Praying In The Hebron Cave With the Hamas Regime Ending

 Nadene Goldfoot       Cave of Machpelah in Hebron,  an Arab town in West Bank                       

"The cave in Hebron is now under Israeli authority," said Shai Glick, the director of B’Tsalmo.  The Israeli Defense Ministry's COGAT Unit was there with Shai.  

The acronym COGAT stands for the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories. It's a unit within the Israeli Ministry of Defense that implements the government's civilian policy within Judea and Samaria and towards the Gaza Strip. COGAT is led by a Major General who is a member of the IDF's General Staff and operates under the authority of Israel's Minister of Defense. 

Perhaps this is why Jews have been able to visit and pray inside the cave ever since the 67 War, though it hasn't alwaysbeen easy.                       

    Over the cave stands a large rectangular enclosure dating from the Herodian era. During Byzantine rule of the region, a Christian basilica was built on the site; the structure was converted into the Ibrahimi Mosque following the Muslim conquest of the Levant. By the 12th century, the mosque and its surrounding regions had fallen under Crusader-state control, but were retaken in 1188 by the Ayyubid sultan Saladin, who again converted the structure into a mosque. In 1119 CE, a monk found bones inside the cave, believing them to be the bones of the patriarchs.

Defence minister Moshe Dayan visited the mayor of Hebron Muhammad Ali Ja'abari who is a Druze. Sheikh Muhammad Ali Ja'abari (Arabic: الشيخ محمد علي الجعبري 1900–1980) was the long-serving mayor of the Palestinian city of Hebron, appointed by Jordan, from 1948 to 1976. Ja'abari was head of the Jericho Conference in Jericho which supported the unification of the West Bank and Jordan.  Hebron lies in the Kingdom of Judah, now called the southern part of the West Bank by the people of Jordan.  

 "The Hebron tomb “is registered in the Book of Genesis as belonging to the Jewish people,” he emphasized, adding that “for too long, due to a misguided decision by [former Israeli Defense Minister] Moshe Dayan, the site was managed by the Waqf and military authorities.”

              19th-14th  century BCE kingdom of Hittites

In the Bible, Hebron is called Kiriath-Arba of Judah, and its 18 miles south of Jerusalem.  It was under the control before Abraham's days of the Hittites.  

From about 1400BC King Tudhaliya established the Hittite Empire, which endured until the infamous Late Bronze Age Collapse from about 1180BC. During these few hundred years the Hittites rose to become one the great powers of the ancient Near East, the rivals and equals of Egypt and masters of the ancient cities of Syria and the upper Mesopotamian region.

 Abraham bought a plot of land with the Cave of Machpelah on it for burial reasons of his wife, Sarah, and also for his future generations from the Hittites. Hittites' power extended to Syria.  A small kingdom continued in the vicinity of the Euphrates River, later overrun by Assyrians and Armenians.  Esau, son of Isaac and elder twin brother of Jacob,  had taken wives from the Hittites.  Hittites were one of the 7 people that Israelites conquered in Canaan after the Exodus.  King David had Hittite warriors and his son, King Solomon, took Hittite wives.  

I wonder since Tut in Egypt has had his DNA tested, I believe with the Y haplogroup being R1, if Sarah or Abraham have been tested, and I doubt it.  Hopefully, now they may do it for us, just to verify the Y haplogroup line of J1 for us of Abraham, and maybe the mt line of Sarah as K.  

“After making the site accessible to the disabled, it’s time for it to be properly covered, air-conditioned and upgraded with restrooms and other facilities,” the Jewish rights activist concluded." The roofing will also be upgraded.  Evidently nothing had been done to the cave under the Waqf of Muslim matters.                               

House destruction, Hebron 1929, Israel Scene of destruction in the Jewish Quarter of Hebron after the Arab riots of 1929.               

Back in 1929, there were the massacres of Jews by the Arabs in Hebron.  The Hebron massacre was the killing of sixty-seven or sixty-nine Jews on 24 August 1929 in Hebron, Mandatory Palestine. The event also left scores seriously wounded or maimed. Jewish homes were pillaged and synagogues were ransacked.  

The massacre was perpetrated by Arabs incited to violence by rumors that Jews were planning to seize control of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Some of the 435 Jews in Hebron who survived were hidden by local Arab families, although the extent of this phenomenon is debated. Soon after, all Hebron's Jews were evacuated by the British authorities. 

Many returned in 1931, but almost all were evacuated at the outbreak of the 1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine. The massacre formed part of the 1929 Palestine riots, in which a total of 133 Jews and 110 Arabs were killed, most of the latter by British security forces, and brought the centuries-old Jewish presence in Hebron to an end.  So it had lasted from the time of Abraham till 1939-when the 2nd world war was already erupting from Germany.  

