Hebron Breaks The Silence: Personal, Historic and Political Documentation

Hebron should have been known for the timeless romance between its ancient residents Abraham and Sarah. Like the Taj Mahal, the double cave the father of the Jews and Arabs purchased to entomb his treasured wife is a symbol of enduring love. Here 2,000 years ago King Herod the Great erected a magnificent mausoleum, the Holy Land’s best-preserved structure from antiquity, enshrining the remains of the Biblical patriarchs and matriarchs. Called the Ma’arat ha-Machpela by Jews and the Ibrahimi Mosque by Muslims, the holy place today is bitterly contested.\\nInstead of being a place for lovers, Hebron today has become the city of brotherly hate. For centuries, the medieval ghetto known in Ladino as “El Cortijo” (the Court) teemed with pious Sefardim – the descendants of Jews expelled from Spain in 1492. In the 19th century, they were joined by hassidim from Eastern Europe. Together they lived in peace with their Arab neighbours until 1929 when bloodthirsty rioters massacred 67 Jews. Though the survivors tried to re-establish Jewish life, the community was forcibly evacuated by the British masters of Mandate Palestine.\\nFollowing the 1967 Six Day War, through great personal sacrifice, Israelis returned to this legendary city and heroically began to rebuild the destroyed Jewish Quarter with its many synagogues and yeshivot. Hebron’s Arab majority view these Jews as interlopers protected by the Israel Defense Force. Together with Left-wing NGOs and funded by foreign governments, Hebron’s Arabs have waged a savage and relentless campaign of terrorism and propaganda to strangle the new-old community. They have made the city into one of the most prominent symbols of the Israeli-Arab conflict.\\nTzipi Schlissel, a long-time resident of the Hebron, the City of the Fathers, relates the struggle of Hebron’s Jews, both collectively and personally. In heart-breaking detail, she describes the murder of her saintly father Rabbi Shlomo Ra'anan, may God avenge his blood, who was stabbed to death in his home on August 20, 1998.\\nFor anyone seeking to understand contemporary Israel, Hebron Breaking The Silence: Personal, Historic and Political Documentation is required reading.

Publisher:

"Dabri Shir" Publishing

Pages:

440

Date Published:

2021