Long-standing demands by nationalist and religious militants to establish a Jewish presence in Hebron received powerful impetus from the murder of Yehoshua Sloma, a 23-year-old yeshiva student in that. West Bank Arab town last Thursday. The Cabinet is expected to take up the issue at its regular meeting next Sunday. Knesset sentiment seemed to be overwhelmingly in favor of such a move to-day and the coalition majority easily defeated motions by three opposition factions that would have barred Jews from settling in Hebron.
Defense Minister Ezer Weizman, who has frequently angered his Herut colleagues by his circumspect approach to the settlements issue, took a hard line on Hebron in the Knesset. “No power on earth can uproot our security presence and our dwelling in Judaea and Smaria,” he declared. “We have returned to the city of the Patriarchs (Hebron). Our right to live there is anchored in our religion and history.” He promised that the government would beef up security on the West Bank to protect Jewish settlers and ensure their safe movement throughout the territory.
The militants, especially the residents of Kiryat Arba, the Gush Emunim stronghold adjacent to Hebron, are demanding that the government take over homes and public buildings in Hebron that had belonged to Jews who were massacred or forced to flee during the Arab uprising in 1929 and turn them over to Jewish settlers. Yossi Sarid, of the Labor Alignment, warned in the Knesset today that “Such a decision will cause even more tension. It will affect negatively the process of the peace negotiations and will harm the prospects of autonomy. It will be one of the main obstacles on the way to peace.”
Former Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan, an independent MK, supported Sarid’s view up to a point. He warned that Jewish settlement of Hebron would be a serious mistake. But he advocated strengthening Kiryat Arba and the Etzion bloc of settlements. Dayan joined the opposition in the vote on motions by Shai, the Independent Liberals and the Civil Rights Movement that would have banned returning Jews to Hebron.
Likud and National Religious Party MKs ridiculed the opposition arguments, stressing the right of Jews to live in Hebron and claiming that only a massive Jewish presence would convince the Arabs that “Israel is here to stay.” Meanwhile, the curfew imposed on Hebron after Sloma’s murder remained in forces Israeli authorities rejected Arab charges that it was a form of collective punishment and insisted that it was necessary to facilitate the investigation of the killing.
Mayor Fahed Kawasme of Hebron confirmed today that acts of vandalism were carried out at the mosque in the Cave of Machpela (Patriarchs Tomb). A Koran was urinated upon, sand was spilled on a carpet and the wire was cut to the microphone used by the muezzin to call Moslems to prayer Kawasme said these acts were perpetrated shortly after the curfew was imposed. He also said he had no objections to Jews returning to Hebron, provided that Arabs were allowed to return to their old homes in Haifa and Jaffa.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
