The Jewish Community of Hebron
February 02, 2007

Inequality and Discrimination in Hebron

In contrast to the false, anti-Jewish, and anti-Israeli propaganda,
here are the real facts:

* Hebron , a Jewish City

From the standpoint of some of the Israeli and international public, Hebron
is an "Arab city." This view is occasioned by Hebron's location over the
"Green Line," its current demographic situation (tens of thousands of Arabs
alongside only around 1,000 Jews in the inner city, plus 7,000 or so in
adjacent Kiryat Arba), and incessant propaganda by the Left. History,
however, did not begin in 1967. No cultured person who has studied Bible and
ancient and modern history can deny the facts: Hebron is the first Jewish
city in history. It is the place where the Jewish national patriarchs lived
and were buried. Their burial plot-Ma'arat HaMachpela, the Tomb of the
Patriarchs-was the first Jewish property purchased in the Land of Israel,
and one of the Jewish people's most impressive monuments was built atop it.
Hebron is an object of yearning for Jews throughout the Diaspora and is
numbered among the four holy cities (along with Jerusalem , Tiberias, and
Safed). The Jewish community in Hebron existed for thousands of years until
it was brutally displaced in 1929-after Arab marauders murdered, raped, and
burned to death scores of Jews and dispossessed the community of properties
that included hundreds of acres of real estate.

If the Jewish people has undeniable rights anywhere on earth, it is in
Hebron . The Jewish community of Hebron today resides on a relatively small
fraction of the Jewish property that had been plundered in the 1929 pogrom.
This community constitutes the basis and the beginning of the return of Jews
to the world's oldest Jewish city.

* Jews are allowed to enter only 3 percent of the municipal area.

The city limits of Hebron encompass eighteen square kilometers. Of this
area, fifteen square kilometers are defined as H1, the area that was
surrendered to the Palestinian Authority; this area is off-limits to Jews.
Nearly all of the remaining area, H2, is open to unrestricted Arab traffic
and presence. The presence of Jews is also forbidden in most of this area.
In fact, Jews are allowed in only six tenths of a square kilometer, 3
percent of the municipal area!

Thousands of Arabs continue to live in the Israeli zone. The Palestinian
Authority deliberately operates and is establishing institutions in this
area for the express (written!) purpose of "strangling" the Jewish community
by attracting masses of Arabs. Across from Beit Hadassah, for example,
Cordoba School continues to operate even though most of its students come
there from other parts of town. Next to Tel Rumeida and the Jewish cemetery,
another school is under construction today-not to meet any urban need but
rather solely to crowd out the Jews in this area.

Due to long-term geo-economic processes (that have nothing to do with the
Jewish community), the town's central business district has moved to the
western side of town. The area where the Jews live has not been the central
business district of Hebron for quite some time. On the west side, opulent
multistory commercial and office buildings are being put up. Nevertheless,
the Palestinian Authority has instructed merchants who have shops near the
Jewish community to keep them going even though there is no economic
justification for doing so. In contrast, Jews are not allowed to engage in
any activity whatsoever in the areas that are off-limits to them, including
access to properties that they own. For example, Jews are barred from Parcel
37 (adjacent to the cemetery), the street that runs past Beit Hadassah, the
bottom floor of Beit Hadassah, and Jewish-owned houses deep in the
"Palestinian" zone. A Jew who dares to enter these areas risks his or her
life, not to mention arrest and prosecution for "violation of orders."

* Jewish traffic is confined to a minuscule area and to one street.

The Oslo War (beginning in September 2000) brought on a string of terror
attacks and murders against the Jewish community of Hebron that claimed
dozens of casualties, including some at short range within the community's
cramped area. In response, the defense system was forced to restrict and
inspect Arab traffic in the Israeli part of the city. The area where the
Jews dwell-only 3 percent of the town's territory, as stated-is not totally
off-limits to Arab movement; instead, vehicular traffic is restricted and
pedestrians are checked (per the conventional Israeli practice at entrances
to public places). Thousands of Arabs continue to live and circulate in the
Israeli zone; the area totally forbidden to Arab movement adds up to only a
few hundred meters. Importantly, over the years the defense system has
attempted to ease the movement restrictions. These attempts, however, have
repeatedly failed, as each leniency was exploited for provocations and
attacks that claimed a toll in blood.

