba received one seat out of nine. Another example: Hebron resident Baruch Marzel, a former Kach leader, was a candidate for Knesset on the Herut party list. The party received some 36,000 votes (most of which were cast thanks to Marzel). I can assure you that only slightly over 100 of those votes came from Hebron. Does that mean that over 36,000 Israelis are blood-thirsty extremists, or only those who voted for him from Hebron?
4. As for 'memorial services' held for Dr. Goldstein on the date of his death: All of these services are sparsely attended, and those participating are, by and large, not from Hebron or Kiryat Arba. Another service, held by the family, is small, private and identical to religious Jewish memorial services conducted for any family members who are no longer among the living.
Gutman seems to enjoy insinuating guilt by association. The prime example he uses is our old friend Avishai Raviv: "It was there [Hebron] that Avishai Raviv, an extremist settler provocateur turned controversial Shin Bet informer, used the city as the center for violent activity." In other words, Hebron is responsible for the fact that Raviv's Israeli intelligence controllers sent him to Hebron in order to cause violent disturbances that could then be blamed on Hebron's residents.
As for the 'charge' that Raviv was 'an extremist settler,' please note that he began his Shabak-initiated activities in 1989-1990, when he lived in Holon and studied at Tel Aviv University. After being expelled (!), the Shabak moved him to Bar-Ilan University and the Shomron community Ma'ale Levona. He arrived in Kiryat Arba (where the Shabak rented him an apartment) post-1994.
However, this is the minor problem with Gutman's article. The major difficulty lies with the statements made by Professor Aviezer Ravitzky. Ravitzky is active in the left-wing religious party Meimad, whose web site identifies him as the party council chairman. (Meimad, it should be recalled, participated in the Peres government in 1996 and later integrated into the Labor party, serving in the Ehud Barak fiasco.)
I would like to quote Ravitzky's gem, as reported by Gutman: "There is a type of symbiosis between the Arabs and Jews in Hebron. They become increasingly similar. Even in their dress and mindset? The fringes of both sides push the notion that 'violence is the single solution,' and that the dehumanization of the other side is the way to get there."
In April, 1995 similar statements were made by Prof. Moshe Zimmerman, who compared Hebron's children to Nazi youth. Almost ten years later, another professor is comparing Hebron residents to Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists. In his opinion, we are all the same. In other words: We explode on buses full of innocent men, women and children, we blow ourselves up in restaurants, and kill as many kids as we can at discotheques. Our dress is quite discerning: one can distinguish the difference between a Hebron resident, and a Jew from, say, Jerusalem, Beit El, or even Tel-Aviv, quite easily. We look more like Arabs than our fellow brethren. And of course, we teach our children, (as can be found on the Hebron web site, in Hebron school textbooks, at Hebron summer camp activities and in movies we produce) to kill, kill, kill!
The article concludes with another Ravitzky treasure: "The issue of Hebron and Baruch Goldstein's message does not reach the rest of Israel. If we didn't read about the parades in the press, we would never know about them."
Again ? Hebron is responsible for the killing of 29 Arabs, simply because we are here. Just as Herzliya is responsible for Rabin's assassination, because Yigal Amir lived there? right? And this is, according to Ravitzky, Hebron's message.
Nothing could be farther from the truth, and to connect them is odious. Hebron's message is short and simple: Jews should be allowed to live freely and securely in Eretz Yisrael. Surely, Jews have a right, a G-d-given right, a cultural right, a historic right, to live in the first Jewish city in the land of Israel, where they lived for hundreds and thousands of years, prior to the 1929 riots, massacre and expulsion. We have no aspirations to kill anyone or to instigate violence. To the contrary, our goal is to live peacefully and normally, just like any other person, anywhere else in the world. If only our neighbors would let us!
We believe that 'our job' is to live here ? our security is in the hands of G-d and the Israeli security forces. It is their responsibility to see to it that we are safe.
The very fact that Ravitzky has the gall to compare us to Hebron's Arab terrorists, who shot at us for over two years, is repulsive. The fact that a supposedly 'responsible' and 'serious' journalist, like Matthew Gutman would see fit to print such rubbish is detestable.
But in the end, it's the headline that says it all: "Celebrating Purim in Hebron Under a Microscope" When everything is said and done, Hebron must be 100% perfect ? anything less will find its way into another yellow journalistic expose. I don't know of anywhere else where people are expected to be faultless. Only here. And I admit, we are not flawless. So what? We are people ? skin and bones, just like everyone else. Is being less that perfect a crime to be examined under a microscope?
According to Ravitzky, Gutman and too many others, yes, definitely, if you live in Hebron.
In truth, I don't mind being less than perfect. As long as I can be less than perfect in Hebron.