Netanyahu Supports Hebron in Historic Visit

 

“I am proud that one year ago, my government approved the plan for the Jewish
Quarter, to build dozens of new housing units for the Jews of Hebron,” stated Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Hebron on Wednesday, the first time a sitting prime
minister has ever spoken at an official state function in the historic city. Standing
outside the Tomb of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, burial site of the Biblical founding
fathers and mothers, Netanyahu stated, “we did not come to dispossess anyone, but
neither will we be dispossessed. We have secured the freedom of religious worship for
all: Jews, Muslims and everyone. If were not here, that would not have
happened.”

 

Today, over 700,000 tourists come to Hebron every year, and many came Wednesday for the
historic event marking the 90th anniversary of the Hebron massacre. In August of 1929,
the Jewish community suffered deadly rioting at the hands of their Arab neighbors.
Sixty-seven unarmed Jewish civilians were killed with knife and ax attacks. The British
deported the survivors.

“We are not foreigners in Hebron,” Netanyahu added “We will stay here forever. We always
remember the eternal call of Caleb Ben Jephuneh, who was faithful to Hebron,” he said
referring to the Israelite leader who our sages teach visited the cave of Machpela in
Hebron during the scouting mission described in the Bible in Numbers
13:22.

Netanyahu also made reference to King David who ruled from the capital city of Hebron
for seven years before relocating to Jerusalem.

International news outlets mentioned Netanyahu’s trip and noted other senior government
officials who accompanied him such as Miri Regev and Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, who
spoke at the cemetery during the memorial service. Both called for Israel to apply
sovereignty in the city. 

Yishai Fleisher, Hebron’s international spokesman told the Wall Street Journal that
Netanyahu’s visit signified that Jews living in Hebron was a consensus issue. It means
Hebron is recognized by the country’s top leaders, he explained. 

The last time a prime minister visited Hebron was in 1998 when Netanyahu, in his first
term as Israel’s leader, made a condolence call to the family of Rabbi Shlomo Ra’anan
who was murdered in his home by a member of a Palestinian terrorist
group. 

 

Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Defense Minister Shimon Peres traveled to
Hebron in 1976 after Arabs ransacked the Tomb of Machpela on Yom Kippur, destroying
several Torah scrolls.

The streets of Hebron’s old city were abuzz with tourists from Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and
around the country. The day started in suburban Kiryat Arba, Hebron’s sister community
at the cultural center where a series of speakers discussed the dark days of
1929.

Among them was President Reuven Rivlin, marking the first ever occasion a prime minister
and president visited Hebron in the same day. “Hebron is not an obstacle to peace. It is
a test of our ability to live together, Jews and Arabs, to live decent lives side by
side,” Rivlin stated. “Here in Hebron, the City of the Patriarchs, in a cave that was
bought for full price, our right to this land was established as just and moral, a right
to property over which is and will always be incontestable,” he added. “From that time
and until the brutal massacre of 1929, the city was one of the four holy cities with
continuous Jewish settlement that was renewed again after the victory in the Six-Day
War.”