Following the 1929 Hebron massacre, where nearly 70 Jews were killed, the British government evacuated the remaining Jewish community to prevent further violence. This event, along with the subsequent Arab revolt in 1936-1939, led to a significant reduction in the Jewish population of Hebron. While the city remained under British Mandate until 1948, the Arab population increased as the Jewish population decreased. 

After the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Hebron was occupied and annexed by Jordan, and then by Israel in 1967. 

That means that from 1929 to 1939, the Arabs had moved in or were already there living with the Jews.

 Today, Hebron, an Arab town, is now in the hands again of the Jews.  

Resource:

https://www.jns.org/israel-asserts-authority-over-cave-of-patriarchs-after-palestinians-block-renovation-plans/?utm_campaign=Daily%20Syndicate%20Emails&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8Rlj4IzZEzCXF0zT_F1gDB_wmHvRsbeG

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1929_Hebron_massacre

Why Orthodox Jews Hold On Dearly to Judea, the Southern Part of Ancient Israel: Its Meaning and Purpose

 Nadene Goldfoot                                              

Our Torah, which consists of the 5 Books of Moses, comes from the center of Judea with the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who are said to have been buried at Hebron in the tomb of the Patriarchs.   Judea was the Romanized name of the tribal land of Judah, the largest population of the 12 Tribes of Jacob, son of Isaac, who was son of Abraham.  Moses was the grandson of Levi, one of the 12 tribes being a son of Jacob.  

In fact, Moses gave Aaron, his newly identified brother, the position as head priest of the people, and Aaron's sons then held that honor as well, and etc.  Today these men are identifiable as the Cohen line, holding the Y haplogroup of J1.  Many a Cohen in the synagogue (men who are leaders with specific obligations, have DNA tested and are found to hold this identification within their cells like tags  in the department store on new clothing).  Those not directly Aaron's sons are the Levites with other positions to fulfill. The rest of the people are called the Israelites.  

Hebron lies 18 miles south of Jerusalem and Jerusalem is the center, the hub of religious activity for these people.  Abraham bought the plot of land where the Cave of Machpelah sat, and he wanted it for a burial place for his family, starting with his wife and niece, Sarah.  They had come from the city of Ur on the Euphrates River that lie eastward. Ur was a commercial city, center of trading and such, and Abraham knew the value of ownership, so wouldn't take the land under any other conditions except to become his.  He bought and paid for it.                             

We had a Civil War after King Solomon died which was between the North and the South of Israel.  They divided with the South being made up of Judah which had the land that Jerusalem was built on, including some of Benjamin and Simeon, and the North being made up of the rest of the 10 tribes of Israel.  Jeroboam (933-912 BCE became the Northern Israel's king who had been the superintendent of forced labor for king Solomon, from the tribe of Ephriam.  He had been demanding lower taxes from Solomon.  Solomon's son, Rehoboam (933-917 BCE) was the automatic king of Judah, who would not lower the taxes; thus a Civil War ensued.   

/The northern Israel  could not use Jerusalem as their capital anymore, so chose Samaria as their capital in 890 BCE, and because of that, often called the whole area, the kingdom of Samaria. It was larger than the southern Kingdom of Judah. Ephraim was the leader, with Manasseh, Issaachar, Zebulun, Naphtalli, Asher, Dan, and lying in what was to become Transjordan were Reuben, Gad and part of Manasseh. Samaria was richer and of more political importance than Judah.  However, they had been more violent and this was the subject of constant revolution.  In the course of its existence of 210 years after the Civil War, they had had 19 kings belonging to 9 different dynasties of whom 10 died by violence and 7 ruled for less than 2 years.  They had peace only with king Omri who had 4 monarchs and the 5 rulers from the House of Jehi when it was at the high point of having power.     When Sargon captured Samaria in 721 BCE, this ended the history of the kingdom of Israel, though some traditions were kept going by the Samaritans.  Their religious knowledge was at a low point.  

Judea was not the worldly country with no easy access to the sea for travel and trade.  Judea held Jerusalem and was more involved with the standards Moses had laid down for the people having Jerusalem right there.  They were the ones preserving Mosaic monotheism in a purer form.  They were able to stop the Assyrians at their walls of Jerusalem in 701 BCE.  200 years later the Judeans lost a similar battle with the Babylonians in 586 BCE when large numbers of the people were again being deported and taken from them.  They were religiously stronger and kept to their faith, returned with the blessing of the Babylonian king some 70 years later and renewed where they had left off in Jerusalem's development by rebuilding their destroyed Temple. 

