Hebron

Every now and then in life, and maybe just when you want it, god throws down a thunderbolt. It happened to me on Friday in Hebron, in the Occupied Territories. A group of seven Israelis and I were sitting in an Arab man's house, discussing the harassment and denial of movement to Palestinians in the center of that city—the second largest city in the West Bank—when I wondered for the 100th or thousandth time how the conditions I was seeing for myself in the occupation compared to apartheid in South Africa, which Americans rose up against 20 years ago.

Then the door opened and a group of international volunteers came in. I heard European accents, and a tall black man with a tan haversack walked across the room and took the seat right beside me.

"Where are you from?" I asked.

"South Africa," he said.

"Do you know about apartheid?"

"I lived through apartheid."  read more »

"How does this compare to apartheid?"

Joey Cavod has pointed out Biblical errors in an article I wrote for the Observer this past week. In explaining the ancient attachment of Jews to the West Bank, I wrote, "David bought Shem, and that is Jerusalem. Joseph bought Nablus. Abraham bought Hebron when he wanted to bring Sarah to this place."

Joey writes:

Schem and Nablus are the same places. Schem is the original name and Nablus is the name that the Arabs gave Schem a couple of thousand years (around 650 CE) after it was settled.

Schem is not Jerusalem. Joseph's tomb is in Schem. David has nothing to do with Schem. According to the Bible, Abraham bought caves in Hebron to bury Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, and Leah in.

According to the Bible, David bought the land for the Temple in Jerusalem, Joseph's father bought land in Schem and Abraham bought land in Hebron.

I thank Joey for the good word...

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