Monday, July 09, 2007

Is not Rubinstein leaving out that this fellow was a chief Israeli collaborator? "Sheikh Mohammad Ali al-Jabari, the mayor of Hebron for almost 40 years (1939-1976) may have been the first Palestinian to use the word "tsumud" (persistence) after the Six-Day War. On the fourth day of that war, he ordered the inhabitants of the region to surrender to the Israel Defense Forces and not to resist the Israeli occupation, so that they wouldn't turn into refugees. "Everyone comes and goes, and I stay here," he used to say when pointing out that during his lifetime, he had seen five different regimes rule in Hebron - the Ottomans, British, Egyptians (for a short period in 1948), Jordanians and Israelis. He died in 1980, a few years before being able to experience another government - that of the Palestinian Authority." (thanks Andrea)