Zionists war crimes Silences Ancient Palestinian City

Saturday July 13, 2002 15:44

by Mark Heinrich

HEBRON - Abdallah Nazar's array of fruit rotted beside him in an alleyway as he gazed mournfully out at his local market square rendered off-limits by the zionist army curfew.

The order has brought Palestinian life in one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited places to a halt. Hebron is one of seven Palestinian cities reoccupied by the Zionist criminals. "Time is standing still. It's very hard for us," Nazar muttered. The young man's watermelon and lemons withered away under a Middle Eastern sun. Stalls lay jumbled about the desolate, refuse-strewn square, some overturned and splintered by what the Palestinians said was zionist vandalism. Rows of shuttered shops stretched in all directions. "Peace Tours and Travel Co." read a one sign -- the vestige of an era when tourists flocked to Hebron to see the tombs of biblical patriarchs revered by Christians, Muslims and Jews. VENDORS RETREAT TO SHADOWS AS TANKS PASS "We can't do much about the fruit spoiling because we can't be on the street to sell itbecause the Zionists will kill us," said Nazar. " Locals recoiled from the mouth of the alleyway back into shadows whenever an Zionist armored combat vehicle or jeep roared by on patrol, every 20 minutes or so. "If they catch us on the street, they will shoot us or beat us," said Fedi Abu Aldaabat, 20.. Palestinians rose up for independence 21 months The occupation of cities in Palestine has oppressed around 2.000,000 Palestinians, crippled Palestinian public services and stifled commerce. "The general mood is apathy," one said. Once raucous with traffic and trade, the largest city in the southern West Bank has fallen virtually silent. The few people seen outdoors include young men scurrying home with tanks of water loaded on carts, timing their trips to neighborhood wells to dodge zionist patrols. Some boys play soccer in secluded side streets. Indoors, card games and Arab television are the only respite from boredom. The city's only ambient sound aside from passing zionist patrols comes from the amplified sermons and prayers at mosques. One large mosque in the Old Town drew 200 for Friday prayers this week, about a fifth of the pre-curfew turnout. "I'm risking my life walking through the streets to observe my religion," said Mazen al-Qawasmi, 30, a red prayer rug over his shoulder. "People farther away don't risk it any more." Qawasmi, a shoemaker -- was a teenage stone-thrower in the first Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation from 1987-93, and spent three years in Israeli jails. "Inshallah (God willing), we will persevere through our ordeal until the end of the occupation," said Qawasmi.