Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
With hours every morning, Palestinian Abdel Raouf Al-Muhtaseb struggles to earn a living for his family from a store that sells heritage items, despite the harassment he is subjected to by settlers forcing him to sell them.
"Al-Muhtasib" owns a store and a house that he inherited from his family, next to the Ibrahimi Mosque in the middle of the old town of Hebron, in the south of the West Bank. He lives in the house with his wife and the family of his only son, "Muhammad."
The elderly Palestinian, like all residents of Hebron, is exposed to attacks by Jewish settlers, numbering about 600 in the Old City, and approximately 1,500 Israeli soldiers are overseeing their protection.
According to an agreement signed between the PLO and Israel in 1997, the city was divided into two parts: the H1 area under the administration of the Palestinian Authority, and the H2 area, which remained under the control of the Israeli army, including the Old City.
Al-Muhtasib, 61 years old, clings to his house and shop, despite daily intimidation by settlers, while rejecting multiple offers to sell them for amounts reaching approximately $100 million, according to him.
The area of the house and the store is about 700 square meters, and a military checkpoint separates them from the Ibrahimi Mosque, which is believed to have been built on the shrine of the Prophet Abraham, peace be upon him.
The Palestinian elderly man said in his interview with Anadolu Agency that he received offers from settlement associations to sell the house and shop, describing the amounts offered to him as “imaginary” and that they “once reached 100 million dollars.”
Al-Muhtaseb stresses his rejection of these offers, explaining that “the real value of his real estate is only about one million dollars, and when such an amount is paid, it means that its moral value is greater.”
He added: "It is forbidden for us to sell it. This is our land, our honor, our religion, our homeland. We will not exchange it for the treasures of the earth," as he put it.
Despite the difficult economic conditions resulting from the harassment of the Israeli occupation, Al-Muhtasib confirms: “The last thing we think about is money.”
Settlement associations are seeking to control the largest possible number of Palestinian homes and real estate in the Old City, and turn them into settlement outposts.
Before the year 2000 (the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa Intifada), “Martyrs Street,” within which the store was located, was bustling with commercial activity, but today it has become “almost dead.”
The Israeli authorities prevent Palestinians from entering the Old City with their vehicles, while allowing settlers, and residents are forced to walk on foot in summer and winter.
Residents of the area also need to coordinate with the Israeli authorities through the Palestinian Authority to obtain permission to move, even if it is to transport a patient by ambulance.
Since its occupation of the West Bank in 1967, Israel has controlled the Ibrahimi Mosque, and in 1994 it divided it into two parts, one for Muslims and the other for Jews.
The partition decision came after the extremist Jewish settler, Baruch Goldstein, killed 29 Muslims while they were performing dawn prayers on February 25 of the same year.
Al-Muhtasib points out that his house and shop were attacked several times by extremist groups of settlers.
He refers to video clips he keeps on his mobile phone, which documented the process of destroying the store’s belongings by a group of settlers.
Recalling his observations of events in the region, Al-Muhtasib says: “Here we witnessed the executions of a number of citizens without cause, under the pretext of attempting to carry out stabbing operations (..).”
The Israeli army usually shoots Palestinians in cold blood, claiming that they are carrying out “stabbing operations against Israeli targets.”
Foreign tourists visit the "Al-Muhtasib" store, and he says in this regard: "I have become known to many tourists. They come to shop, and some of them ask to eat home-cooked meals prepared by my wife."
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