A Welcome to Hebron

A few weeks ago my battalion moved over to Hebron, where we will be stationed from now until early July. What's our job exactly? We're here to guard, protect, and essentially ensure the security and quiet of the city. However, Hebron isn't your ordinary city in the West Bank.

If you've ever been to Nablus (I surely haven't), you'd see it's a city full of Arabs with no Jews in sight. You'll get the same picture in Jenin, Ramallah, or many of the other Palestinian villages throughout the region. If you've ever been to the Jewish settlement of Ariel, you'd see it's a place filled with Jews and only Jews, with no Palestinian around. The same is said of Efrat, Ofra, Kfar Etzion, Maale Adumim, and the many other Jewish settlements in what they call Judaea and Samaria (aka the West Bank).

Hebron, however, is different. Hebron is a mixed city, just like Jerusalem, and is unique in its kind in the region.

Unlike Jerusalem though, the balance is no where close. In the municipality of Hebron, there is a whopping 280,000 Palestinians, and a shocking 1000 Jews, that's all! Furthermore, these Jews are concentrated in a small section of the city near the cave of the patriarchs, the place in which our forefathers and mothers are said to be buried. Throughout the rest of the city all you can find is Palestinians. Hebron is essentially a Palestinian city just like any place else.

This, however, is also misleading. A majority of the Jews in the area lives in the Settlements of Kiryat Arba and Harsina, two settlements touching the city, but are not technically considered a part of Hebron. Kiryat Arba, for example, had a population of 7,500 in 2021, and surely it's grown a tad since. Harsina has another couple thousand residents as well. While this number is still significantly smaller than the whopping 280,000 Palestinians living in the city, you can see that the 1000 Jews number isn't a fair representation of the actual amount of Jews in the area.

My outpost is located on the outskirts of the city, touching the main road connecting the two Jewish settlements of Kiryat Arba and Harsina. All the time there are Jews walking up and down this road, from one place to the next, or even catching a bus. In fact, primarily Jews take this road and I've never seen a Palestinian pedestrian or car in the area.

A story that symbolizes this region more than anything is from my first day in the city. I was chosen to be a toran rassar, which isn't something good at all. Essentially there are several people chosen every day to work under the rassar, the man in charge of discipline and logistics on base. Anything he wants, we do. Sounds exciting doesn't it?

We just arrived at our new outpost and there was a bunch of trash left all over from the previous battalion who was there, a battalion from Golani. We were told to go around base and pick up trash, so that's what we did for hours on end. As we were picking up trash near the main road touching our base, a group of Jewish kids with a mother were walking by. As they approached the kids sang a little song about how much they love soldiers, and gave us mishloach manot through the fence, a little Jewish candy bag that is given to one another on the holiday of Purim. A much appreciated gesture, and a sweet treat in the middle of the day.

As we continued to pick up trash, we made our way to the other side of the outpost where the fence was adjacent to a Palestinian neighborhood. Some kids saw us picking up trash and made there way closer to us. They started rambling in Arabic and pointing to to different things on our side of the fence. I had no idea what they were saying, but figured they were asking for something, so I decided to reach into my pocket and give one of the kids a shekel I had, the least I could do.

On one side of our outpost I received some candy from a Jewish kid, and on the side I gave a Palestinian kid a shekel. Welcome to Hebron.

This is an occurance that has and will repeat itself for the next few months. An interesting experience where I'm on guard duty interacting with Palestians and Jews on the same shift, some of whom live a stone throw away from each other, but with a gate that clearly defines who lives where and who is allowed where. I controlled a gate where Palestians are not allowed to enter, and I controlled a gate where Jews cannot entered. I controlled a gate where only certain Jews can enter, and I controlled a gate where only Palestians on a specific list can enter, as long as their ID number and car type matched what was listed.

Welcome to Hebron. Welcome to the complicated mixed city of the West Bank where two peoples reside. A city more complex and certainly more fascinating than any other.

*A section of Hebron