How 700 settlers wrecked a town of 150,000 Palestinians

clipped from www.washingtonpost.com HEBRON, West Bank -- The barrier Israel is constructing in the largely rural West Bank is effectively separating Arab from Jew along much of its 456-mile length. But the broader project of disentangling the two peoples in the absence of a peace agreement is failing in urban areas such as Hebron, where the most radical elements of Islamic and Jewish nationalism are gaining strength. Within Hebron, the separation is enforced not only by Israeli barriers but also by military checkpoints and curfews intended to protect the roughly 700 Jewish settlers living within the city's most historic and religiously important areas. Securing the small Jewish minority has a potent impact on the lives of the city's 150,000 Arabs,

International observers here say the settlers regularly toss debris and dirty water into the Arab market below, now largely shuttered in a city where unemployment stands at 60 percent. Asked whether Arabs and Jews can share Hebron, Maraga, his hair and beard a gray fuzz, looked up at the chain-link canopy.

Hemmed in and harassed, the Palestinians are fleeing today. Nearly half the homes in and around the Israeli-controlled Old City of Hebron have been vacated, the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem recently reported. The group also said that more than three-quarters of the Palestinian shops and restaurants in the casbah and adjacent commercial districts have been shuttered, many by military order.

Via Marx Sawicky.

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Israel conducts ‘human shield‘ probe

clipped from www.localnewsleader.com Military police are investigating a high-ranking West Bank commander on suspicion his troops used Palestinian civilians as human shields in violation of an Israeli Supreme Court order banning the practice, military officials said. investigators want to determine how much Golan knew, and whether he explicitly authorized the practice. Golan is commander of the army‘s West Bank division. the case was reported in several Israeli newspapers Wednesday. In a landmark 2005 decision, Israel ‘s Supreme Court banned the use of Palestinian civilians as human shields in general, and specifically outlawed taking Palestinian civilians on searches. Since the Supreme Court decision, Palestinians have accused the army of continuing the practice, but proof was elusive spokeswoman for the Israeli human rights group B‘Tselem, said the new reports that the investigation is targeting senior officers was an encouraging sign the army is taking the matter seriously. complaints have been denied or dismissed