Israel Pressured to Reopen Site of Mosque Killings

More than six months after a Jewish settler shot dead about 30 Muslim worshipers in a mosque here, the site remains closed to Jews and Arabs, and both sides are crying foul.

Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is under growing pressure from Orthodox Jews and rightist Israeli politicians to reopen what Israelis call the Cave of the Patriarchs by sundown Monday, when the Jewish High Holy Days begin with Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New year. During a special session of Israel’s Parliament on Wednesday, opposition members castigated the government for failing to reopen the site.

But Rabin is also under fire from Muslims who say Israel is planning to unfairly divide what they call the Mosque of Ibrahim into separate prayer areas, with Muslims getting the smaller portion of the ancient structure.

The criticism comes not only from Hebronites, but also from Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat and other members of the Palestinian Authority who have accused the Israeli government of attempting to defile a Muslim holy site.

Many now argue that only Muslims should be allowed to pray at the site, although tourists from all faiths should be allowed to visit.

“This is an Islamic mosque,” Hebron Mayor Mustafa Natshe told The Times last week. “It was never a synagogue. There should be no allowance for other religions to pray there.”

Natshe spoke after he and members of the Islamic High Council in Hebron toured the mosque with Shalom Goldstein, Israel’s military governor of Hebron. It was the first time a Muslim delegation has been allowed into the site since Baruch Goldstein, a physician who lived in the nearby settlement of Kiryat Arba, attacked Muslims as they prayed on the morning of Feb. 25.

The Muslim delegation did not like what it saw during its tour, according to Natshe and Sheik Salah Natshe, head of the Islamic Waqf in Hebron.

“Now the Muslims will enter from the north side of the mosque and stay in the east side, in Isaac’s Hall,” said Mayor Natshe, illustrating the new arrangements on a floor plan of the site. “The Jews will enter from the south and stay in the west side.”

The west side of the mosque, divided into two halls, contains tombs believed to hold the remains of Abraham and Jacob. The two small halls together are larger than the hall on the east side, where the tomb believed to contain Isaac’s remains stands.

“It is safer,” Natshe acknowledged. “They have the cameras, they have built walls between the Jews and the Muslims, they will have soldiers protecting Muslims from the settlers. But still it is a division, and we will never accept this division.”

Nabil Shaath, the Palestinian Authority’s planning and economic cooperation minister, tried to visit the tomb on Wednesday, but the army kept him out. Standing on the steps leading up to the cave, Shaath denounced the army’s security plan.

“I think it is very wrong to mutilate a place of worship,” Shaath told reporters. “Even though it is a place of worship of two religions, it should not be divided.”

Shaath said the Palestinian Authority is seeking an urgent debate by the U.N. Security Council on the measures Israel is taking in the cave.

Rabbis who have been allowed to visit the site have greeted the security arrangements more warmly. But they are disappointed that the site remains closed with no date for its reopening.

Chief Rabbis Yisrael Meir Lau and Eliahu Bakshi-Doron recommended last month that the government physically separate Jewish and Muslim worshipers rather than hold them to different prayer schedules.

“If you separate by time, then there may be problems if one group does not get out on time when another group wants to get in to pray,” Rabbi Rafi Dayan, an adviser to Bakshi-Doron, told reporters after the chief rabbis toured the site.

In keeping with a court order, the army also intends to ban weapons from the site. Before the massacre, Jewish worshipers were allowed to carry their guns there, and Baruch Goldstein was able to walk past soldiers carrying an automatic weapon.

The chief rabbis have criticized the installation of electronic cameras inside the cave, arguing that their continuous operation might violate the Sabbath. Some Muslims also say that the presence of cameras in the cave violates the sanctity of a house of prayer.

“This is a sacred place that has existed in the first place for people to worship their God,” Sheik Natshe said. “All these things that the army is doing are just to improve the security of the settlers. We refuse all these actions.”

An army official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the reopening of the site has been delayed because of special training for the army unit that will be permanently detailed there. But he also said the ultimate decisions rest with Rabin’s Cabinet.

Rabin’s primary dilemma is that Hebron remains a powder keg--an overwhelmingly Palestinian city that is home to about 40 Jewish families guarded by hundreds of Israeli soldiers. It is the only community in the West Bank where Jews have moved into Palestinian neighborhoods.

The militant settlers who began living in Hebron in 1968 say they have merely re-established an ancient Jewish community that lived continuously in Hebron until it was evacuated by British authorities in 1948, when Britain still held the U.N. mandate for Palestine.

But for Palestinians, the armed settlers symbolize all that they hate about Israel’s occupation. They have taken over Palestinian homes and made it clear to residents that they believe they have a more ancient and more valid claim to the land.

If anything, Hebronites feel even more resentful of the settlers today than they did six months ago, blaming them--and the army’s obsession with preventing a retaliatory attack on them--for the city’s deteriorating economic situation.

“Everything is done here in the name of security,” Mayor Natshe said. “After the massacre, the army closed down the vegetable market near the mosque. They blocked off streets and put restrictions on the movements of residents.”

All those precautions are still in force, Natshe noted. “It is all in the name of the security of the settlers,” he said.

The area around the cave, once a lively marketplace, today is virtually empty, save for foot soldiers patrolling around settler homes, and settlers strolling with guns over their shoulders.

A group of Palestinian men sitting outside their closed shops across from the cave said they can’t remember a worse time for Hebron.

“It’s gone from bad to worse in this city since the massacre,” said Jamal Qafisheh, a construction worker whose 13-year-old son, Kamal, was among those slain by Baruch Goldstein. “There is no work here. I haven’t worked for six months, and that is the situation for most of the people.”

“The Jews,” said another Hebronite, who declined to give his name, “have turned the situation to their advantage.”