Free Republic

Arabs are the culprits behind the destruction Saturday of agricultural fields operated by the Jews of Hevron, say the local Jews. According to a resident of Hevron, Haim Bleicher, some of the Jews discovered the destruction, which included the uprooting of saplings, during their Sabbath family outings. The plot is part of a larger parcel of land that belonged to Jews until 1929, when local Arabs went on an infamous murderous rampage that drove the Jews out. After Hevron was liberated in 1967, some parts of the parcel were handed over to Jews, while others remain in Arab hands. Last...

The Israeli army arrested six Hamas leaders in Hebron on Wednesday morning, an IDF spokesman confirmed. An IDF spokesman told the AFP news agency that, "six people were arrested and taken for security questioning," but gave no further details. The detainees were identified as Muhammad Natsha, Abdul-Khaliq Hasan Natsha, Muhammad Tahsin Shawar, Amjad Hamouri and Jawad Muhammad al-Jaabari. Muhammad Natsha, a top Hamas official, previously spent six months in Israeli custody, but was later released without being charged. Meanwhile, the army on Wednesday released Nayef al-Rujub, another top Hamas leader, ...

In her first speech as a Knesset member Tuesday, MK Orit Strook (Jewish Home) insisted that U.S. President Barack H. Obama be brought to Hevron when he visits Israel next month. Only then, Strook said, would Obama be able to appreciate what the Land of Israel means to the Jewish people. "It would be a good idea to take President Obama not just to Mount Herzl and Yad Vashem, but also - actually, mainly - to the Machpelah Cave in Hevron," Strook said. "We would explain to him that the Land of Israel is not just a refuge for Holocaust...

In a joint effort and rare demonstration of unity, Jewish and Arab residents of Hevron are beginning to repaint the city walls that have been desecrated and profaned with derogatory graffiti for over a decade. Jewish residents, Israeli police and local Arabs are coming together in this highly contentious area in an effort to restore and repair the city to its undefiled state, before anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim graffiti came to be one of its most notable traits, Israel’s Hebrew daily Maariv reported. Following the barrage of Arab attacks in 2001, which reached its peak when an Arab sniper killed 10-month-old...

Following the Six-Day War in 1967, past residents of the Old City in Jerusalem who had been expelled during the War of Independence in 1948 asked for, and were granted a meeting with then Defense Minister Moshe Dayan. They requested permission to return to their homes and property in the Old City, confiscated and occupied by Jordan. Dayan consented, and, as a result, Jerusalem’s Jewish Quarter today flourishes. Simultaneously, past Hevron inhabitants, Jews who had been expelled in 1929, and again in 1936, requested a similar meeting with Dayan, in order to return to their homes in the recently liberated...

The Jewish community of Hevron reacted, Monday, to the government's statement that it will evict the Jews of Beit Ezra by April 24th by saying, "It is very unfortunate that the government is surrendering, once again, to leftist bodies in the State Attorney's Office...." A community statement said the state was "...again adopting the position of Peace Now and again evicting Jews from a Jewish house in Hevron, while continuing to drag its heels regarding carrying out a reasonable and correct verdict of the appeals ...."

Jews in Hevron are facing the prospect of another expulsion after the State Prosecution adopted a former senior prosecutor’s opinion in favor of evicting Israeli Jews from Beit Ezra. Beit Ezra is a Jewish owned building in Hevron that was abandoned in 1947 when Jews were forced from the city, but was restored to Jewish ownership following the 1967 Six Day War. A court has issued a verdict favorable to the Jewish families living in the property, but the families’ rights to the building have been challenged by a Peace Now lawsuit calling for their eviction. .....

Border police evicted Jews from the Mitzpeh Avichai outpost in the Hevron region on Saturday, residents of the area report. The outpost has been destroyed and rebuilt dozens of times. Homes have sometimes been destroyed in the middle of the night, and on at least one occasion, residents say, an Arab demolition crew stole valuables. However, they said Saturday night, never before have police carried out a demolition on the Sabbath. Resident Aryeh Davis accused the police of “adding insult to injury.” Davis, who has previously spoken to Arutz Sheva, said, “It’s not enough to destroy the land of Israel,...

Two Jewish civilians were targeted by a sophisticated Arab roadside bomb Wednesday night near Hevron but escaped unhurt miraculously. The serious incident was hardly reported at all in the press, which was busy counting the number of blows dealt to anarchists who tried to block a major thoroughfare. Chaim Siton, a resident of Avigail in southern Mount Hevron, was driving home with a friend on the dark and largely deserted road, when he saw a piece of black fabric waving in the wind and thought it was a dog running toward the road. He braked slightly. This action may have...

Arabs who work in the Hevron store owned by the family of Hani Jaber, a terrorist murderer released in the Shalit deal, attacked a young Jewish woman Saturday. In response, Jews threw rocks at the store and at Arabs. Jaber was one of three Arabs who ambushed a Jewish yeshiva student aged 22, Erez Shmuel, in 1993. They attacked him with knives in a Hevron alleyway that is now known as Simtat Erez in his memory. Nationalists in Hevron told Arutz Sheva that Jews gathered near the store during the Sabbath after the girl was attacked. At a certain point,...

