? The Ghettoization of Hebron ?

Many of you who have visited Hebron are familiar with the

Avraham Avinu neighborhood - commonly known as "the Jewish

Quarter" - the heart of the Jewish Community of Hebron. The

Jewish Quarter was founded over 450 years ago by Rabbi

Malchiel Ashkenazi, who arrived in Hebron from Turkey after

being exiled from Spain in 1492. He initiated construction of

a Jewish Quarter in the middle of the city, a neighborhood

which quickly grew. Before World War One the total population

of Hebron numbered some 7,000 residents. Of these, 2,000 were

Jewish.

Perhaps the most famous site in Hebron after The Caves of

Machpela, the Avraham Avinu Synagogue, is located in the

Jewish Quarter. This synagogue was the religious center of

Hebron for almost 400 years, keeping in mind that the Caves of

Machpela were closed to all Jewish prayer or Jewish visitors.

(Ma'arat HaMachpela was closed to Jews from 1267 to 1967 - 700

years)!

The Avraham Avinu neighborhood officially ceased to exist

following the 1929 massacre, which left 67 dead and hundreds

wounded. The British rewarded the perpetrators by expelling

Hebron's Jewish residents from their homes. Hebron, for the

first time in literally thousands of years, was Judenrein.

The empty structures of the Jewish Quarter stood barren,

occupied perhaps only by the spirits of the past - Rabbi

Avraham Azuli - author of the "Hesed l'Avraham", or the "Sde

Hemed" - Rabbi Haim Hezkiahu Medini.

Until 1948 - until the fall of all Judea and Samaria to

Jordanian forces in the Israeli War of Independence. The

Jordanians totally destroyed the Jewish Quarter and all

within. The apartment buildings, some of which were six and

seven stories high, were demolished. The Avraham Avinu

synagogue was razed to the ground. A goat sty and public

lavatory occupied its sacred grounds. Part of the property

was transformed into a marketplace. Several large warehouses

were built and transformed into vegetable and fruit stores.

Almost all remains of the Jewish Quarter were eradicated from

the face of Hebron, as if they had never existed.

When Israel returned to Hebron in 1967 demands were made

to immediately restore Hebron to her former glory, but

unfortunately theses pleas were left unanswered. Over the

years Kiryat Arba was founded, and Hebron was resettled. The

superhuman efforts of the late Professor Bentzion Tavger z"l

led to the reconstruction of the Avraham Avinu synagogue. By

1989 the Jewish Quarter was rebuilt, including residences for

20 families, two Mikvas, offices of the Hebron Municipality

and of the Hebron Fund, a playground for children, and the

Jabotinsky Center, home of Beitar.

The goat sty was no longer existent, but the Arab market

did a thriving business - directly in front of the entrance to

the Jewish Quarter. The Jewish Community of Hebron demanded

removal of the market. Not only did it represent a serious

security threat to all Jews entering or exiting their homes,

but also an unspeakable injustice. Jewish land, stolen by

Hebron Arabs, rather than being returned to its legal owners,

remained in the hands of those who had murdered and caused a

50-year old exile from the city of the Patriarchs.

The Shamir government agreed to move the market, thereby

allowing continued development of the Jewish Quarter on Jewish

land. But then, unfortunately, national elections brought

about the formation of a national unity government including

the present Prime Minister and foreign minister. All plans to

move the market were frozen.

A year and a half ago, the wholesale market, the side of

the market facing the entrance to the Jewish Quarter, was

closed, for fear of terrorist activity against Jews in Hebron.

It has remained closed to the present day. However, according

to the Oslo B accords:

"7. Measures and procedures for normalizing life in the Old

City and on theroads of Hebron will be taken immediately after

the signing of thisAgreement, as follows: a. opening of the

wholesale market - Hasbahe, as a retail market; "

How is the Israeli government planning on opening the

market, while at the same time guaranteeing security to Jews

in Hebron? Simple - build a ghetto. A large cement wall is

to be built, separating the market warehouses from the road

leading into the Avraham Avinu neighborhood on one side. On

the other side, a second wall is to be built, separating other

buildings housing the "banana market" from the entrance to the

Jewish Quarter. In other words, the entrance to the Jewish

Quarter will be a narrow corridor, surrounded by cement walls.

This is "a free nation, in our land".

Last week, on the day after the end of the festival of

Succot, the women in Green, from all over Israel, together with

women from Hebron, staged a demonstration protesting the

building of a new ghetto in Hebron. Among the speakers was

Professor Emil Fackenheim, who noted that in the past he

participated in demonstrations demanding that Jews be allowed

to leave the Soviet Union and that now he was demanding that

Jews be allowed to remain in their homes.

The Jewish Community of Hebron has no intention to live

within a ghetto. We didn't come back to Eretz Yisrael to

reghettoize. We came back to Israel to live as a free people,

in our homeland, under Jewish rule. We will not allow, under

any circumstances, the conditions forced upon us in Galut, to

become the norm in the City of the Patriarchs. Hebron has

always been a forerunner - the first Jewish city, the first

Jewish capital, the first area resettled - WE WILL NOT BE THE

FIRST MODERN ISRAELI GHETTO!