This guest post by Brian Landsberg is part of a series of posts by participants in NIF’s 2014 Study Tour.

Sunday, November 16, was day 6 of our tour, and although the prior five days laid much of the foundation for what we were about to learn, our trip to Hebron deeply affected us, far beyond what most of us may have expected.

On the bulletproof bus to Hebron, Shira Ben Sasson Furstenberg (a member of the NIF-Israel staff who runs the Religious Freedom department) told the story of her Hebron family. Her grandmother was saved from death by a Palestinian man named Abu Shakir during the riots of 1929, when he stood in the doorway of her house and stopped the mob from entering and killing those within. As Shira wrote in a letter to the Shakir family, “your family gave the gift of life to my family.”

Our short bus ride from Jerusalem brought us to Kiryat Arba, a settlement of 8,000 people, and we then easily passed through a barrier to Hebron and the impressive structure built for the Patriarch’s Tomb, which probably dates back to Herod’s time. One of our group members, Howard, read the story in Genesis 23 of Abraham’s purchase of the tomb. While we could look into the rooms holding the tombs of Esau, Abraham, Sarah, Jacob, and Leah, our visit was on a day when Muslims may not. And Jews may visit the room holding Isaac’s tomb only ten days a year; the rest of the time it is reserved for Muslims. This separation, which dates back to Baruch Goldstein’s massacre of Muslims at the site, introduced us to the more extreme separation of Jews and Palestinians in Hebron.

Avner Gvaryahu, a former IDF paratrooper, guided us through area H2 (the part of the city where the Jewish settlements are located, and where the Israel army controls the population) within this city of over 200,000 Palestinians. Some 30,000 Palestinians live in H2, along with 750 settlers who are protected by 650 soldiers. We saw streets that are closed to Palestinian foot or vehicle traffic, even if their home is on that street. Avner, who is a staff member of NIF-grantee Breaking the Silence, described the double standard that soldiers had to apply in keeping order. He also described the transformation of the area of H2 from a thriving market town to the virtual ghost town it is today. One result is a 72% unemployment rate among Palestinians.

We went up one of Hebron’s many hills and parked the bus by one of the Jewish settlements and walked to a Palestinian community center, set among ancient olive trees. A young Palestinian graduate of Hebron University, Abed, talked with us about his non-violent organization, Youth Against Settlements. He described some of the indignities his family endures because they live on Shuhada Street, what was once the main commercial artery of Hebron, requiring them to cross IDF checkpoints every time they leave home. He also described the activities of his organization: documenting and publicizing human rights violations, a campaign to reopen Shahada Street, and educational activities.

We were impressed with the idealism and energy of Avner and Abed, but deeply concerned about what we had seen. We drove to Tzuba for a light meal and a conversation facilitated by Hamutal Gouri from the Dafna Fund–Women Collaborating for Change. Asked to describe in just one or two words how we felt after our visit, tour members mentioned such words as angry, frustrated, worried, sick, courage, ashamed, and corruption of power. We then explained what we had seen that gave rise to these emotions, including homes as virtual prisons, 750 holding 30,000 hostage, inequality, the potential of evil in all of us, the perversion of religion. After discussion of the future, Hamutal noted that until lions have their historian, tales of the hunt will always glorify the hunter. She enjoined us to break the silence. We don’t have the privilege to despair, bur must support groups that may in the long term reclaim power.

It was a day for deep reflection, one that will linger in our memories.