Commemorating our connection with Hebron

The opening chapter of this week’s parasha spells out our patriarch Abraham’s acquisition of that now hotly disputed piece of land – the area of Me’arat Hamachpelah (the Cave of Machpelah) in the midst of the ancient city of Hebron which acquired biblical significance thereby. Accordingly in recent decades, a tradition developed whereby despite security fears tens of thousands would gather in Hebron this Shabbat to mark our continuing connection with the area. Hence my focus on Hebron this week.

What is the background to the current situation?

In April 1947, the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP), was established to investigate the future of Mandatory Palestine  following the pending departure of the British who could not solve the problem of competing Jewish and Arab interests. After its inquiry, UNSCOP proposed the UN Partition Plan, which recommended creating two independent states (Arab and Jewish) with an economic union and an international regime for Jerusalem. This plan was adopted by the UN General Assembly as Resolution 181 on November 29, 1947.

David Ben-Gurion, who represented Jewish interests to the inquiry, did not need to be convinced that the Tanach serves as our title deed to the Land of Israel. When his turn to speak came, he waved a copy of the Bible at the august group examining options saying that this is our title to the land. To any believing Jew – and for that matter to many Christian believers as well – the Bible does confer title.

But within the Tanach and its multiple references to our ownership of the land, there are certain places singled out for special mention as having been acquired through legal process. First and foremost of these is Me’arat Hamachpelah in Hebron. In the repetitive emphasis of details of the purchase arrangements as featured in the beginning of our parasha, the Torah itself, normally characterised by the ultimate economy of words, went out of its way to spell out how that formal purchase took place so that it should be considered as indisputably legally valid.

Yet despite that ancient introduction to Jewish rights as well as the history of Jewish settlement in Hebron since the years immediately after the Spanish expulsion, Jewish residence in the city is one of the most politically controversial aspects of Israeli settlement beyond the pre-1967 “green line”. Various communal institutions, Ashkenazi, Sephardi and Chabad, hold title to property in Hebron. Their indisputable legal ownership is based on legally valid firman (Ottoman governmental decree) and taba (certificate of title) that in some cases date back centuries.

The complex known as Beit Hadassah that would play a part in the 20th century return to Hebron was built by the former Jewish community in 1893 as an infirmary for Jews and Arabs.

So with history on our side even more so than in regard to much of modern Israel why the arguments against any Jewish involvement with Hebron – and Machpelah?

The tragic and murderous riots of 1929 were the beginning of the end for the Jewish Yishuv in Hebron. Jewish settlement in Hebron was completely evacuated by the British  during the further upheavals of 1936. Until after the Six-Day War it remained a purely Arab city, which led to the myth that Jews had no rights there. Of course in light of its location relative to Arab strongholds, Hebron was not within the boundaries of the Jewish state proposed in the Partition Plan.

The post-1967 settlement in Hebron was based on a wish to return to one of the “holy cities” as well as the desire to redress the wrong symbolised by the Jewish evacuation of the city during the Mandate. Yet even whilst settlements were established across the biblical heartland, successive Israeli governments were hesitant in regard to reestablishment of a Jewish presence in Hebron – even on the land to which Jews held title.

In 1970, in response to pressure spearheaded by Rabbi Moshe Levinger and his wife Miriam seeking formalisation of some Jewish presence in the area, the nearby settlement of Kiryat Arba began to be built. Nevertheless by 1979, even after Kiryat Arba was firmly established, there were still no Jews actually living in Hebron itself. The political climate had however changed with the advent of the Begin-led Likud government.

After the Israeli army conquered Hebron in 1967, Beit Hadassah served as their temporary headquarters. When the army moved out, the building was vandalised and remained empty. Now a group of women led by Miriam Levinger moved into Beit Hadassah and this iniated a return to Jewish life in Hebron – albeit that only a few hundred Jews currently reside there. Regrettably tensions heightened following the massacre of Muslim worshippers by Baruch Goldstein in Me’arat Hamachpelah on Purim 1994 had made even less likely formal government recognition and encouragement of Jewish settlement in the heart of Hebron, despite the historical justification thereof.

Tradition has it that in all our prayers we seek blessing in the merit of “yeshenei Chevron” – the patriarchs who rest in Hebron. May their merit, and that of those who overcame so many difficulties to reestablish a Jewish presence in this ancient city, not be forgotten.

Shabbat shalom,
Yossi