As devout Palestinian believers were kneeling for their dawn prayer at the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron, an Israeli soldier entered and began shooting at the worshippers from behind. He emptied one magazine after another, mercilessly killing Palestinians. The shooter, later identified as an Israeli-American (from Brooklyn), settler Barouch Goldstein was finally killed by Palestinians using the only available weapon in the mosque, the fire extinguisher. By the time the mayhem was over, 29 Palestinians were declared killed and dozens of others were wounded.

This Hebron massacre took place on Feb. 22, 1994, just five months after the PLO and Israel recognized each other and signed the Oslo Accords. Goldstein was buried in the nearby Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba and his grave has become a shrine to some of right-wing Israelis and settlers. The Palestinians who succeeded in stopping him have never been identified.

The Ibrahimi Mosque massacre is remembered annually in Hebron along with other restrictions in an attempt to draw attention to the violence and discrimination that the settlers and their presence in this populated Palestinian city represent. Jewish settlement in occupied Palestine began in Hebron in 1968 and has been supported by consecutive Israeli governments ever since. Hebron is perhaps the best place in Palestine where the Israeli apartheid system is evident. Hundreds of Jewish settlers live in the heart of the Palestinian city along with almost as many Israeli soldiers protecting them. Settlers who are Israeli citizens enjoy free movement from and to Israel, receive water at subsidized rates and naturally elect the government whose soldiers are stationed to protect them.

One month after the killings at the mosque, the Israeli government under Yitzhak Rabin agreed to allow unarmed international monitors to be present and help promote stability in the city. Representatives from the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israel signed an agreement on establishing the Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH). According to the TIPH website, the observers’ mandate “was to assist in promoting stability and restoring normal life in the city.”. Italy, Denmark and Norway were asked to provide personnel, who began patrolling on May 8, 1994. However, an agreement on the extension of the mandate could not be reached, and TIPH withdrew from Hebron after three months on Aug. 8, 1994. Two years later, another deal was struck, the Netanyahu government and the PLO renewing the TIPH mission. The TIPH observers basically issue monthly reports to the PLO, Israel and the six countries they belong to. Nothing of substance has happened as a result of these reports.