❶ Hebron area residents face multiple demolitions within a week

• Background: “The Last Colonialist: Israel In The Occupied Territories Since 1967.” Independent Review

❷ Lawyers of Israeli soldier Elor Azarya call for acquittal in Hebron shooting trial
❸ Opinion/Analysis: In Hebron, a namesake falls short

• Background: “Abraham The Settler, Jesus The Refugee: Contemporary Conflict And Christianity On The Road To Bethlehem.” History & Memory

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❶ HEBRON  AREA  RESIDENTS  FACE  MULTIPLE  DEMOLITIONS  WITHIN  A  WEEK     
Ma’an News Agency
Nov. 21, 2016
Israeli forces on Sunday delivered 20 demolition notices in the Um al-Kher village in the southern occupied West Bank Hebron district, according to locals.
___Ratib al-Jabour, coordinator of a local committee that resists settlement activity, said that Israeli Civil Administration workers escorted by armed Israeli forces delivered the demolition notices to Suleiman al-Hathalin and Shuab al-Hathalin.
___The notices ordered demolitions on both Suleiman and Shuab’s homes, barns, barracks and residential caves.
___Al-Jabour added that Israeli forces “took Suleiman to a depopulated area and assaulted him,” resulting in injuries and bruises all over his body.     More . . .   

• Reuveny, Rafael. “The Last Colonialist: Israel In The Occupied Territories Since 1967.” Independent Review 12.3 (2008): 325-374.   Source.  

[. . . .] Recent setter actions in the West Bank city of Hebron . . .  Seeking to gain control over Hebron’s old city, settlers have attacked Palestinians since 2001, playing a key role in driving out 15,000 to 20,000 Palestinian residents and 1,500 to 1,700 Palestinian businesses from the city. Settlers also have often attacked verbally and physically the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) personnel sent to enforce order. In early 2007, settlers took over a large Palestinian house in Hebron . . .  Defense Minister Amir Peretz from the Labor Party sought to evacuate them, but the World Council tor Saving the People and the Land of Israel, a settler body, warned him not to intervene. . .  In Hebron, the settlers reportedly presented forged documents to prove their ownership of the house and have refused to leave.
[. . . .]  Yet this concession [in the Oslo accords] did not placate the settlers, who viewed the Oslo process as a sin against God that must be stopped. With this goal in mind, Baruch Goldstein, a religious settler and physician, killed twenty-nine Palestinian worshipers in Hebron in 1994. After the massacre, PM Rabin sought to remove settlers from the Tel Rumeida hill in Hebron (their presence there had long promoted strife), but he backed down after settlers said the order negated Jewish law and urged the IDF to reject it. Some settlers called Baruch Goldstein a holy martyr who had rushed to prevent Israel from falling into gentile hands. Nevertheless, the Oslo process continued, and settlers began to debate openly whether Jewish law allowed the killing of Rabin on the grounds that he planned to surrender Jewish land. Rabin was killed on November 4, 1995; his killer, an admirer of Baruch Goldstein, believed that God wanted Rabin killed in order to stop the Oslo process. After the massacre, Palestinians attacked Israelis, and Israel turned to the harsh methods that other colonial rulers used to suppress rebellion.

❷ LAWYERS  OF  ISRAELI  SOLDIER  ELOR  AZARYA  CALL  FOR  ACQUITTAL  IN  HEBRON  SHOOTING  TRIAL     
Ma’an News Agency
Nov. 20, 2016
The defense team of Elor Azarya called for the Israeli soldier to be exonerated of all charges for shooting a prone Palestinian in the head in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron in March, Israeli media reported on Sunday.
___According to the Jerusalem Post, Azarya’s lawyers argued that the trial had confirmed the soldier’s version of events, which stated that Azarya shot Abd al-Fatah al-Sharif at point-blank range after the Palestinian had already been shot and severely wounded after allegedly attempting to stab another Israeli soldier, because Azarya believed al-Sharif could have reached for a knife or had been concealing explosive underneath his jacket.     ___However, Azarya’s version has been thoroughly contradicted during the duration of the trial by his commanders and experts, who stated that al-Sharif did not constitute a threat at the time of his death, and that him wearing a jacket was not suspicious given the weather that day.       More . . .  
The killing  (with video) . . .

❸ Opinion/Analysis:  IN  HEBRON,  A  NAMESAKE  FALLS  SHORT 
+972 Blog       
By Sarah Stern
Nov. 16, 2016
What it means to be named Sarah in Hebron — where the streets are segregated and occupation manifests itself in the ugliest of ways.
[. . . .]   Hebron, historically centered around the Cave of the Patriarchs, is a microcosm of military occupation in the West Bank. Near the Cave of the Patriarchs, Palestinians are not permitted to even walk on the streets, and must instead walk along rooftops to get from place to place. Only recently, a low cement block wall was removed from the street leading to the tomb. . . .    ___On the day we visited Hebron with Encounter, I saw a “Shoko Besakit”, a chocolate milk bag, dangling from a fence separating a new Jewish settlement complex from shops in the Palestinian old city of Hebron. These chocolate milk bags are a favorite for IDF soldiers as quick calories after military workouts . . .  When I drew closer with my camera, however, I realized I wasn’t looking at my favorite sweet, but at a bag of urine. It was thrown down from the heavens in the settlements above.      More . . .

• Feldman, Jackie. “Abraham The Settler, Jesus The Refugee: Contemporary Conflict And Christianity On The Road To Bethlehem.” History & Memory 23.1 (2011): 62-95.   Source. 

[. . . .] . . . in Hebron and Jerusalem, the scene is often one of sophisticated, often wily, ideologically committed guides who become “soldiers in the national struggle,” generating and manipulating images for a generally uncommitted, under-informed, malleable and curious tour. One Christian Zionist tour outlines the Bethlehem day of their “Feast of Tabernacles Tour” itinerary as follows:
Day 8 – Hebron – Jerusalem
Today we will head south into Judea. The Kfar Etzion sound and
light show will give you a picture of the price the Jews have paid to
hold on to their land. Driving past Bethelem [sic], down the path
taken by Abraham to the burial place of the patriarchs in Hebron
and the Cave of Machpelah as well as the first capital of King David.
We will meet some residents of the old city of Hebron and walk to
the ancient neighborhoods and museum. Return to Jerusalem for
dinner and the Feast Celebration.
Note that Abraham and David are mentioned here, but not Jesus. The tour bypasses Bethlehem completely, to make its first stop in a sound-and-light show at a Jewish West Bank settlement. This corresponds with the major emphasis in Christian Zionist tours: “it’s not about where Jesus walked, it’s about where he’s going to walk.” The remainder of the program includes encounters with the Jewish settlers in Hebron, while the museum there frames the Muslim hostility toward the settlers . . .  as endemic, drawing parallels with the Holocaust. Clearly, it is only the Jewish “residents of the old city” who are linked with the Patriarchs—the “old city” and “ancient neighborhoods.” This corresponds to the Christian Zionist ideology in which “Eretz Israel [the Land of Israel] is given under the Abrahamic covenant to Jews alone . . .