Many Mistakes and Distortions in JPost's Feature on Hebron

The Jerusalem Post's Friday edition had a big feature about Hebron, the Jews, Arabs and history. There are so many misleading distortions and mistakes that any good researcher could have corrected/prevented, I'd say not to read it at all.

I will just mention a few things here and hope that people a lot more knowledgable than myself will go through it carefully and thoroughly. Just to explain that I have more than a simple passing knowledge of Hebron and Kiryat Arba. My husband and I spent Shabbatot and even the Passover Seder in Hebron, 1970-71 and had been signed up for an apartment in the first stage of Kiryat Arba.

Distortion #1:

"Hebron was once a model of Jewish-Muslim coexistence,"

That's a totally idealized version of the history. Relations were not all that rosey. Although there are a couple of isolated stories of Jews being friendly with neighboring Arabs and then rescued by them, this was the exception to the rule. There were always tension and attacks on Jews. And when the massacre began, the Jewish community was horrified that even most of the Arabs who had always seemed friendly attacked and killed with great enthusiasm.

Totally False #1:

"In the late 19th and early 20th century, Jews and Arabs lived side by side in Hebron, sharing shops, hospitals, and holy sites."

Moslems forbade Jews to enter the Tomb of the Patriarchs.

About 700 years ago, the Muslim Mamelukes conquered Hebron, declared the structure a mosque and forbade entry to Jews, who were not allowed past the seventh step on a staircase outside the building. (Jewish Virtual Library)

Distortion #2:

"On April 4, 1968 a group of Jews led by Levinger posing as Swiss tourists checked in at the Arab-owned Hebron Park Hotel. The next day, after koshering the kitchen, the group announced that they were staying put. Then-defense minister Moshe Dayan ordered their evacuation, but compromised with a deal: they were resettled in a nearby military base, which eventually became the Kiryat Arba settlement, a suburb of the city of Hebron, now numbering over 7,000 Israelis."

Until Kiryat Arba, which isn't in Hebron, was built, a number of Jewish families lived in the police compound in Hebron, known in Hebrew as "hamemshal." That is where we visited. Kiryat Arba wasn't habitable until either late 1971 or early 1972.

Besides these inaccuracies, the most sympathetic person in the feature is the Arab, which just shows how subjective the writers and how poor and incompetent the editing and fact-checking in the article.

Jerusalem Post, (MARK NEYMAN / GPO)

Jewish Rights in The Land of Israel. Stop the Anti-Jewish Apartheid Now!

Finally some good news from the Israeli Justice system.  The courts have recognized the purchase of a house in Hebron by Jews as legitimate.

Photo: Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post

A military appeals panel on Monday legally validated the Hebron Jewish community’s purchase in 2012 of a three-story building across from the Cave of the Patriarchs, known as Beit Hamachpela.
But families could only move into the building if Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon authorizes the purchase and gives them permission to do so.

Why should a simple commercial action make the headlines? 

Unfortunately, the Israeli Government complicates such purchases by following extreme Left policies/ideology that preaches anti-Jewish apartheid practices, severely restricting where Jews can live.

When Arabs buy in a Jewish town or building, the courts protect the Arab, but when Jews buy property previously owned by Arabs, or inhabited by Arab squatters, the courts twist everything in their powers to delegitimize Jewish ownership.  That is the true, unpleasant and undemocratic and actually illegal situation in Israel.  We Jews are at a legal disadvantage.

Even worse, there are signs in various places warning Jewish Israelis to stay out of Arab roads and towns.  And if a Jew does enter and is injured or killed, G-d forbid, it's the victim, the Jew, who is blamed.  Nobody seems outraged or surprised that Arabs attack Jews.  This mentality, policy is what is preventing the Arabs from developing a pro-peace culture.

Peace, true, genuine peace will only develop when we demand respect and stop begging, understanding and justifying Arab aggression.

We will only have peace when Jews can live safely and securely among Arabs.  The Jews of Hebron, like those who have been planning to live in the Beit Hamachpela are doing everything they can to bring true peace of our Land.  They are on a much higher level than those of us who live in towns like Shiloh, which are protected "bubbles" generally a distance from Arab villages.  True peace will come more from Hebron than from Tel Aviv, but it will only begin when the anti-Jewish apartheid ends.

Full Civil Rights For Jews, Not Here, Not Yet

That's just a taste, a bitter taste of what happened in Hebron yesterday, when the Israeli Government sent riot police and soldiers to drag out loyal, patriotic Jews from Beit HaShalom, The Peace House. The building was bought by Jews from an Arab, but the Israeli Government refuses to recognize the purchase, because it doesn't want to strengthen the Jewish hold on Hebron.

Thousands of years ago, ever since our forefather, Abraham, bought a plot of land to bury his wife, Sarah, there has been a Jewish presence in Hebron. Less than a hundred years ago, thousands of Jews lived in Jewish-owned homes in Hebron, and there were many yeshivot there.

In 1970, we toured around with the late Chaim Mageni, and we saw small niches in the doorposts of many, many buildings. These niches were for the mezuzot; Jews had lived there before the Arab riots.

You can find more videos and photos on David Wilder's blog.

Israeli Municipal Elections--Pictures Plus!

The only pictures I have are from Jerusalem, because there weren't any other elections in my "stamping grounds."





While taking many of the pictures, I thought of calling this post, "Dirty Politics," because of the litter of political "flyers" flying all over and landing as a mess throughout the city.



Even though Arkady Gaydamak is one of Israel's wealthiest, his money didn't buy much loyalty in Jerusalem.

It also looks like most Jerusalemites don't want a staunchly chareidi mayor, and Porush lost. You have to remember that Porush is more than just chareidi; outgoing Mayor Lupianski is also chariedi. Meir Porush is the latest in the Agudat Yisrael Porush Dynasty. He represents what many Israelis fear from chareidim. Simply put, not all chareidim are the same. Maybe another time I'll blog about the chareidi issue.

Kiryat Arba had an interesting election between two other dynasties of sorts, the Levingers vs the Katzovers. The results were:

KIRYAT ARBA - FINAL
Malachi Levinger beats incumbent Zvi Katzover

Malachi Levinger is the son of Rabbi Moshe and Miriam Levinger, who were crucial in the return of Jews to Hebron and the establishment of Kiryat Arba. I remember Malachi when he was a young man and living in Shvut Rachel. It was obvious that he had even greater political potential/talents than his father, and I wonder what his plans are. He's still a young man, not yet forty.

Jewish Hebron -- photos by Yoni Gormezano

Here's a selection of the photos which Yoni took in Jewish Hebron last Friday.

Thanks to Yoni for giving me permission to post them.