Terrorists released in exchange for Gilad Shalit will not be safe on the streets of Hevron, local Jews warned Wednesday. In particular danger, they said, is terrorist Hani Rasami Jabar, a convicted murderer released into Hevron itself, who plans to resume work at his family’s business in the city. Jabar murdered yeshiva student Erez Shmuel in the 1990s. Signs have already appeared in Hevron in Hebrew and Arabic seeking Jabar’s death. A sign in Hebrew carries the warning, “You could be the next one murdered!... If you don’t murder [Jabar] he will murder you,” while a sign in Arabic calls...

The army and police arrested several Jewish worshipers on Tuesday evening after they broke through a barrier in order to pray at the tomb of Biblical leader Otniel Ben Kenaz. Worshipers said they broke through in protest when it became clear that the army did not intend to respect their right to pray at the site. The IDF usually allows prayers at the tomb on Tisha B'Av. However, this year Jews were barred from the grave due to the Ramadan holiday.

A knife-weilding Arab on Monday approached a border police station near the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hevron and advanced on the officers there. The officers confronted the terrorist at gunpoint and began "standard procedures" to safely arrest the man, who was appaerently so alarmed by the forcefulness of the response that he surrendered without incident. Officers disarmed the man, arrested him, and handed him over the Palestinian Authority security forces for questioning. During his initial interrogation by Israeli authorities the terrorist admitted that it was his aim to "stab soldiers."

"Hevron Sabbath" has ended, and the 25,000 visitors and guests are making their way home after spending Shabbat in the City of the Patriarchs. The annual event attracts guests even from abroad. Among those who took part this year were Rabbi Chaim Druckman, Tzfat's Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, and MKs Uri Ariel, Ze'ev Elkin, Tzipi Hotobeli, and Gila Gamliel. The event is held each year on the Sabbath of Parashat Chaye Sarah (Genesis 24 and 25), when the story of the Patriarch Abraham's purchase of the Machpelah Field and Cave is recounted. ..... This year's "Hevron Sabbath" was marked, for...

The anti-Israel boycott by the Palestinian Authority took on wider dimensions Friday night when Arabs burned two Arab stores for allegedly doing business with Jews. The stores are located on “Zion Way," the route connecting Kiryat Arba with the area of the Patriarchs Cave in Hevron. The incident is another sign that the PA boycott has fostered increasingly belligerent anti-Israel sentiment. The boycott began several months ago with the confiscation in Samaria of thousands of dollars of cosmetics produced at a kibbutz near the Dead Sea in the Jordan Valley.

IsraelNN.com) The latest episode of Tuesday Night Live in Jerusalem (TNL) contrasts Hevron's Jews with members of radical left-wing Peace Now. TNL, a live, monthly pro-Torah English TV broadcast well into its second six-month season on Israel National News TV, is co-hosted by Ari Abramowitz and Jeremy Gimpel, with the help of special guests and Jewish music bands, who together celebrate the beauty of Torah and Judaism in the State of Israel in Holy Land. The current Episode 25 features on-the-street interviews with Peace Now members at a "peace" rally, juxtaposed with similar interviews with Jews living in Hevron. While...

Palestinian Authority Arabs repeatedly attacked Jews on their way to and from the Peace House in Hevron on Saturday. According to a report published on the Hevron Jewish Community website, eyewitnesses reported that IDF soldiers did little to prevent the Arabs from attacking. Four Jewish youths were injured by rock throwing. In addition, a Border Police officer reportedly threw a Jewish woman to the ground several times and beat her. The woman in question, Ateret Levinger, is the wife of the head of the Kiryat Arba Regional Council. She described, in an interview, how she attempted to go from the...

(IsraelNN.com) In honor of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's participation in the Annapolis summit, the Hevron Jewish Community has released a video of a speech Olmert gave at a gathering for Hevron 13 years ago. Olmert spoke then, just a year after the signing of the Oslo Agreement, of the need to stand together against those who offer to give away parts of the Land of Israel, "because those who say now that we should give away some parts and keep others, will in the end give away the others as well." Olmert apparently plans to promise to give away parts...

Published: 11/23/07, 5:18 AM Olmert Plans to Evict Hevron Jews, Community Defiant by Ezra HaLevi (IsraelNN.com) Senior PA officials say they have been guaranteed by PM Ehud Olmert that Jews will be evicted from Hevron’s Beit HaShalom. Residents and supporters are defiant. WorldNetDaily’s Aaron Klein reported Thursday that a senior PA negotiator says he was told by Olmert's office that Beit HaShalom is on the top of the list of pending evictions to be approved at the upcoming Annapolis summit, along with several hilltop communities classified as outposts. However, leaders and supporters of Hevron’s Jewish Community declared last Sunday at...

(IsraelNN.com) The Hevron Jewish Community has released a sharp, detailed report accusing the Israeli Government of breach of trust, abuse, and hostility towards the Jewish owners of Arab-stolen property in the City of the Patriarchs. Entitled "The State of Israel's Management of the Stolen Jewish Property in Hevron," the report was issued this month in honor of the 78th anniversary of the Hevron massacre. In August 1929, Arabs brutally murdered 67 of their Jewish neighbors in their homes and in the local yeshiva. The Jewish survivors were then removed from Hevron, leaving behind their homes and land to be stolen...