Hundreds protest segregation in Hebron’s Shuhada Street

Hundreds of Palestinian, Israeli and international protesters march in Hebron to demand the end of settlements and segregation in the city, February 22, 2019

+972 staff write, “Hundreds of Palestinian, Israeli and international demonstrators marched along Shuhada Street in the West Bank city of Hebron on Friday to protest against segregation in the city and against the expansion of Israeli settlements. This week marks 25 years to the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre, in which Jewish settler Baruch Goldstein killed 29 Palestinian worshipers in the city.”

“After the attack, Israeli forces closed off Shuhada Street to Palestinian residents. Some 900 Jewish Israeli settlers who live among the tens of thousands of Palestinians in the city can walk and drive along the street as they wish. The years-long closure has had a detrimental impact on Palestinians, who haven’t been able to access houses and shops they own along that street. Some have had to climb over rooftops to reach their homes.”

Feb. 22, 2019

“According to Local Call’s Oren Ziv and Haggai Matar, protestors marched toward Checkpoint 56, which separates the part of the city governed by the Palestinian Authority from the Israeli-controlled area. They carried signs calling for the return of the Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH) – the only observer group in the city with an official international mandate. In late January, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided not to renew the group’s mandate, effectively expelling the observers from the city after 22 years of monitoring the human rights situation there.” (more…)