Now and then, the Australian Murdoch press features a story about Zionist occupation that reveals deep truths about what Palestinians are living through. Their main website (in the travel section) ran the following piece about Hebron yesterday:
Mohammed Saadeq has had rocks, bleach and even dead rats thrown at his home but so far it hasn’t put off visitors from coming to stay at his small B&B in Hebron’s Old City.
It’s an adventurous move in an area that is hardly a tourist haven, located in the middle of a tightly controlled Israeli enclave called H2, where 400 hardline Jewish settlers live in the middle of a local population of 6000.
But since the tiny bed-and-breakfast opened its doors just two months ago, its two rooms have been fully booked, bringing the Saadeq family a welcome source of income in an area where 76 per cent of the population live under the poverty line.
Like hundreds of Palestinians in H2, Saadeq’s closest neighbours are settlers who live in the Avraham Avinu settlement, which faces directly on to his one-storey home and overlooks the narrow alleys where the souk is located.
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This area, once the thriving heart of Hebron, is now a ghost town. More than 1800 shops have closed down, mostly due to Israeli restrictions on movement, while others have been sealed shut by military order.
For Saadeq, the surreal reality that is Hebron’s H2 offers an unusual way to eke out a living – and it is a reality that does not look set to change any time soon.