W/ the Kiryat Arba advocates in HEBRON

I went to Hebron with Ohr Somayach (Light of Happiness) yeshivah. In the main square outside the ancient temple (mosque/synagogue) we all stand in the cold/cool afternoon milling about. A Palestinian boy comes over near our group with his donkey & they get up on this tall median-like protuberance coming up on the square's floor. There is grass growing there, a way to feed his animal, no doubt a mundane ritual for the boy. The mention of the evil past in Hebron beween our two opposing sides sort of does not contain me--seemingly obsolete, though I know there was early Arab violence really begun by radicalized elements on both sides? ...1929--I don't know much about it, except its report of pain. Now it's like theater. The boy, who I go stand next to, makes absolutely no acknowledgement of my being there. His disgust was palpable, & the Jews standing around are beyond any consideration of him, too. I wanted to laugh at this, if only they could see each other it would be a caricature of humanity & of these terrible events I know in their mind is not beyond reach. There are plenty of webs of illusion between us all. Potok (of The Chosen etc.) illuminates the struggle for Hebron nationalism in In the Beginning. But I felt dissuaded from accepting Israeli sovereignty when there, not because I sought the rights of others to that land, but because the Israelis contained it militarily, & it gave an artificial feel to my American passport functionaries. Our Yeshivah group walked past a look-out station (our first look around when we got to town), I'll assume on the corner of the Jewish enclave. & I had hoarded an extra Yafo orange, ...but seeing the soldier way up above gave me the idea to chuck it up to him, which I did, gleaning the constricting boredom of this mess of a "sacred" place.