Hebron is a Palestinian city located in the south of the West Bank, 30 kilometers south of Jerusalem. Nestled in the Judean mountains, it is 930 meters above sea level. Hebron (Al-Khalil in Arabic) is built on several hills and wadis, most of which run from north to south. It is believed that the Hebrew word Hebron derives from the Hebrew word for friend (who has), a description of Patriarch Abraham.
The Arabic Al-Khalil, literally “the friend”, is almost identical in origin and also refers to Abraham (Ibrahim), whom Muslims similarly describe as the friend of God. Hebron is one of the oldest continuously occupied cities in the world and has been an important focus of religious worship for more than two millennia. It is a city of unsettling beauty, twisted and torn apart by decades of unrest and conflict. It is the largest city in the West Bank and the second largest in Palestine, after Gaza, with a population of 215,000 Palestinians.
Its old town, with stone roofs, arches and endless alleys, is a perfect playground to enjoy the sensory delights of markets and bazaars. It is also a city in the process of modernization, home to the University of Hebron and the Polytechnic University of Palestine. Hebron is a shopping mall, mainly selling marble from nearby quarries. The area is also famous for its grape, fig, limestone, pottery and blown glass factories, as well as for the major dairy manufacturer, al-Junaidi. Israel has been building settlements for more than 50 years, to the point where today the city is completely divided.
H1 is the area controlled by the Palestinians (80%) and H2 is the area controlled by the Israelis (20%).The Jewish community in Hebron has been the target of many attacks by Palestinian militants since the Oslo agreement, especially during the Second Intifada period. Jewish settlers have their own municipal governing body, the Hebron Jewish Community Committee. After the Six-Day War in June 1967, Israel occupied Hebron along with the rest of the West Bank, establishing a military government to govern the area. Local administration and services for the Jewish community in Hebron are provided by the Hebron Municipal Committee. For an American who visits Israel for a few weeks and Hebron for a single day, it can be difficult to draw many conclusions about this conflict.
It's hard to understand either side without experiencing terrorist attacks or military occupation. In 1775, there was a blood defamation incident in which Jews were falsely accused of murdering the son of a local sheik. Some defend the continuation of settlement in Hebron as a way to maintain Jewish heritage in this city while others suggest that settlers should try to live in peace with Arabs there and some even recommend total withdrawal of all settlers from Hebron. In 1968, a group of Jews led by Rabbi Moshe Levinger rented out a hotel in Hebron and refused to leave. In 1995, Mustafa Abdel Nabi, mayor of Hebron at that time invited Christian Peacekeeping Teams to help local Palestinian community oppose what they described as Israeli military occupation, collective punishment, harassment of settlers, house demolition and land confiscation. For this reason, Hebron is considered one of four holiest cities in Judaism (along with Jerusalem, Tiberias and Tzfat).
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