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"Messianic" Zionist settlers in the southern West Bank town of Hebron
(in Arabic: Al-Khalil) are calling for “sending Arabs to gas chambers,”
according to graffiti scrawled on walls in the tiny Jewish enclave in
the city.

According to an article published yesterday (Thursday, Jan. 23) in the
independent Israeli Hebrew newspaper "Ha’aretz" an Israeli photographer
caught a snapshot picture of the phrase “Arabs to the crematoria”
scrawled on a wall beside a star of David on a wall in the enclave.

A few meters away, some settlers wrote “Arabs are sub-humans.”

A few weeks ago, an Israeli peace activist published several pictures
of anti-Arab graffiti from the Jewish enclave in Hebron which
Palestinians and many peace-minded Israelis contend are reminiscent of
the anti-Jewish graffiti by the Nazis in German streets in the late
1930s and early 1940s.

One graffiti, written on a slick wall, read “chase them out and burn
them down.”

The "Ha'aretz" article also featured a letter by a young Israeli
soldier serving in Hebron in which he caricatured settlers as thugs,
hoodlums and common criminals who think that they have a legitimate
right to attack Palestinians and vandalize and steal their property.

“The attacks, vandalism, and racist slogans are only a drop of what the
Arabs of Hebron suffer on a daily basis. These actions (by the
settlers) have turned us from protectors of Jews from Arabs attackers
to a force that protects the Arabs from the settlers.”

The soldier went on, describing the settlers’ mindset: “I have often
heard the settlers complaining that we prevent them from beating up
Arabs, breaking into their shops and vandalizing their property. And
thus, they say, we don’t’ protect Jewish interests in the city.”

Last week, gangs of settlers rampaged through Hebron, attacking
Palestinian civilians and vandalizing their property, all in full view
of Israeli soldiers and policemen who didn’t intervene to stop the
rampage.

Police said that as many twenty Palestinian cars were smashed and at
least thirteen Palestinians were wounded.

Seven settlers were arrested for a few hours, but were released on the
same day.

Most of the settlers of Hebron are affiliated with the Gush Emunim
(Hebrew language: Block of the Faithful) messianic Zionist movement
which teaches that non-Jews in Hebron and the rest of Palestine ought
to accept “enslavement by the Jews” or be expelled, or even
exterminated.

The movement has up to eight members in the 120-member Israeli
parliament, the Knesset. However, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
and his religious and other right wing-allies show a very strong
identification with the movement and its manifestly racist attitudes
toward non-Jews in general and Palestinians in particular.

Meanwhile on early Friday Palestinian guerrillas attacked one IDF
(Israel Defense Forces) command, killed three soldiers and woundet
several others near Al-Khalil.