Hebron Violence a ‘Pogrom’

Israeli journalist Avi Issacharoff has a provocative name for the violence committed by Orthodox settlers against Palestinians in Hebron yesterday: “A pogrom. This isn’t a play on words or a double meaning. It is a pogrom in the worst sense of the word.” Issacharoff was at a house of a Palestinian family, numbering close to 20 people. Settlers surrounded their home, burned the laundry in the lawn and one room of the house. A group of journalists put down their notebooks and attempted to save the family. “They break into the home and save the lives of the people inside…All around, as if they were watching a rock concert, are hundreds of Jewish witnesses, observing the events with great interest, even offering suggestions to the Jewish wayward youth as to the most effective way to harm the family. And the police are not to be seen. Nor is the army.”