This articles was published in 2001.

The Ibrahimi Mosque in Khalil has been built atop of a cave believed to hold the tombs of Prophet Ibrahim,(Abraham) and his family. The cave is called the Cave of Machpela, which is included in the piece of property believed to be the first piece of land bought by Prophet Ibrahim. The mosque has been in existence since 1206 and resembles a fortress. It is full of mosaics and multi colored marble floors and walls. Salah al Din al Ayyubbi brought walnut pulpits for preaching and religious lessons from Egypt to the Ibrahimi Mosque.

Earthquakes and wars have taken their toll on the mosque during the Umayyed period but renovations, along with further infrastructures were accomplished. The mosque includes a school, a dike, a drinking fountain, a hospital for the mentally disabled and a mail center on its grounds that were constructed during the Mamluk period.

The historic beauty and importance of the Ibrahimi Mosque was tainted when radical settlers of the Kiryat Arba kibbutz, set upon the mosque in during the Friday prayers in February 25th, 1994. Dr, Benjamin Goldstein, alias Barukh Goldstein, an American Jew, born and educated in New York, led the attack upon hundreds of innocents in prayer. Men, women, and children were attacked and fatally wounded or killed whilst concentrating upon their subservience to God. When Barukh Goldstein entered, along with other settlers from the kibbutz, they proceeded to fire high velocity machine guns upon the backs of the kneeling persons in prayer. Over 300 persons were wounded and 48 dead on site of this horrid massacre. Israeli Occupation Authorities closed the mosque after the massacre but until now the settlers have not been punished and suicide bombings near the settlement began, born out of despair.

The following is the eyewitness testimony of Sharif B. Zahdeh. Zahdeh said that he and his brother, who died in the attack, arrived late to the mosque and had to sit in the last row of worshipers. He heard 2 persons speaking behind him in Hebrew saying, “This is their end.” Sharif Zahdeh said, “We later knelt in our prayer, I heard showers of gunfire. I looked next to me and I found my brother dead from bullets in his head. When the shots stopped, I say people beating a soldier. (Goldstein in his uniform.) I saw a Little 12 year-old child wounded and I tried to spare his life. I tried to carry the boy to the outside but an Israeli soldier stopped me and forced me to return to the inside. I tried another way out in the meantime I saw 4-5 settlers with civilian uniforms in a small room.

I managed to escape with the boy to the outside but he died. Only in the hospital, I realized that I, too, was wounded in the chest area.”

In the battle following the massacre, the Barukh Goldstein was unavoidably shot and died whilst his accomplices fled the authorities. At the eulogy of Goldstein, Rabbi Yisrael Ariel Goldstein described Barukh as a person “having a higher status than saints”. The rabbi was referring to the fact that throughout his career, Dr. Barukh Goldstein refused to treat any Arab or non-Jewish wounded. The rabbi continued saying that Barukh was a “Royal Martyr”, and “It is not peace agreements which recover lands, it is blood that recovers lands.”
* Saira W. Soufan is a Pakistani-American studied Biology and free lance social worker.