Hebron Days

A firsthand account of last week's Hebron shooting
and how the residents are reacting.

INA FRIEDMAN ISRAEL CORRESPONDENT

T

his New Year's Day was meant to be special in He-
bron: The long-awaited pullout of Israeli troops
would either begin or be announced.
Instead, just before 10 a.m., 22-year-old Noam
Friedman, an Israeli soldier from the settlement of Ma'aleh
Adumim, suddenly opened fire on the open vegetable mar-
ket next to the Jewish enclave.
By the time an Israeli officer wrestled him down, nine
Palestinians had been wounded. Miraculously, no one
was killed. I was there.
At the sound of the shots, Arabs, Jews, soldiers and

journalists ran for cover. When it was over, the streets
were filled with police and ambulance sirens, moaning
wounded, and angry shouts in Arabic and Hebrew.
Meanwhile, a mixture of Israeli soldiers and Pales-
tinian policemen tried to impose order with metal barri-
ers, pushing back the crowd and announcing a curfew
over jeep-mounted loudspeakers.
At the edge of the nearby square, we were pressed into
a knot of young men watching tensely as one of the wound-
ed was revived by an Israeli medic.
"That dog, Yassir Arafat, has sold Palestine out!" yelled

A Hebron hospital is crowded following the
shooting rampage by Noam Friedman.

an Arab man in his mid-20s, tears welling in his eyes.
Other Palestinians seemed embarrassed when he
shrieked at us. Then, the young man continued slowly,
deliberately. "The people of Hebron are Muslims, and we
don't want Jews here," he said through almost clenched
teeth. "We don't want these settlers. We don't want lib-
eral Jews from Tel Aviv. We don't want Jews here at all.
Period."
A second man jumped in. "They start shooting and then
blame it on us. They burn our cars and say we've done it
as a 'provocation.'
"Tomorrow the man who opened fire will get a visa to
the United States, and the Israelis will tell us he's in jail.
A hundred thousand Arabs live here in fear of 400 Jews,
not the opposite, because they have the guns and we can't
defend ourselves."
For a minute or so, the men argue among themselves.
'We don't hate Jews," an older man behind us finally pro-
nounced. "Even if you are a Jew, you are welcome in my
home, because you are peaceful, you are willing to listen."
"Don't tell her that," a fourth man interrupted angrily.
"I'll tell you the truth, and you print it: This is a war be-
.
HEBRON DAYS page 70

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