West Bank Military Governor Extends Protection to Settlers in Hebron

The West Bank military government has extended its protection to a group of some 80 religious Jews who established themselves in the Arab town of Hebron last Passover and announced their intention of remaining there to reinstitute a Jewish community that has not existed since the 1930s. But the group, which includes about 20 children, had to move yesterday from the hotel they had rented to the Military Governor’s headquarters. The move is expected to ease the tension that has developed between the would-be settlers and the local Arab population – numbering some 20,000 – whose spokesman, Mayor Mohammed Ali Jabari, has petitioned Prime Minister Levi Eshkol to get the Jews to leave.

It is also expected to ease, at least temporarily, the split that has developed within the Government over the Hebron settlers. Factions that advocate Israel’s permanent retention of the West Bank, and Orthodox elements, have been pressuring the Government to give its official blessings to the Hebron settlers’ plans. Others, however, see them as a source of embarrassment that could impede efforts toward a peace settlement with the Arabs. Jabari has argued that if the Jews are allowed to return to Hebron, Arab refugees should be allowed to return to Jaffa which, since Israel’s Independence in 1948, has been part of Tel Aviv.

It was reliably reported that the Government has authorized the military governor to “attend to the defense and housing needs” of the settlers. Yesterday’s move would seem to confirm the report. Hebron is regarded by Orthodox Jews as a holy city. Arabs massacred the local Jewish community in 1929 and the last Jews left the town during the Arab riots and general strike of 1936. Hebron is the site of the Tomb of the Patriarchs, where Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their wives Sarah, Rebecca and Leah are buried.