Shooting of Infamous Kiryat-Arba-Born “Cowboy” By Jewish Settler Stirs Tension in Hebron Hills

By Maureen Meehan

Trouble is brewing in the hills of Hebron where, like most incidents that occur in this volatile area, aggression against isolated Palestinian peasants has become the rule rather than the exception.

Early on the morning of April 19, Palestinian shepherd Musa Khalil Dabadseh heard a gunshot from the hill behind him where his sheep were grazing. He walked up the hill to find his sheep dog panting in a pool of blood. In the distance, Musa saw the man he assumed had just shot his dog.

Dov Dribin is well-known to Palestinians in this remote area as an aggressive, violent and unpredictable man who “looks for and causes trouble.” Dribin was born 29 years ago in Kiryat Arba, one of the first Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Dribin’s father, a former U.S. military officer, is one of the founders of the controversial settlement on the outskirts of Hebron.

Two years ago Dribin, often referred to as a “cowboy,” and his family moved out of Kiryat Arba into the Hebron hills and formed a new settlement called Ma’on. They were soon joined by some 40 families. The land upon which they built their settlement is claimed by the Palestinian shepherds in the area, some of whom hold ownership documents dating back centuries.

There are accusations made by Palestinians in the area that Dov Dribin shot and killed a Palestinian shepherd in 1991 and killed yet another Palestinian shepherd in 1993. Despite eyewitness accounts, the accusations were never followed through by Israeli authorities, although a recent prohibition against Dribin carrying a gun has been in effect for several months. In January of this year, Dribin ran over a peasant from the area with his tractor, then beat him with a club.

Several months ago, Dribin decided to strike out on his own again and built a house outside Ma’on on a lone mountaintop overlooking the entire valley, in preparation for the founding of another settlement. Abdul Hadi Hantash of the Land Defense Committee said Dribin’s move is part of a current strategy used by settlers in this area to expand and take more Palestinian land.

“They set up a makeshift house or put a few trailers on the land then call it a settlement…Before long they have full Israeli government legal and financial support and take on the status of a ‘community,’” said Hantash.

With the use of detailed maps, Hantash explained how illegal settlements are springing up throughout this area along the Palestinian side of the so-called Green Line. “They’re setting up a ring of settlements and claiming enormous tracts of land. They justify it by saying the land they’re on is inside Israel—which is incorrect according to every map ever made of the area.”

Shortly after the founding of Ma’on, the 100 or so Palestinian families, comprising approximately 1,500 people, received land eviction notices from the Israeli government. The area was declared “state land” and house demolitions got underway. Perhaps cave demolitions is a more appropriate term, as many of the Palestinians in this area, in fact, live in dwellings built into ancient caves or cliffs, much like their ancestors from centuries ago. They use tents and rocks to expand the foundations which are natural caves, common in this remote and inaccessible area. Shepherds and their families live here and graze their flocks nearly year-round with the exception of the winter months, when most of them move back into nearby towns.

Musa Dabadseh, 33 years old, lives in such a place with his two wives and twelve children. He and other family members say they own the land upon which Ma’on settlement was built. The shooting of Musa’s dog, therefore, on the morning of April 19 was not Musa’s first infuriating experience with Dov Dribin—although it turned out to be his last.

Later that day, Dribin returned to the area where Musa was rounding up his sheep. Words were exchanged, according to Musa, as Dribin gloated about the killing of the sheep dog and made comments that Musa would one day find himself in a similar position.

Tempers escalated and the two men came to blows. Dribin’s two friends, from atop a nearby hill, saw the scuffle and came running down, as did other Palestinian shepherds. The approaching settlers had their guns drawn and were firing in the air as they approached, according to witnesses and Israeli press reports. Dribin was not armed, nor were the Palestinians.

“Shoot him, shoot him,” shouted Dribin to his friends. According to Palestinian witnesses, the settlers opened fired on Musa but the first bullets hit Dribin, who fell to the ground and died shortly after. Musa was also hit.

The two Israeli settlers, Yehoshafat Tor and Ephraim Pearl, say one of Musa’s friends grabbed their guns and shot Dribin and Tor. By this time, rocks and sticks were flying and Pearl ran off to get an M16 which he used to fend off the “attacking Arabs.”

The conflicting stories remain a source of speculation that was heightened by the fact that Dribin was either not examined before he was buried to determine the angle in which the bullets entered his body or, if he was, no information was released to the public.

Once Israeli troops and helicopters arrived on the scene, they swept through the Palestinian community and arrested at least 40 people, including several elderly men and two women, for questioning. The police, however, have not named any suspects but claim that one of the detainees had gunpowder marks on his hands.

Nightly raids by settlers who have burned down tents and killed livestock have caused panic among Palestinian residents and are serving to exacerbate the growing tension.

The veracity of the settlers’ version of events was further called into question by the fact that the Israeli police and soldiers left Musa lying on the ground where he was shot rather than arresting him as a suspect or holding him as a witness. The soldiers instead were rounding up other shepherds they suspected might have been involved in the confrontation. Dribin and Tor were evacuated to a hospital by helicopter.

While the crackdown was underway, Ahmed, a resident of the nearby Palestinian village of Yatta, happened upon the scene. His car had just gone on the blink and he had been stoned by Jewish settlers as he drove along the road. He left his car at the side of the road and walked up the hill to see what all the commotion was.

“There were helicopters in the air and soldiers racing all over the place in their jeeps. I could see they were arresting people,” said Ahmed.

“Then I saw the man lying injured on the ground,” said Ahmed, pointing to Musa, whom he was visiting in hospital for the first time and had never met before the day of the incident.

“People around there, mostly women and children who were very frightened and upset, told me the soldiers had not allowed them to take him away. So, I stole him, loaded him onto a donkey and walked him down the hill about two kilometers to a small clinic in Yatta.”

Musa, meanwhile, was lying in his hospital bed, looking incredulous as he heard for the first time the story of how a stranger saved his life. An elderly relative of Musa’s, also amazed by the details of the story being told to the Washington Report , had a fitting comment.

“You see, Dov and Musa were shot by the same gun at the same time and Dov was taken to hospital in a helicopter and died and Musa was taken to hospital on a donkey and lived. God must have a hand in this.”

Amen.

Maureen Meehan is an American free-lance writer who covers the West Bank and Jerusalem.