- Title: Netanyahu pays homage in Hebron, in nod to rightist voters
- Date: 4th September 2019
- Summary: HEBRON, WEST BANK (SEPTEMBER 4, 2019) (REUTERS) ***WARNING: CONTAINS PROFANITY*** PALESTINIAN PROTESTER HOLDING PALESTINIAN FLAG AND SIGN OUTSIDE AREA WHERE ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU IS GIVING SPEECH, ISRAELI SOLDIERS WALKING TOWARDS PROTESTER PALESTINIAN PROTESTERS BURNING PHOTOS OF NETANYAHU PROTESTERS GATHERED CHANTING, HOLDING SIGNS AND PALESTINIAN FLAG ISRAELI FLAGS ALONG SIDE PATH TOWARDS IBRAHIMI MOSQUE, WHICH JEWS CALL THE JEWISH TOMB OF THE PATRIARCHS WHERE NETANYAHU IS SPEAKING NETANYAHU WALKING TOWARDS STAGE (SOUNDBITE) (Hebrew) ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, SAYING: "We are not coming to dispossess anyone, but nor will anyone dispossess us." NETANYAHU ON STAGE VIEW OF ATTENDEES (SOUNDBITE) (Hebrew) ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, SAYING: "Hebron will not be cleansed of Jews... We are not strangers in Hebron. We will remain in it forever." NETANYAHU LEAVING STAGE PALESTINIAN PROTESTERS CHANTING OUTSIDE AREA WHERE NETANYAHU IS SPEAKING PROTESTER HOLDING SIGN READING (Arabic): "NETANYAHU, HEBRON IS OURS, NO FOR OCCUPATION." (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) COORDINATOR OF PALESTINIAN ORGANIZATION OF YOUTH AGAINST SETTLEMENTS, ISSA AMRO, SAYING: "We, as Palestinian citizens, are angry of Netanyahu storming the city of Hebron. We feel provoked to be used as Palestinian citizens, for our city to be used, for our mosque to be used, for our properties to be used as part of this political election campaign by Netanyahu, so he would gain the votes of the extremist Israeli right. The Palestinian citizen and his rights has become part of the Israeli election campaign for some parties and major Israeli figures." PROTESTER HOLDING SIGN TOWARDS THE AREA WHERE NETANYAHU IS SPEAKING
- Embargoed: 18th September 2019 16:59
- Keywords: Netanyahu Israel Palestinians protest Hebron
- Location: HEBRON, WEST BANK
- City: HEBRON, WEST BANK
- Country: Palestinian Territories
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace
- Reuters ID: LVA001AV8TVEV
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a rare visit to a core ultra-nationalist Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday (September 4), pledging a permanent Israeli presence there as he tries to rally right-wing votes for an election two weeks away.
Palestinian protesters gathered outside the area where Netanyahu was giving a speech, burning photos of him and chanting against his visit.
With polls showing Netanyahu's conservative Likud party neck-and-neck with centrist rivals, he has been playing up his hard tack against territorial concessions to the Palestinians as part of U.S.-sponsored peacemaking efforts.
Such diplomacy in the past saw Israel making way for limited Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank. That included the biblical city of Hebron, parts of which Netanyahu, during his first term in the late 1990s, handed over to the Palestinians while Israel retained control over a hardline settler enclave.
In what the settlers said was his first visit to Hebron since, Netanyahu spoke at a government-sponsored event in front of the Cave of the Patriarchs - a site sacred to both Jews and Muslims, where an armed settler killed 29 Palestinians in 1994.
The Israeli leader's speech marked a different massacre, of 67 Jews by Arabs in 1929, in then British-controlled Hebron - an incident he described as having shaped his hawkish policymaking.
"We are not coming to dispossess anyone, but nor will anyone dispossess us," he said, referring to Israel's settlement of the West Bank since capturing it in a 1967 war, and the Palestinian goal of statehood there as well as in East Jerusalem and Gaza.
"Hebron will not be cleansed of Jews. We are not strangers in Hebron. We will remain in it forever."
Around 1,000 heavily guarded settlers live among 200,000 Palestinians in Hebron. In Israel's last election, in April, just 7.5 percent of Hebron settlers voted Likud, with most backing more rightist parties, census data show. Despite Likud's overall gains, Netanyahu failed to form his fifth coalition government, triggering the do-over election on Sept. 17.
The Trump administration plans to unveil a new peace plan after the election. U.S. officials have said they expect compromises from both sides. The Palestinians, however, are shunning Washington, accusing it of bias over a number of pro-Israel initiatives and settlement visits by U.S. envoys.
(Production: Yusri al-jammal, Dedi Hayoun, Suheir Sheikh) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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