Flashpoint At Hebron

To lovers of God's Word bow many Old Testament associations cluster around Hebron! From time to time Abraham sojourned there, and when Salab died be bought the Cave of the field of Machpelah for her burial place. In due course be too was buried there, as also were Isaac, Rebekah, Leah and Jacob. Following the invasion of Canaan under Josbua, Caleb won Hebron for his family possession. David was anointed king of Judah in Hebron, which remained his capital for the first seven years of his reign.

In modern Israel the Tomb of the Patriarchs near Hebron is sacred to both Muslim and Jew. There are officially arranged times, designed to avoid hostile clashes, when adherents of the two faiths can pray separately. The population of the Hebron area is predominantly Arab, but a group of Jewish extremists has since 1968 occupied part of the city. The Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba has also been established near Hebron. The area has therefore become notorious for bitter enmity between Jew and Arab.

According to the Declaration of Principles for Palestinian Self-rule,

signed in Washington last September, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and Jericho was supposed to begin by the 13th December, 1993. In the event this did not materialize. Negotiations over practical details to implement the withdrawal were predictably complicated and difficult. Extreme elements among Palestinians and Jews bad from the outset opposed the Washington Declaration, and were deliberately trying to sabotage it by terrorist activities. December 1993 saw an escalation of violence, with riots and tit-for-tat killings of Jews and Arabs, many in the Hebron area. Between the Washington ceremony in September and the year-end forty-one Palestinians and fourteen Jews had been killed in the violence throughout the occupied territories.

However, despite all the disruptive efforts of the extremists, negotiations continued in Cairo. Progress was slow, but by mid-February an accord was announced which settled a number of difficult issues, including the safety of Jewish settlers in the Gaza Strip and control of border crossings.

Then came "black Friday", the 25th February 1994, when a fearful outrage took place at Hebron. The Thraim Mosque, where the Muslims pray at the Tomb of the Patriarchs, was crowded with early morning worshippers. Baruch Goldstein, a prominent Jewish doctor from the neighbouring settlement of Kiryat Arba, forced his way into the mosque and opened fife on the congregation. Before he was struck down and beaten to death thirty people had been killed and about seventy wounded. Inevitably there followed widespread rioting throughout the occupied territories, making that Friday "the bloodiest day in the occupied Palestine lands since Israel conquered them in 1967".

Goldstein was from an Orthodox Jewish family in Brooklyn, USA. He had come under the influence of the notorious Rabbi Meir Kahane, an extremist who urged that all Arabs should be expelled from Israel. Meir Kahane's assassination in New York in 1990, we commented in these columns that be bad been seen as a martyr by many of his followers, and his vengeful influence lived on. How tragically that influence found expression through Baruch Goldstein! Among his closer associates he in turn is seen as a martyr: some of the Hebron settlers are said to have danced in the streets to celebrate his achievement. But for the most part there was revulsion and condemnation, shared by Yitzak Rabin who said, "I am ashamed as an Israeli that such a horrible incident took place here".

Isaiah's description of Israel in his day comes to mind: "... their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands. Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood ... The way of 'peace they know not" (59:6-8). Through Paul in Romans 3 the Spirit ascribes these traits to all mankind, reminding us that the Jewish-Arab conflict is but one example of many blood feuds in today's world. How thankfully we remember the contrasting word in Isaiah 53:9 about the suffering Messiah: "...although He bad done no violence". Rather He yielded to violence imposed on Him so that he might reconcile Jew and Gentile "in one body unto God through the Cross, having slain the enmity thereby" (Eph. 2:16). Amidst all the present conflict in Israel what pleasure it must bring to the heart of God that many Arabs and Jews are thus united in Christ through acceptance of the gospel.

unknown | Jul 1994
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