Concurrently, the movement of Jews in 97 percent of the town area, the part
that was handed over to the Palestinian Authority under the 1997 "Hebron
Accord," is totally forbidden even though the accord stipulates total
freedom of movement. The prohibition was imposed after "Palestinian police"
and terrorists threatened to murder any Jews who entered. The sweeping
injunction includes revocation of the right to visit and worship at shrines
such as Elonei Mamre and the Tomb of Otniel b. Kenaz, even though the Hebron
Accord entitles Jews to free access and worship at these locations. Even
within the Israeli zone (H2), Jews are denied access to various holy places
such as the Tomb of Avner b. Ner and the kabbalistic yeshiva in the casbah.

The most significant difference between the movement restrictions imposed on
Arabs in Hebron and those imposed on Jews is neither the size of the
restricted area nor the motives for the restriction. The Israel High Court
of Justice recently ruled that movement restrictions should be applied
against the side that threatens violence and lawbreaking and not against the
threatened side. "As a rule, the military commander should discharge his
duty to defend the safety of the inhabitants ... in some other way and not
by closing off the areas" (Justice Beinish). "The military commander should
refrain from declaring areas off-limits . for the purpose of protecting the
inhabitants themselves" (Justice Rivlin). "The upholding of public order and
the inhabitants' safety . should be accomplished by taking appropriate
measures against the factors that perpetrate riots and not by imposing
further restrictions on the casualties of the violence" (Justice Joubran;
all quotations are from Ruling 9593/04). The restrictions on Arab movement
correspond to the rule established by the High Court of Justice because they
are meant to prevent attacks, acts of violence, and lawbreaking by those
whose movements have been restricted. In contrast, the restrictions imposed
on Jews' movement clash with this basic rule: they were imposed on the
casualties of the violence.

* The Jews are almost totally deprived of their property rights.

The Arabs of Hebron enjoy the natural and basic right of possession and
ownership of real estate-a right that is almost totally denied to the Jewish
population.

The houses, shops, and lands that the Jews of Hebron left behind when they
were banished from the city after the 1929 program were expropriated after
the Jordanian occupation in 1948 by the Jordanian Administrator of Enemy
Properties, even though these Jews had never been anyone's enemy and had
been murdered and expelled for no reason whatsoever and in no context of
belligerency. These properties have never been returned. The Government of
Israel decided to let the injustice stand and to transfer the plundered
properties from the Jordanian administrator to the Israeli one. In practice,
this decision means the continued leasing of these properties to Arabs, who
often treat them with contempt. To this day, for example, a building next to
the Avraham Avinu quarter had once housed a kabbalistic yeshiva is being
used as a cattle barn, until recently a flea market operated on the ruins of
the Chabad synagogue, and so on. Even when the original owners of these
properties submit official applications for possession or for the right to
allow Jews to settle in them, they are answered in the negative. For
example, the Government rescinded its decision to lease to Jews the dwelling
units in the Hebron "marketplace," in disregard and repudiation of the
request of the owners of the property.

Furthermore, Jews are being denied the natural right to purchase houses and
enjoy the right of ownership that all human beings share. The withholding of
this right from Jews only is a blatant act of racist discrimination.
Jordanian and "Palestinian law" establishes the death penalty for any Arab
who sells his home to a Jew, and this stricture has in fact been carried
out. The State of Israel takes no action whatsoever against these racial
laws.

To deny the Jews their right to possess real property, the Israel Civil
Administration staff has been instructed to adopt a strict enforcement
policy toward Jews and a lenient one toward Arabs. The planning and building
laws are totally unenforced when it comes to Arabs, resulting in Arab
illegal construction on a massive scale. Sometimes laws are even invented
for the sole purpose of thwarting the purchase of property by Jews. An
internal document written by a senior official at the military prosecutor's
office, revealed in the press, states that in any legal dispute between Jews
and Arabs over property, the Army, the Civil Administration, and the police
are to side with the Arab party even when the latter's claim is groundless.
This means that Jews will find it virtually impossible to register title to
land. The directive is tantamount to racist discrimination against Jews, in
contravention of the international law stating that no population group
shall be given summary preference over another.

