Hebron (al-Khalil)

Al-Khalil is in the south-centre of the West Bank, south of Jerusalem. The municipality of Hebron is supposedly one of the largest population centres in the West Bank - enough to sway the vote dramatically in elections.

It is estimated, that due to the occupation, Hebron has around a 75% unemployment rate. Many workers will line up a 3am in worker terminals (large checkpoints) to try to enter Israel to work in precarious employment. In the past few weeks at least two workers have died of heart attacks while waiting to cross the border.

Supposedly Hebron (al-Khalil) is the site of the tomb of Ibrahim (Abraham) located in the Ibrahim mosque. It is a sight of constant tension. Fundamentalist Zionists have been settling in Hebron since 1968 - the first was a group of settlers that checked in to a Palestinian hotel in Hebron and then refused to leave - the Israeli government then made arrangements for them to stay in a military outpost which later turned in to a settlement. Since then, more and more settlers have taken (often by brutal force) locations in the old city of Hebron. They will literally kick out Palestinian families or shop owners and move themselves in the middle of the night.

Now, walking through the old city, you can see the matrix of check points, patrols, and settler-only roads - how this system is meant to make it as comfortable as possible for the fundamentalist settlers..and as UN-comfortable as possible for the original Palestinians.

On top of this already brutal example of apartheid you have the overt racism of these settlers: spitting at Palestinians, throwing rocks and garbage, beating people up in the streets, constant harassment and intimidation.

In 1994 - one of these ideological settlers, Baruch Goldstein, walked in to Ibrahim Mosque during prayers and massacred 29 people. He was killed, and his party officially outlawed, but there is a shrine to Goldstein in Hebron and support for this sort of fascist ideology is very much alive with settlers in Hebron and with groups like the JDL.

Hebron is a brutal example of apartheid in 1967 Palestine. Divided over and over in to zones: H1 and H2, and controlled so tightly..all in the name of security. Villages outside of the city but still within the district of Hebron are facing displacement from growing settlements and 'security zones'.