While Israeli and Palestinian officials focused this week on the security situation in Hebron as part of their efforts to restart the peace talks, the subject also dominated internal Israeli polities.
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who has recently criticized the presence of Israeli settlers in Hebron as an impediment to the peace process, told a Labor Party caucus meeting Wednesday that the settlers’ presence there was a security nightmare as well.
Rabin told the caucus that he was horrified at the thought that between 100,000 and 120,000 Palestinians in Hebron have been kept under a virtual non-stop curfew since the Feb. 25 massacre there in order to ensure the security of some 415 Jews who live in the town.
The idea of moving the Hebron settlers from four enclaves into one, or of removing them entirely from the West Bank town, has been much discussed since the Feb. 25 attack by a Jewish settler.
“You will have more support from the Israeli public than the media would have you believe, should you decide to evacuate the Jewish settlers from Hebron,” Knesset Member Yael Dayan told Rabin during the meeting.
But Rabin replied that it was security concerns, not public opinion polls, that would determine what the government decided to do about Hebron.
During the meeting, Rabin was asked whether he believed the Palestine Liberation Organization and its chairman, Yasser Arafat, could be trusted to carry out their commitments.
“We have no Palestinian partners other than the PLO and Arafat,” Rabin replied.
Hebron was also the topic being discussed at the Knesset on Wednesday.
The Knesset had been called into session by special request of the opposition parties. It provided the stage for an impassioned rebuttal from Foreign Minister Shimon Peres against Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu’s charge that the government had been guilty of a blood libel against the entire settlement movement in general and the Hebron settlers in particular.
Labor was using the Hebron massacre to slur an entire section of the Israeli nation, Netanyahu claimed.
Peres replied in turn that the massacre had created a blood libel against the entire Jewish people.
Peres described the Hebron massacre as the most heinous act committed by a Jew in the entire history of the Jewish people, adding that it had brought shame and disgrace upon the State of Israel.
Help ensure Jewish news remains accessible to all. Your donation to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency powers the trusted journalism that has connected Jewish communities worldwide for more than 100 years. With your help, JTA can continue to deliver vital news and insights. Donate today.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