* While the Arabs build massively in Hebron, the right to build is almost
totally denied to Jews.

Everyone in the world has the right to engage in construction and
development in accordance with accepted local rules and regulations,
irrespective of religion and race. The Palestinian Authority exploits this
entitlement cynically by initiating wide-scale construction and development.
On the western, Arab, side of Hebron, multistory buildings, malls, and
high-tech buildings are going up on an immense scale, with funding from
foreign governments and international organizations. On the "Israeli" side,
too-the H1 area-a building, development, and housing project is moving ahead
under the sponsorship of the "Palestinian government" (today, the Hamas
government). The Palestinian Authority has declared Hebron a Class A
Development Area: it has established a lavishly budgeted special office for
the declared purpose of "strangling the Jewish community" by surrounding it
with dense Arab building. Arabs who move into the Jewish area are exempted
from taxes and municipal duties and receive free water, free electricity,
and a monthly stipend of NIS 1000 in return for their participation in a
project that is being carried out to "strangle the Jewish community." Other
Arabs, who lawfully possess buildings near the Jewish community but are not
interested in living in them, are forced to transfer their properties to the
Palestinian Authority.

In contrast, the Jews of Hebron are virtually deprived of the right to
build, even on property that is unquestionably Jewish-owned, including the
core of the minuscule Jewish community area, and even when the plans comply
with all regulations and professional requirements. In the past twenty
years, building permits have been issued for only three buildings. Offspring
of the Jewish community who marry and wish to live in their community cannot
do so-due to the racist Jews-only building restrictions. The Government of
Israel, unlike the "Palestinian municipality," withholds building permits
from Jews and busies itself with evicting Jews from lawfully purchased
homes.

* Law enforcement-zealous against Jews, lax against Arabs

There are two de facto levels of law enforcement in Hebron-one for the
Jewish population, another for the Arab population.

For the Jewish population, enforcement is applied zealously, anchored in
tough procedures under guidelines from the State Attorney's Office. These
procedures, which were secret until revealed in a 1997 investigation by a
committee of the Hebron Jewish community, stirred fierce public criticism
due to the odor of crude discrimination that they exuded. The "special
procedures" were ostensibly amended in 1998, but the main sections that
instructed police to apply excessive enforcement against Jews remained on
the books and obligatory. The procedures require the police to invest
unprecedented resources in personnel, funds, and motor vehicles.
High-ranking officials at the State Attorney's Office watch closely for any
violation of the law-even the most trivial-on the part of Jews. The direct
results of this over-enforcement are the wholesale opening of investigation
files for trifling offenses and inconsequential acts, and the submission of
indictments and holding of trials that often end with acquittals or closure
of files on technical grounds. The direct result is a grievous ongoing blow
to the personal freedoms of the Jewish inhabitants of Hebron, coupled with
cumulative damage in the form of files that besmirch the inhabitants with
criminal records-files that would not have been opened anywhere else in
Israel.

For the Arab population, in contrast, the law is chronically under-enforced
and applied for show. Usually, lawbreaking by Arabs is dealt with only if it
reaches the level of terrorism. Thus, dozens of daily attacks by Arabs
against the Jewish inhabitants of Hebron-physical attacks, stone-throwing,
sexual harassment, property damage, etc-are ignored. This is the outcome of
written procedures from the military prosecutor's office, exacerbated by a
shortage of police personnel because nearly all such personnel are pledged
to enforcing the law against the Jewish inhabitants. The direct result of
this under-enforcement is the denial of the Jewish inhabitants' right to
police protection against waylaying, harassment, and miscellaneous attacks.

* Activities of leftist organizations

Various international and anti-national organizations have targeted Hebron
for hostile activities.

Most of these organizations are funded by anti-Israel foundations, enemy
states, and European governments. They disseminate falsehoods and conduct
propagandistic field trips, media shows, tendentious visits with VIPs, and
sundry provocations in order to substantiate what they call "discrimination
against the Arabs."

