Palestine: Hebron – Kiryat Arba aka Jewish Hebron
Hebron is the only city in Palestine where Jewish settlements are within the city center itself. Jews lived here from Biblical times, the place is mentioned in the Torah and the tombs of Abraham and several other biblical figures are here. Muslims have also lived here for centuries, starting from the 7th century Umayyad dynasty. By the middle of 19th century, there were just a few remaining Jewish communities and Hebron was deeply Islamic. In 1929, Arabs committed a massacre, killing around seventy Jews, and all the survivors were forced to leave Hebron. In 1967, after the 6-day War Hebron came under Israeli control and Israel started building settlements within the Old City itself, returning to the biblical old name of Kiryat Arba. The Jewish population is now somewhere above 7,000 people. The town is fully self-sufficient, surrounded by walls, barbed wire and heavy military presence – it has schools, hospital, shopping centers, a bank and post office. Kiryat Arba has been the site of frequent clashes and violence between settlers and Palestinians – from the 1994 massacre of Muslim worshipers by a Jewish settler, to nearly weekly attacks and killings of Israeli settlers and soldiers by Palestinians and associated terrorist groups. Walking around the settlement – we visited several archaeological sites, old synagogues, hills with panoramic views and old olive trees – you can feel the constant tension of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with no solution in sight.
