In a quote made during a BBC interview after the 1967 Six Day War, former Prime Minister of Israel, David Ben Gurion said that Hebron "is more Jewish even than Jerusalem." He went on to say that Hebron should be resettled because "Jerusalem became Jewish three thousand years ago under King David but Hebron became Jewish four thousand years ago under Abraham."
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Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron
| Abraham's Tomb
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Hebron indeed has a rich Jewish history starting with Abraham purchasing a cave and a field from the Hittites to bury his beloved wife Sarah. Abraham, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob and Leah are all entombed in this ancient city deemed "the City of the Patriarchs".
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Banners hanging over apartments
| Troop buildup before eviction
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Although the Jewish people have lived in and loved the city of Hebron for four thousand years, the Israeli government has forcibly evicted two families this week from their homes and destroyed the buildings so they cannot be reinhabited. Angry tenants from the surrounding Jewish neighborhood were joined by several hundred supporters from across the state of Israel to protest the planned eviction. Reportedly, some 3,000 Israeli soldiers participated in the operation.
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Apartments to be evacuated
| Barricade of concrete over windows
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The Israeli government maintains that the two families were illegally inhabiting the buildings previously used by Arab vendors in the old city of Hebron. The area in dispute is an open market place adjoining the Jewish neighborhood of Mitzpe Shalhevet. Jewish settlers renovated buildings vacated by the Arab vendors and took up residence in the buildings five years ago after a 10 month old Jewish girl was shot by an Arab sniper. A total of 9 apartments were made from the former vegetable stalls and only three of them remained occupied by Jewish settlers.
Two families living in three apartments were carried out of their homes on Tuesday morning. Their possessions were then placed in moving vans by the Israeli Defense Forces and there homes were then destroyed. Several protestors sustained injuries and some were arrested for assaulting soldiers or police officers during the eviction process.
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| Playground in Jewish neighborhood | Memorial to 10 month old who was shot by sniper |
The Jewish community in Hebron has struggled for every inch of land that they currently possess and hold deep resentment toward the government for evicting them from buildings that had sat unused for decades. David Wilder, spokesman for the Jewish Community of Hebron, explained that the land had originally been purchased in 1540 by Jews that were exiled from Spain in 1492. The market place used by the Arabs from the 1960s to the 1990s had originally been purchased by a Jewish man in 1807 and a Synagogue had stood there until the Hebron Massacre of 1929 when the Jewish population was virtually annihilated. The market place had sat empty since the early 1990s when it was closed by the Israeli government for security reasons.
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| Previously Destroyed Vegetable stalls in Arab Market | Unconverted Vegetable Stalls |
The Jewish community began renovating the area and converting the vegetable stalls into apartments in 2001. The Israeli government began disputing the Jewish communities right to inhabit the buildings and in 2005 the residents vacated the buildings voluntarily with a promise from the army that they could return after the issue was settled by the courts. The attorney general of Israel claimed that the agreement between the settlers and the army was not binding because the army did not have the authority to make such promises and the residents were not allowed to return to their homes. The Jewish settlers forced their way back into the residences in early 2006 and have been living there until this past week when the government used force to evict the two families and destroy the structures so that they could not be reinhabited.
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| Jewish boys picking through rubble to find Materials | Jewish neighborhood Hebron |
The overriding sentiment among the Jewish settlers was anger and frustration directed toward their own government. Jewish children hurled rocks and rotten vegetables at police officers as their parents waited for their homes to be destroyed. A large banner hanging in front of the disputed apartments read: "Stolen Jewish Property" in large red letters and implored the government to "return the stolen property" to its rightful owners.
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