Now you see that Samaria was ancient Northern Israel and Judea was ancient southern Israel divided into Israel or Samaria and Judea.  Jerusalem and its land of Judea is the heart and soul of the Jewish people.  Most Christians and Jews are aware of the "Old Testament" and have read these facts, but when it came time to deal with the land, cared less about the feeling of the Jewish people. 

                     Buraq, Mohammad's flying horse.  

As the Quran has it, Prophet Muhammad took a night trip to heaven aboard a trusty winged pony-horse-mule-ish creature called Buraq. It's an episode that's inspired Islamic art ever since, because few artists can resist a theologically sound reason to draw a winged horse.

 As I said before, the Muslims covet what is not theirs, and then take it;  and only admit to their story of Muhammad flying on his flying horse to the Temple Mount where the Romans had built their temple over Solomon's Temple remains, giving the Muslims reason to build over that with the Mosque of Omar.  This way they can lay claim to the area as their 3rd most holy center, but one must believe in flying horses.  Well, planes today do have horsepower, but not back then. 

The land has gone through many hands, to the Ottoman Empire who held it till the end of WWI. 

     The Burial of Sarah in Hebron Cave.  Abraham is also buried there.  The Jewish sons of Abraham were Isaac who was the father of Jacob.  The Muslim sons of Abraham were Ishmael.  This is the jealousy factor in our history, two completely different men. Isaac was the son of Sarah of Abraham's own family being the daughter of Haran who was Abraham's own brother;   while Ishmael was the son of Sarah's hand-maiden, Hagar of Egypt.  They held very different values, yet had some similarities.  Hagar, because of Ishmael's jealous behavior , was forced to leave their growing community and return to Egypt.   

                            Kirat Arba today

 In 1929, the Arabs massacred  the many Jews of Hebron, a city of 700, and survivors fled.  Arabs rioted again in 1936. It has become an Arab center.   The population in 1967 was 38,310.  After the 6 Day War, Jews returned, establishing Kiryat Arba, a quarter east of the city that numbered 3,709 in 1988. "Kiryat Arba or Qiryat Arba' is an urban Israeli settlement on the outskirts of Hebron, in the southern West Bank. Founded in 1968, in 2019 it had a population of 7,326. The international community considers Israeli settlements illegal under international law, but the Israeli government disputes this."  My husband taught in a girl's high school there sometime between 1981-1985. 

 This is Abraham's city, our father of Judaism!  His burial ground is not recognized as being part of Israel, though Israel has to disagree and recognize it.

  Leave it to the British to mess our history up.  They had exiled all Jews from their land for 365 years---not days---years.  They were the people who from 1290 to 1655 kept all Jews out of their land and had expulsed those who had been there before that.  

Resource:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judea

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia (Hebron) 

From Judaism: To Buy Land, Not to Take Land

 Nadene Goldfoot                                       

(Image: Painting of the Cave of Machpela before King Herod's memorial ediface was built. Credit: Shmuel Mushnick)

Judaism was remarkable besides saying to Polytheists that there was only ONE G-d in the universe, and that he was invisible and did not want statues or idols made in his name, but that it was telling us how to behave!                                 

One thing of importance came from Abraham, the father of Judaism.  When his wife, Sarah died, he needed to lay her aside in death and show care for her body that he loved so much, so what did he do?  Now this was way back in the 2nd millennium BCE-over 4,000 years ago.  He bought land with a cave on it, the Cave of Machpelah, which he would use as his family burial place.  He would be buried there, too, and it would be a place where his children could be buried in. 

                                                 

At Hebron Abraham purchased the Cave of Machpelah (Hebrew: Meʿarat ha-Makhpelah) as a burial place for his wife, Sarah, from Ephron the Hittite (Genesis 23); this became a family sepulchre. According to tradition, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with their wives Sarah, Rebekah, and Leah, were buried in the cave..

Sarah had lived for 127 years.  She died in Kiriath-arba which is Hebron in the land of Canaan.  He said to the people there in Hebron, "I am an alien and a resident among you: grant me an estate for a burial site with you, that I may bury my dead from before me." 

They said to him, "Hear us, my lord:  You are a prince of G0d in our midst;  in the choicest of our burial places bury your dead, any of us will not withhold this burial place from you...

Now Ephron, the Hittite, was sitting in the midst of the children of Heth, I have given you the field, and as for the cave that is in it.  I have given it to you....but Abraham answered back, "Rather, if only you would heed me!  I give the price of the field, accept it from me, that I may bury my dead there."

