A One-Sided Tour of Hebron, Courtesy of the Inquirer
The Hebron controversy so much in the news lately, it
was no surprise that the Philadelphia Inquirer recently sent staff
correspondent Barbara Demick for a first-hand report on life in that
troubled city. Unfortunately, Demick's story, which appeared on
the front page of the November 24 Inquirer, was marred by
distortions and omissions.
Demick structured her report around two Hebron families,
one Jewish (the Cohens) and one Arab (the Zahdehs), who live on
the same street but have no contact with each other. For Demick,
the Cohens and the Zahdehs symbolize the fear and mistrust that
separate the Jewish and Arab communities of Hebron. "So
estranged are these neighbors," Demick wrote, "that they cannot
agree even on the name of their street: The Arabs call it Al-
Shohada, Street of the Martyrs; the Jews call it King David Street."
Unfortunately, Inquirer readers would have no way of
knowing that the Jews call it "King David Street" because the
biblical patriarch King David chose Hebron as the first capital of the
ancient Jewish kingdom, and ruled there for seven years before
making Jerusalem the capital. Demick's failure to explain
this point typifies her failure, throughout the article, to acknowledge
the significance of Hebron in Judaism and Jewish history.
"Next to Jerusalem, Hebron is perhaps the most emotionally
charged city in the region," Demick wrote. No mention of the fact
that next to Jerusalem, Hebron is the holiest city in Judaism. No
reference to the fact that Hebron contains numerous Jewish holy
sites, including the Tombs of the prophet Avner, the biblical
matriarch Ruth, King David's father Ishai, and Otniel Ben Kenaz,
the first Judge of biblical Israel. In Barbara Demick's version,
Hebron has only one religious site, the Cave of the Patriarchs
(where Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their wives are buried), and it is
equally sacred to Jews and Arabs.
Since the historical record is so central to the Hebron
controversy, it is surprising how few references Demick made to the
city's history. Her "even-handed" portrayal depicted Jews and
Arabs has having equally valid claims to the Cave the Patriarchs, or
the "Ibrahimi Mosque" as the Arabs call it. In fact, the Cave has
been a Jewish holy site for over 3,000 years; the Arabs
invaded the region in the 7th century CE (i.e. 1,200 years ago),
barred the Jews from the Cave of the Patriarchs, and established
their Ibrahimi Mosque on top of it. For centuries, under Arab
occupation, the Jews were prohibited from ascending beyond the
seventh step of the stairway leading to the cave.
This Arab and Muslim religious discrimination against Jews-
-which went on for over 1,000 years--was never mentioned in
Demick's article. She wrote: "By all accounts, these Jews lived
harmoniously with their Arab neighbors until 1929, when the region
was swept with pogroms." Sure it was harmonious--if you
define harmony as oppressing the Jews, forcing them to live as
third-class citizens (or "dhimmis," in Arabic), and prohibiting them
from visiting their holy sites.
Another serious flaw in the article was its treatment of Arab
terrorism. In Barbara Demick's Hebron, there was a pogrom in
1929, and an Arab attack in 1980 in which 6 Jews were killed. And
that's all. The reader was left with the impression that there hasn't
been an Arab terrorist attack in the past 16 years. No wonder the
Jewish residents of Hebron come off seeming paranoid and
irrational. A reader might well, ask, "Why do they have to carry
guns if there hasn't been an attack since 1980?" The answer is that
there have been many attacks--but Demick failed to mention them.
There was the brutal stabbing to death of yeshiva student Aharon
Gross in the Hebron marketplace (1983). There was the fatal knife
attack on student Erez Shmuel near the Cave of the Patriarchs
(1993). There was the drive-by shooting on the Hebron Road in
which Mordechai Lapid and his son Shalom were murdered (1993).
There was the ambush of a bus in the same location, in which
Nahum Hoss and Yehuda Partus were murdered (1995). There was
the shooting attack that killed teenager Sarit Prigal near the entrance
to the city (1994). Just this past summer, an elderly rabbi was
stabbed and wounded in an attack in downtown Hebron, and two
retirees who were studying at the Hebron yeshiva were stabbed and
wounded in a second attack.
The Jewish residents of Hebron have good reason to be
concerned, and good reason to carry weapons. And the Israeli
government has good reason to station troops in the city to protect
them, just as it stations troops or policemen anywhere in the country
that Israeli citizens are threatened. (If African-Americans living in a
Philadelphia neighborhood were subjected to racist terrorist attacks
by their white neighbors, wouldn't the City would station
extra police in the area to protect them?) The danger of Arab
terrorism in Hebron is real, as the historical record demonstrates.
But you wouldn't know it from touring Hebron with Barbara
Demick and the Philadelphia Inquirer.
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