On this day 26 years ago, Israeli settler Baruch Goldstein stormed the Ibrahimi mosque in al-Khaleel [Hebron] and slaughtered 29 Palestinians who were praying during Ramadan, while injuring over 100 more.
Dozens of Palestinians were murdered by the IDF during the ensuing protests.
As a result of this massacre perpetrated by an Israeli AGAINST Palestinians, Israel shut down over 500 Palestinian businesses and sealed off the MAIN street of al-Khaleel/Hebron, essentially cutting the city in half and granted full control of half to Israeli settlers.
al-Khaleel’s economy has never recovered, with more businesses having shut down since, tourism flat-lining, and Israeli settlers gaining more and more control of the city.
This was al-Khaleel’s main street prior to the massacre:
And this is what it looked like during my visit in 2017:
The shops have been welded shut by the Israeli army, ensuring that Palestinians can never again re-open their businesses.
Further, Israeli settlers stormed and took over Palestinian homes, creating situations in which Palestinians live in the sealed away bottom floor of their homes, forced to use windows to enter and exit, while Israeli settlers live on the top floors.
What you see in the second image above is metal fencing meant to catch some of the waste and garbage Israelis regularly throw down to Palestinians underneath, waste that includes urine and fecal matter. They also drop stones and small boulders in an attempt to wound Palestinians traveling underneath.
Not content with sealing off the doors and blocking off the street, Israel also sealed off all sewers:
Sealed off sewers, coupled with blocked off roads, leads to frequent flooding of the street, creating a situation akin to that displayed in the film Parasite - the privileged [Israeli settlers] live above the water, while the Palestinians are forced to endure artificial flooding and traversing raw sewage when the reservoirs back up.
Here’s a post on a video I took of this same street, showcasing the garbage that had been dumped on the Palestinians living below.
All of this as a result of an Israeli terrorist slaughtering Palestinian worshipers during their holy month of Ramadan.
To this day, Baruch Goldstein remains a revered figure among many Israeli settlers, who sing songs of his “heroism” and “martyrdom”, and thank him for contributing to the end of peace talks at the time and allowing Israeli settlers to take over Hebron.
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