In Hebron, a Common Site Fuels a Holy Feud

HEBRON, West Bank (March 3) -- Leah Stremsky, 66, has traveled more than five hours from her home in northern Israel to pray at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the ancient city. She hopes that her efforts and prayers will help a friend in her 40s get pregnant.

She stands above the traditional grave of Isaac in a small chapel, which ends with a wooden wall. On the other side of it is the Ibrahimi mosque, a site holy to Muslims as the burial place of the patriarch they call Ibrahim and the Jews call Abraham. That common heritage is now an explosive cause of violent division.

"I would prefer that the Arabs were not here at all," says Stremsky with a laugh, gesturing toward the wall. "They want to kill us. I would rather they were all six feet under."

The large stone building over the Tomb of the Patriarchs, which dominates the hill above the Old City of Hebron, is the focus of new tensions since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week declared that it and another Jewish holy site, Rachel's Tomb near Bethlehem, will be added to a list of Israeli national heritage sites.

The decision sparked days of rioting and stone throwing here and in Jerusalem. Most of the ancient building that contains the shrines has been under Palestinian control for decades, even as Jews worship in one part of it. Palestinians say they fear that the Israeli listing is a first step toward changing the status quo.

"Playing with religion is very dangerous," warned Hebron Mayor Khaled Osaily in an interview in his office with a group of foreign journalists. "Any changes in the status quo could snowball. It's dangerous."

Osaily, a wealthy businessman, has focused his efforts as mayor on building a soccer stadium and trying to find jobs for the 40 percent of Hebron's residents that are unemployed. He has good contacts with Israelis and supports the two-state solution of a Palestinian state next to Israel. Yet he is furious about Israel's decision to declare Hebron a national heritage site.

"They want to rehabilitate the inside and claim it is a Jewish place to control what is going on here," he said in the interview. "But until now the municipality and the Waqf [the Muslim religious authorities] were in control. Anything that needed to be done we did. There was an unlimited budget for this."

When pressed, Osaily would not explicitly say whether he would allow Jewish worship to continue if Hebron became part of a Palestinian state, saying that the site would be open for "all humankind" to visit.

Jewish settler spokesman David Wilder said the decision to declare Hebron a Jewish heritage site is "excellent."

Wilder said that according to Jewish tradition, the forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, along with their wives, are buried in a cave deep beneath the site. Some Jews believe that Adam and Eve lie here as well.

"If this isn't Jewish heritage, I don't know what is," he said as he leads visitors around the Tomb of the Patriarchs. "I don't need anybody's permission to take what's mine, to say it is part of my heritage and to beautify it and give it honor."

The Israeli decision on the Hebron site has sparked widespread Arab anger. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas warned Netanyahu that it "could lead to a religious war." Condemnation also came from the Arab League and the U.N.

Israeli officials insisted that the international community is overreacting.

"This is a mendacious and hypocritical campaign," read a statement from the prime minister's office. "The State of Israel is committed to freedom of religion for worshipers of all faiths at the holy places, and thus it acts in practice."

In Hebron, some 800 Jewish settlers live amid 180,000 Palestinians. The city is divided into two sections: H-1, which is under Palestinian control, and H-2, which is under Israeli control but is home to some 70,000 Palestinians. Hebron has long been a flash point of violence. Palestinians who live near the settler enclaves have strung a metal net to catch the garbage that settlers frequently throw at them.

"The settlers do this because they want us to get out," said Jamal Maraga, whose family owns a shop in Hebron's old city just below the contested building. "But my dad has been in this shop for 60 years, and we are determined to stay."

The religious site was not always divided. In 1994, a Jewish doctor, Baruch Goldstein, from the nearby Kiryat Arab settlement entered the mosque during morning prayers and opened fire, killing 29 worshipers before he was overcome and killed. That incident prompted the division into two separate sites -- a mosque and a synagogue.

Security to enter each side is tight, with multiple metal detectors and metal turnstiles. On the Jewish side, there's a special area to check your guns, as they are not permitted inside. Ten days each year, for special holidays, one side has access to the whole site.

It was quiet but tense in Hebron today. Israeli security officials say they believe the crisis has passed and quiet will return. But Palestinians say they won't stop fighting until Israel rescinds its decision.