Hebron - West Bank
In 1994 Baruch Goldstein, a Jewish American doctor, entered the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron and opened fire killing 29 Palestinians and injuring 125. He fired until he ran out of ammunition, the remaining worshipers then beat him to death. The Israeli government condemned the massacre, and responded by arresting followers of Meir Kahane, criminalising the Kach movement and affiliated movements as terrorist, forbidding certain Israeli settlers from entering Palestinian towns, and demanding that those settlers turn in their army-issued rifles, although rejecting a PLO demand that all settlers in the West Bank be disarmed and that an international force be created to protect Palestinians. Jewish Israelis were barred from entering major Arab communities in Hebron. The Israeli government also took extreme measures against Palestinians following the deadly riots after the massacre, expelling them from certain streets near Jewish settlements in Hebron, such as Al-Shuhada Street, where many Palestinians had homes and businesses, and allowing access exclusively to Jewish Israelis and foreign tourists. Many areas of the old city have steel mesh over the narrow streets to stop the rocks and rubbish thrown by Israeli settlers onto the Palestinian shop keepers and passing crowds. Hebron is an area well known for human rights abuses by Israeli soldiers and settlers. Hebron was also the birth place for the Israeli soldiers group " Breaking the Silence". A group of Israeli ex soldiers who blew the whistle on the behaviour of the Israeli Defence force in Hebron and other theatres of operation. They are a thorn in the side of the Israeli Government, and seen as traitors. The Hebron Protocol of 1997 divided the city into two sectors: H1, controlled by the Palestinian Authority, and H2, roughly 20% of the city, administered by Israel. All security arrangements and travel permits for local residents are coordinated between the Palestinian Authority and Israel via military administration of the West Bank (COGAT). The Jewish settlers have their own governing municipal body, the Committee of the Jewish Community of Hebron.