On February 25th 1994, Baruch Goldstein, a settler from Kiryat Arba, walked into the Ibrahimi Mosque and opened fire with his Army issued machine gun, killing 29 praying Palestinians. Radical settlers view Goldstein's act a preventive strike and his grave in Kiryat Arba has become a place of pilgrimage. The Hebron Solidarity Committee (HSC) marked the fifth anniversary of his crime with a pilgrimage of their own.

On February 26th 1999, 15 members of the HSC, a group of Jewish Israelis who work for Palestinian rights, gathered in front of the Ibrahimi Mosque to protest Goldstein's continuing glorification and his status as a martyr among the radical settler movement.

When the HSC members arrived, they were immediately funneled into an enclosure of metal barricades by a contingent of police and soldiers that outnumbered them more than four to one. They walked towards the front of the enclosure carrying signs written in Hebrew, Arabic and English. "IDF and Settlers out of Hebron Now." "Five Years After the Massacre. What's Changed?" "Occupation = Apartheid." Alone on their side of the barricade, they faced a varied crowd of police, soldiers, journalists, international observers, CPTers, and a handful of leaders from the settler community in Hebron. Several Palestinians who had made it past the soldiers watched from the fringes of the crowd. Only in Hebron does one find crowds this kaleidoscopically surreal.

Using a megaphone to be heard above the crowd noise, Allegra Paccecho, a spokesperson for the HSC, gave a short statement and called for a minute of silence to remember those who were murdered in the Mosque. No sooner did the crowd begin to quiet down than Noam Arnon, a settler spokesperson, began to shout at the demonstrators. All the cameras turned and focused on him. "You don't care about Jewish blood!" he yelled. "You only care about Arab blood! What about the Jewish blood spilt by Arab terrorists?!" Unable to remain silent, one of the demonstrators started to yell back at Arnon. "You should all be removed! The settlements here are an artificial creation!" The proposed minute of silence had turned into a shouting match. It ended with Arnon repeating, "You are a Fascist. You are a Fascist. You are a Fascist. . ," as if it were a mantra.

The demonstration continued with many of the HSC members reading statements in several languages. Their messages all centered around the Goldstein Massacre and the ways in which the mindset that caused it is the force behind a larger system of domination that denies basic human rights to Palestinians while allowing a minority settler community to dictate the terms of life in Hebron. Settlers continued to heckle the protesters and the protesters continued to shout back, but no overt violence erupted. Paccecho read a statement telling how she had witnessed settler women terrorizing girls from a local elementary school. She pointed to one of the settler women who was present and said, "I saw YOU there. I saw YOU yelling at those girls, barking at them as if they were animals." As Paccecho was speaking the settler woman responded with a steady stream of sarcastic boo-hoos and yappy barking noises.

Throughout the demonstration journalists interviewed demonstrators and settlers alike. Paccecho was asked whether it was possible for Israelis and Palestinians to live together. "I don't believe in separation," she replied. "Jews should certainly be allowed to live in Hebron, but only if they are willing to live in a democracy that gives equal rights to Palestinians." On the other side of the barricade, a settler woman gave her thoughts on the Massacre. "You have to understand," she said, "hundreds of Jews have been murdered by Arab terrorists. Sometimes we have to act to defend ourselves."

After the time stipulated in HSC's permit had expired the police told them to pack up and leave. As they walked to their cars Paccecho made one last statement to the crowd that was composed of people from so many walks of life. "The Army gave us one hour to make our statement," she said. "Yet they give the settlers twenty-four hours a day to foment their apartheid system."