After 25 years the observer force of 64 members of TIPH will be packing their bags and going home. TIPH stands for Temporary International Presence in Hebron. It was established in 1994 to try to keep down violence between the Arab and Jewish communities in the city.. The current observers come from Italy, Turkey, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland. The terms of their existence was acceptance by Israel of their continued employment. That acceptance had to be renewed every 6 months. This time, on Jan 28th, Israel decided not to issue the usual rubber stamp of approval. One of the reasons was probably the leakage to the media of some security camera footage that showed a certain degree of bias on the part of the observers who were tasked with maintaining calm between the thousand or so Jews living in one part of Hebron and the 220000 Arabs who surround them. One film shows a TIPH observer in his distinctive vest slashing the tires of a Jewish automobile. Another shows an observer turning to physically strike a passing Jewish child. There is no sound track, and there is definitely no indication of overt provocation by the boy who appears to be aged about 10 or 11.
Some of the Jews who live in the Hebron enclave can be accurately classified as religious fanatics. But that label does not mean they are involved in any kind of harassment of their neighbors. The same thing can also be said about the Arabs. TIPH was created in the wake of a massacre of Arabs by a former American living in the area named Baruch Goldstein. Since then I am not aware of any murders perpetrated by Hebron Jews. But I am aware of some important cases of Palestinians engaging in lethal violence. In March 26, 2001 an Arab sniper shot 10 month old Shalhevet Tehiya Pass in the head as she sat in her stroller near the entrance to the Jewish section. Her father, Yitzhak, was wounded in both legs. Just about 2 weeks before this Yitzhaks brother was wounded in the leg by an Arab sniper in the same area. It took the Israeli security forces over 19 months to identify and capture the sniper, Mahmud Amru. TIPH provided no help in this case. Their mandate did not include law enforcement or justice.
TIPH had their own problems with the Hebron Arabs. TIPH was not On 26 March 2002 two observers, Catherine Berruex from Switzerland and Turgut Cengiz Toytun from Turkeyç were killed, and another observer wounded after their car was shot on a road North of Hebron The wounded observer said the shooter was dressed in a Palestinian police uniform and that he kept shooting after the observers told him they were from TIPH. The TIPH car was marked with large orange TIPH stickers, a marking well known to the area’s residents. In Feb, 2006 newspapers in Denmark and Norway published cartoons depicting Muhammed as a bomb throwing terrorist. The Arabs in Hebron responded by rioting and hurling stones at the TIPH offices in Hebron. TIPH staff had to flee to avoid being lynched.
Palestinians have been claiming that the Israeli termination of TIPH is illegal (It is not) and they have called for a UN force to replace it (ignoring the fact that such a force would also serve only with the agreement and approval of Israel) he one bright side to this end of n era is that the Palestinians may wake up to the fact that their narrative of what happens in the continuing Arab-Israeli conflict is not the only one, and a solution depends also upon their own actions. The Palestinian Authority has to stop its constant media and educational system attacks on Israel and strive for a true peace between the sides.
Wetherhorn 