CNN WORLD News
troops

Hebron still thorny issue
in Mideast peace process

April 30, 1996
Web posted at: 11:10 p.m. EDT (0310 GMT)

HEBRON, West Bank (CNN) -- Israeli troops have begun removing equipment from their army camps on the outskirts of the ancient city of Hebron as part of a promised partial pullback from the town.


It is the last major West Bank town still under Israeli control. The troops were supposed to have been out of Hebron a month ago, but Israel held up redeployment after a series of suicide bombings in Israeli cities, demanding PLO chairman Yasser Arafat crack down on militants.

It also demanded that Arafat, as he had undertaken in the September deal, amend portions of the PLO charter calling for Israel's destruction.

On April 24, the Palestine National Council, the Palestinian parliament-in-exile, voted to amend the charter. Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres hailed the charter change and said Israel too would keep its peace deal commitments.

mosque

The return of Hebron to the Palestinians was one of those commitments. But the city is an especially sensitive spot.

Holy to Muslims and Jews, Hebron has been a flashpoint of Jewish-Arab violence: The city contains the tomb of the patriarchs Abraham and Isaac and a mosque on the same site.

Israeli troops will remain to guard the 400 Israelis living amidst about 100,000 Palestinians in Hebron even after the pullback, pending further talks with the Palestinians.

But that may not be enough to erase peoples' fears. Nursery school assistant Sarah Ramati has lived in the Jewish settlement since she was a baby. "I'm willing to live with them," she said. "I hope it will be OK, but I'm very scared of the situation."

But in the marketplace near the settlers' stronghold, Palestinians say they are often the victims of abuse by Jewish extremists.

"It is the whole problem: How to deal with these people because they have a strong belief that this is their town and we don't belong here," said one man.

In 1994, a Jewish settler massacred 29 Palestinians praying in a mosque adjacent to the patriarchs tomb.

soldier with little boy

Noam Arnon, a spokesman for Jewish settlers, says they won't accept the authority of the Palestinian police.

"The PLO police is based on terrorist groups which we never recognize. First of all they are war criminals and they should be punished," Arnon said.

It's a classic Middle East deadlock, fraught with religious tensions steeped in years of mistrust.

The question of who will control the tomb of the patriarchs will be one of many thorny issues up for discussion in final settlement talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

Those talks, the most difficult part of the whole peace process, are due to begin next week.

CNN Correspondent Rob Reynolds and Reuters contributed to this report.

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