Hebron

Al-Khalil ar-Rabman (Hebron’s full Arabic name, shortened to Al-Khalil) means “compassionate friend,” and the Hebrew name, Hevron, comes from haver (friend). The friend in question is Abraham (Ibrahim/Avraham), traditionally the common ancestor of both peoples. Friendly, however, is hardly the word to describe the Israeli-Palestinian relationship here. The predominantly Palestinian residents of Hebron harbor fierce resentment over the two decades of Israeli occupation, and the combination of Hebron’s Palestinians’ fearlessness and a large Israeli military presence by the old bus station has been the source of many serious clashes during the intifada. It was in Hebron’s Park Hotel that the first Jewish settlement on the West Bank was established, in April 1968. The proximity of Kiryat Arba, a major Jewish settlement, paired with efforts to reestablish a Jewish quarter within the town (550 Jews amidst 65,000 Palestinians), has only exacerbated tensions here.

In biblical times, Hebron was known as Kiryat Arba (District of the Four). One legend maintains that the “four” referred to four giants who fell from heaven after rebelling against God. In the Book of Numbers, when Moses sent spies to Canaan to bring back a report on the conditions there, the scouts returned with gawkful reports of Hebron’s giants. As proof, they brought bunches of grapes so large that a single cluster had to be carried by two people; this image is the symbol of Israel’s Ministry of Tourism.

Hebron’s Jewish population remained small until the 19th century when many Hasidic and Russian Jews emigrated here. In 1925, an entire yesbfva moved from Russia to Hebron and a Hadassah medical clinic opened. Local Arabs took offense, and virtually the entire Jewish community perished in the 1929 riots that swept Palestine. The British administrators took the survivors to Jerusalem, and Hebron had no Jewish inhabitants until its capture in 1967. Since then, a significant number of Jews have returned to the area, settling outside the town in the modern Kiryat Arba. Nearby Kfar Etzion, destroyed in 1948, has also been resettled. Hebron is one of the more conservative towns in the West Bank, with a predominantly Muslim population. Modest dress for both men and women is essential.