Center For Jewish Nonviolence invaded property, ripped up grazing land to create movie theater.
(Photo Credit: Tzipi Schissel / Jewish Press / TPS)
A group of Jewish Americans came to Hebron to help the Arab community. But the very community they were trying to help saw them as tresspassing on private property.
The incident took place on on Friday July 15, 2016 in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood of H2 Hebron. Groups such as the Center For Jewish Nonviolence, All That’s Left: Anti-Occupation Collective took part in the initiative called Cinema Hebron. Their stated goal was “to clear out an old factory on private Palestinian owned land in order to build a cinema.” However the Abu Aisha family who have been living there since approximately 1949, saw them as illegal tresspassers. Mr. Abu Aisha called the police and the Israel Defense Forces arrived to evict the protesters.
Tzipi Schissel, a local Hebron resident and curator of the Hebron History Museum at Beit Hadassah filmed the event. The shepherd, standing on the left-hand side of the video can be seen gestering and telling the police “yalla, take them from here… these are my lands…”
A lengthy article in the Jewish Press quoted Schissel as follows:
“Now, when the activists arrived with their tremendous singing, they cleaned up the area thoroughly, it was truly amazing, but the Abu Aisha family was not consulted. Later, a police officer told me there was a military order to evacuate the activists and that the Abu Aisha family had filed a complaint with local police.” The Jewish Press reported that in the end, a complaint was never actually filed.
H1 Hebron is a large, economically vibrant city with many factories, 3 universities, several large hospitals, a shopping center but no movie theaters. The religiously conservative population hosts many mosques and virtually no western style night life facilities. H2 Hebron, which comprises the Old City and the Jewish neighborhoods is where Friday’s incident took place.
The Jewish Press quoted Schissel as commenting on the protesters choice of location: “This is why the only place where they could advocate having a movie theater in all of Hebron was near the Jewish neighborhoods… these human rights group who say they want to help the Arab community are actually ignorant of who they are… they step on their culture, trampling their values… those peace activists did a cleanup job on his source of livelihood. They raked and tore up the weeds… they destroyed his grazing field,” Schlissel said.
For the full article click here:
Meanwhile, the Jewish Community of Hebron hold regular meetings with select members of Hebron’s Arab community. Specifically there is close contact with Sheikh Farid Al-Jabari.
One meeting dealt with the Arab community’s aversion to foreign agitators. While they come to Hebron to support the Arab community, Sheikh Jabari and others have complained they smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol and dress immodestly, setting what they call a bad example for the younger generation of Hebron’s Arab community. An article from Israel HaYom from November 4, 2011 interviews Sheikh Jabari and states:
“The anarchists who operated in Hebron almost drove him out of his mind with anger. He saw them as instigators and troublemakers, and also as a danger to Islam because of their permissive ways and immodest manner of dress. The Jews of Hebron did not like the anarchists in Hebron for exactly the same reasons, and so an unusual cooperation took place that led to the placing of an Arabic-speaking Jewish modesty observer in the streets of the city.”
The phenomenon of the Arab community rejecting self-described “anarchist” protesters is not new. An article from Kol Ha’ir from 2005 reported,
“Several local Arab residents told the Kol Ha’Ir newspaper that the activists have been exposing the local youths to drug use and sexual promiscuity. One interviewee told Kol Ha’Ir that the volunteers show a disregard for the religious norms of the local villages and teach the local youth to reject and disrespect the traditions of their forefathers. “These anarchists come here and undermine the education we give our children. At first we took them in with hospitality – after all, they claimed they wanted to help us, so why kick them out? But very quickly they infuriated me with their lewd behavior.”
For more information on Hebron’s Jewish-Arab dialogues visit the following:
* The most endangered species by David Brog
For more on the Arab community’s rejection of foreign agitators visit the following:
* Out with the Anarchists – IsraellyCool
You may also like:
* Hallel Yaffa Ariel’s Murder and My Father by Tzipi Schissel
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