Arabs ask Settlers: Help in Banishing the Leftists

A tidbit from Arutz-7, the banned right-wing Israeli radio station:

Hevron Arabs Ask Jews For Help In Banishing Leftist Activists
By Ezra HaLevi

Arab leaders in Hevron have contacted the city’s Jewish leaders for help in getting rid of self-proclaimed anarchist volunteers who, they complain, are destroying their traditional way of life.

The anarchists, many of whom are members of the International Solidarity Movement, flock to flashpoints throughout Judea and Samaria, ostensibly to help PA Arabs contend with IDF closures and protect them from harassment. In actuality, many of the volunteers seek confrontations with IDF soldiers and local Jewish residents, taking advantage of their Western passports to cause havoc – knowing that, at worst, they will be deported, not jailed.

(Rest of article is here).


This story isn't so untoward. When I was a resident of Kiriat Arba, about 20 years ago, I used to pray at sunrise in the building over the Cave of the Forefathers in Hevron, just a 10 minute walk away. We would see the members of the Waqf, the Muslim Religious leadership, and would nod back and forth as we passed -- tense, but peaceful.

When I left Kiriat Arba to live in Yitzhar -- near Shchem, or Nablus, in the North -- I came over to the head of the Waqf and wished him well. Reacting to where I was going, Ibrahim said to me, "Be careful of those Shchemites ^*-- they are irreligious, and are dangerous."

One of the keys to understanding Arabs is that they are *NOT* monolithic, but that each group is dangerous in their own way. Part of the background for the chaos that has come to fore now in Gaza -- it was never hidden -- is the extreme hatred between the religious Hamas and Hizbulla on one side, and the irreligious Fatah on the other.

In the Judea/Samaria paradigm, the area about Hevron in the south is almost uniformly religious, blending to religious Christians (that remain) in Bet-Lehem (Bethleham) and Bet Gala towards Jerusalem; north of Jerusalem, you have Ramallah which is mixed and has its own tensions, to Shchem, historically controlled by secular Arabs and the site of the large University and medical school.

Let there be no mistake -- had I turned my back on the Waqf and appeared weak, they would have attacked me. We both understood this, and accepted it as natural and normal for them. The Arab culture is hierarchical to a fault; trying to impose a Western concept like "equality" or "mutual trust" is an anathema to them, and breeds both hatred, and quiet disdain.


* Shchemites - residents of Shchem. I guess if you don't like them, you're an anti-Shchemite?