For example, the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a blatantly
pro-Palestinian-Arab organization, floods Hebron with "anarchists" from all
over the world to harass the security forces that are charged with
protecting the Jews in the tiny Israeli zone. Organizations such as
Ecumenical Escorters and the Christian Peacekeeping Team, among others,
engage in constant provocations and incitement. Groups of antisemitic
Christians encourage terrorism and endanger the lives of soldiers and
civilians alike. Israeli leftist organizations such as B'tselem, Machsom
Watch, Sons of Avraham, and Breaking the Silence love to tour the city with
groups of Israelis, non-Israelis, and diplomats, inciting against the Jews
of Hebron by giving false, warped presentations.

Especially grave is the fact that these organizations act in full
cooperation with the observers of the Temporary International Presence in
Hebron (TIPH), even though TIPH is supposed to be objective and to refrain
from provocations. Furthermore, these organizations act with the cooperation
of Palestinian disrupters of order and marauders to undermine the operations
of the Israel Defence Forces.

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) recently joined the
activities of the Left in Hebron, acting continually by legal means to
breach and trample the Jewish citizens' rights to life and safety.

In fact, the activities at issue, cynically huddling under the umbrella of
"human rights," are racist actions that aim to bring about the ethnic
cleansing of Hebron and restore the situation there to that following the
1929 program-a Hebron that is Judenrein.

* Jewish worshippers are confined to only one-fourth of the Tomb of the
Patriarchs area.

The Tomb of the Patriarchs is the oldest Jewish-owned property in the Land
of Israel and the burial place of the nation's patriarchs. The building atop
the burial cave was constructed by the Jewish people during the Second
Temple era, about two thousand years ago. For generations, it has been a
magnet for Jews from all over the world. After the Muslim Mameluks occupied
the Land of Israel, they forbade Jews and Christians to enter the building
and required Jews to stand outside, next to the seventh step. This
injunction lasted for 700 years, until the State of Israel struck it down.

However, Jews face grave discrimination at the Tomb of the Patriarchs
today-in the apportionment of floor space inside the shrine, forced
separation, and the ability to develop and enhance the site.

Apportionment of floor space:

At first glance, the tomb appears to be divided between the worshipers of
the two faiths. In fact, however, the area available to Jews is only
one-fourth of that handed to the Muslims, and most of this area is an open
courtyard exposed to cold, rain, and other ravages of weather.

Forced separation:

The ironclad rule of "separating" the adherents of the two faiths,
established by the Shamgar Commission, is implemented only against Jews for
all intents and purposes. Representatives of the Muslim Waqf and the muezzin
are allowed to enter the Jewish area; the muezzin continues to cross the
Jewish area and play raucous cries over the loudspeaker during the Jews'
worship services. In contrast, Jews are unconditionally enjoined against
entering the areas reserved for Muslim worship.

Permission to develop and enhance the site:

Jews are deprived of the basic right to enhance and improve their shrine
because the Muslim Waqf is allowed to veto the Jews' enhancement and
development plans. The Arabs, in contrast, are not limited in any way;
lavish budgets are reserved for the halls allocated to them and are used
relentlessly. Obviously, these plans are not presented for the approval of,
or even for consultation with, the Jewish authorities in charge of the tomb.
Consequently, the Isaac Hall, the main and largest hall in the building, is
being enhanced with the help of mammoth investments in paint, decorations,
and Muslim ritual objects, in total insensitivity to the Jewish nature of
the place.

The Jewish community of Hebron demands:

Stop the discrimination!

* Assure the right of free and safe movement for Jews in all parts of
Hebron.

* Assure the right of Jews to possess, purchase, and dwell in properties
throughout Hebron.

* Stop the hostile and racist propaganda against the Jews of Hebron.

* Banish inciteful, antisemitic, racist, and anti-Israeli players from
Hebron.

* End the discrimination in law enforcement and religious and civil
rights.

The Jewish Community of Hebron
POB 105 , Kiryat Arba-Hebron 90100
hebron@hebron.org.il
Tour Hebron: Tel 972-52-431-7055 or write:
tour@hebron.com

Web: www.hebron.com Ma'arat HaMachpela: www.machpela.com