Hebron is the second largest city in the West Bank and the largest in the
southern West Bank. It is the only Palestinian city with an Israeli settlement in
the middle of it. The Israeli settlement in Hebron is concentrated in and around
the Old City, which traditionally served as the commercial center for the entire
southern West Bank.

For years, Israel has severely oppressed Palestinians living in the center of the
city. The authorities have created a long strip of land that partitions the city into
southern and northern sections and is forbidden to Palestinian vehicles. Parts of
the strip are also closed to Palestinian pedestrians. The settlers, on the other hand,
are allowed to move about freely in these areas. In the areas open to Palestinian
movement, passersby are subject to repeated detention and humiliating
inspections every step of the way. Since the massacre of Muslim worshipers in
the Tomb of the Patriarchs, carried out by the settler Baruch Goldstein in 1994,
the Israeli military commander has ordered the closing of many Palestinianowned
shops, which provided a source of livelihood for thousands of persons. To
aggravate matters, the Israeli defense establishment has knowingly and routinely
protected countless acts of settler violence against Palestinians in the city.

These restrictions, prohibitions, and omissions have expropriated the City Center
from its Palestinian residents and destroyed it economically. Most of the shops
in this area have been forced to close. Having no option, many families have left
their homes in the City Center. Israel’s ongoing restrictions and prohibitions make
it impossible for Palestinians to renovate and rejuvenate the area.

This report does not deal with all of Hebron, or even with those parts of the
city that Israel directly controls. The report concentrates on the City Center, the
area comprising the Old City and the Casbah, in which most of the settlement
points were established, in which Israel imposes the most severe restrictions on
Palestinian movement – an area that Palestinians have abandoned more than any
other. What was once the vibrant heart of Hebron has become a ghost town.

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