Hebron’s indisputable Jewish heritage is written in blood

Gary Selikow, Johannesburg

While Jerusalem became Jewish 3 000 years ago under King David, Hebron became Jewish 4 000 years ago under Abraham.

In fact, there was a sizable Jewish community in Hebron for hundreds of years before the community was massacred in a 1929 Arab pogrom.

This bloody pogrom and massacres of Jews, that spread throughout Israel, were sparked in September 1928, by Jews at the Western Wall contravening the dhimmi laws, by erecting benches to sit on at the wall, and partitions to separate men from women.

Jews were first massacred in Jerusalem and then the horrific massacres by Arabs of Jews, of the ancient Jewish community of Hebron, took place.

Jews and Christians living under early Muslim rule were considered dhimmis, a status that was later also extended to other non-Muslims like Hindus… The dhimmi communities living in Islamic states had their own laws independent from the Sharia law, such as the Jews who had their own halachic courts.

Sixty-seven Jews were killed in Hebron, including a dozen women and three children under the age of five. The violence continued in Jerusalem and then spread across the country, Six kibbutzim were raised to the ground and the Arab terrorists even attempted to attack Tel Aviv. On August 30 of that year, 20 Jews were murdered in Safed.

An eyewitness testified about the 1929 Hebron massacre: “House to house they went, bursting into every room looking for hiding Jews. Religious scrolls or books were burned or torn to shreds.

“The defenceless Jews were variously beheaded, castrated, their breasts and fingers sliced off, and in some cases their eyes plucked from their sockets. Infants and adults, men and women, it mattered not.

“The carnage went on for hours, with the Arab policemen standing down. Blood ran in streamlets down the narrow stone staircases outside the buildings. House by house, room by room, the savagery was repeated.”

Since the Jews returned to Hebron in 1967, there have been countless killings of Hebron Jews by Arabs, including babies and young kids, to get Jews off the land.

Today, Palestinian privilege means Palestinians can bully Jewish children, attack Jewish babies in strollers, murder Jewish parents, send rockets to Israeli civilians and still be regarded as the victim.