30-Year Hebron Occupation Ends With a Handshake

HEBRON, West Bank — The Israeli army ended 30 years of occupation of most of this sensitive West Bank city just before dawn today, handing its hilltop headquarters over to Palestinian police as a handful of witnesses cheered.

The long-awaited withdrawal from 80% of this ancient city came hours after Israel’s parliament overwhelmingly approved the Hebron pact sealed Wednesday by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat.

In the hours before the vote, a joyous crowd of Palestinians gathered outside the military headquarters, the primary symbol in Hebron of Israel’s occupation, shooting off fireworks and dancing in the streets in anticipation of the imminent transfer of the building to Palestinian control.

But just before 6 a.m., when Israeli and Palestinian officials marked the hand-over of the keys to the military compound with a handshake, only a few were there to see it.

Within moments, however, a young man bearing a Palestinian flag made a slow, perilous climb up the building’s radio tower. When he reached the top, he unfurled the red, green, white and black flag and attached it to an antenna, where it flew over the headquarters to the cheers of a gathering crowd.

The partial Israeli withdrawal, and the entry of armed, uniformed Palestinian police into the city, was carried out ahead of schedule within hours of the parliament’s 87-17 vote--with one abstention--in favor of the Hebron accord.

The Israeli army announced a short time later that the redeployment was complete.

Israeli border guards and Palestinian police were to begin operating joint patrols in the morning.

Overnight, the atmosphere was festive, as young boys hawked steaming cups of tea to those waiting in a cold rain; many people carried Palestinian flags and displayed photos of Arafat.

Since the Israeli army had said most of its soldiers would not withdraw from the area until daylight, waiting Palestinians contented themselves with cheering the departure of long lines of military vehicles and the dismantling of the equipment and fixtures of the occupation.

Israeli television showed several army officers carefully removing a mezuza, the parchment scroll inside a small case that by tradition is attached to the doorway of a Jewish home or building.

Late Thursday night, Adli Danah, 30, watched a line of Israeli jeeps make their way out of the compound and down the hill in advance of the redeployment. “I have spent my entire life under occupation,” he said, standing beside his wife and small son, Shehab. “I want my son to live in freedom.”

Israeli and Palestinian officials said the two sides were working closely to try to prevent violence in the city, where about 450 Jewish settlers live among 100,000 Arabs. The Israelis will retain control of about a fifth of the city, including the area of the Jewish enclaves and the Cave of the Patriarchs, the burial site of the biblical Abraham, which is sacred to both Muslims and Jews.

Palestinian security officials, in civilian clothes and carrying no weapons, kept the late-night crowd under control, stepping in at one point to push back one group that was getting too close to the building. A minor scuffle broke out between a teenager and a Palestinian official, but there were no other reports of violence.

Not all--among either the Palestinians or Israelis--were satisfied with the accord.

“This is basically the same as the previous Hebron agreement, with a few small pluses and minuses,” said Khalil Shikaki, a political scientist and director of the Center for Palestine Research and Studies in Nablus. “It’s a step that creates some optimism, but I’m afraid it is not an optimism that will last. We’re still unable to say whether this Israeli government is really committed to peace.”

In Hebron’s Jewish enclaves, meanwhile, where residents have bitterly fought an accord they believe puts them in danger, the mood was subdued Thursday. Spokesman Noam Arnon told Israel Radio that the settlers were “in pain” over the decision and fearful about the future.

But, he said, “we are not planning acts designed to stop the redeployment. We do not think it is our duty, and we do not want to either.” Instead, Arnon said, members of the community would express their feelings by praying and tearing their clothes, a traditional sign of mourning, during a ceremony next week.

In the Knesset, or Israeli parliament, the all-day debate was raucous at times, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came under harsh criticism from members of his own Likud Party.

But the outcome was never in doubt. The opposition Labor Party, which led the way to peace with the Palestinians with landmark accords in 1993 and 1995, had already announced that it would support the Hebron deal.

Still, throughout Thursday’s debate, which ended with an 11 p.m. vote, hard-liners within the government coalition accused Netanyahu of betraying his political supporters by committing himself to a peace process he had once reviled and by agreeing to surrender pieces of the biblical land of Israel.

“So what is the difference between ourselves and the Labor Party then?” asked Uzi Landau, a Likud legislator.

Foreign Minister David Levy, a frequent political rival of Netanyahu, defended him Thursday from the criticisms. “What is the alternative?” Levy shouted at one point. “The only alternative you can give is stalemate.”

Netanyahu described the long-awaited agreement as “better, safer and more responsible” than the 1995 accord signed by the previous Labor government. “Until today, Hebron was a metaphor for detachment, conflict and hostility between Palestinians and Israelis, and now we have the opportunity to prove that Hebron can be the opposite, an example of cooperation and of life together,” Netanyahu said.

Security for the session was tight. While a number of lawmakers did not attend for personal reasons, some Cabinet members who also serve in the 120-member Knesset absented themselves in protest rather than abstaining or voting against Netanyahu.

In a sign of how high passions were running, Israeli Cabinet ministers who voted for the agreement were assigned special bodyguards. In a separate action, the Israeli military issued orders restricting the movements of 18 men reported to be Jewish militants, apparently fearing they might try to spark violence during the redeployment.

Times staff writer Trounson reported from Jerusalem and El-Hasan of The Times’ Jerusalem Bureau reported from Hebron.

* ANGER ON RIGHT: Israeli conservatives, embittered by Hebron deal, look for new champion and strategy. A8