And Ephron replied to Abraham, saying to him:  "My Lord, heed me!  Land worth 400 silver shekels;  between me and you---what is it?  Bury your dead.  

This part of our Torah narrative reveals that Ephron's public generosity was a sham.  Not only had he no intention of making a gift, he hypocritically implied to Abraham that he expected an outrageously high price.  The righteous say little but do much, but the wicked promise much and perform not even a little.  They would offer to anoint with oil from an empty flask.  

Abraham re-married and his 2nd wife was Keturah.  

Abraham died at the age of 175 and was buried in the cave of Machpelah.  This act of buying the land laid down the foundation that whatever the reason for a need of land, one buys it if it belongs to someone else first.  

Jews did this when they returned to their Jewish Homeland, Judah, the land of the largest of the 12 tribes which was at the southern end of Israel.  This was over 2,000 years later after Abraham's life, and still Jews knew in the 1880s onward that their return from exile meant they need to buy the land back.  They had been reading their Torah, their Tanakh, which included more than the Torah every Shabbat on Saturday, and were reminded.  Besides that, they did their best to follow Moses's 613 laws, many of which came inadvertently to them anyway, but such things as buying and not taking land was right there for all to see.

Abraham could not feel secure that their remains would be safe if he did not own the land such as Ephron had owned the land, for Abraham had left Ur, and whatever conditions that was under, he and his family were seeking better lives.  Having title to the land said that you were the landowner.  

"And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron; and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which he had named in the hearing of the children of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant.

 

So the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field, and the cave which was therein, and all the trees that were in the field, that were in all the border thereof round about, were made sure unto Abraham for a possession in the presence of the children of Heth, before all that went in at the gate of his city. 

 

And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre--the same is Hebron--in the land of Canaan. And the field, and the cave that is therein, were made sure unto Abraham for a possession of a burying-place by the children of Heth". 

Mamre, full Hebrew name Elonei Mamre, refers to an ancient religious site originally focused on a single holy tree, growing since time immemorial at Hebron in Canaan. Talmudic sources refer to the site as Beth Ilanim or Botnah, where it was one of the three most important "fairs", or market places, in Judea.

                                                  

The time had come when Jews found their exile so unbearable that they started returning to their ancient homeland, now called Palestine when the Ottoman Empire had included it in their domain and managed to hold it for 400 years.  The Turks maintained order there, and made sure that residents paid their taxes.  It was just wild untamed land and not someone's country.  The name was still the Roman name of Palestine.

In the first half of the 19th century, no foreigners were allowed to purchase land in Palestine. This was official Ottoman policy until 1856 and in practice until 1867. When it came to the national aspirations of the Zionist movement, the Ottoman Empire opposed the idea of Jewish self-rule in Palestine, fearing it might lose control of Palestine after recently having lost other territories to various European powers. It also took issue with the Jews, as many came from Russia, which sought the empire's demise.

                                                 

               Working on draining the many swamps 

The land under the Ottomans were held by them during uncertain times of insecurity and oppression in the 17th and 18th centuries.  There were incursions by marauding Bedouin tribes, internal strife between rival local alliances.  The number of villages was reduced by half between the 16th to 19th centuries.  At the beginning of the 19th century the population had dwindled and did not exceed 250,000.  

 In 1881 the Ottoman governmental administration (the Sublime Porte) decreed that foreign Jews could immigrate to and settle anywhere within the Ottoman Empire, except in Palestine and from 1882 until their defeat in 1918, the Ottomans continuously restricted Jewish immigration and land purchases in Palestine. In 1892, the Ottoman government decided to prohibit the sale of land in Palestine to Jews, even if they were Ottoman citizens.

                                              

      Jewish pioneers draining the Hulch.

In the 2nd half of the 19th century, Arabs and Jews and their communities began to grow.  By 1914 the land west of the Jordan River  had grown to about 680,000 of whom 85,000 were Jews.  The attitude of the Ottoman administration was hostile and oppressive towards both Arabs and Jews.  Life for those who had returned to the Land was a continuous ordeal, and the new  villages survived precariously.  

                                                  

 A neglected land, valued only to the Jews for its historical connections.  

 Nevertheless, during the late 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, many successful land purchases were made through organizations such as the Palestine Jewish Colonization Association (PJCA), Palestine Land Development Company and the Jewish National Fund.  

On 31 December 1944, out of 1,732.63 dunums of land owned in Palestine by large Jewish Corporations and private owners, about 44% was in possession of Jewish National Fund. 

A dunam's legal definition was "forty standard paces in length and breadth", but its actual area varied considerably from place to place, from a little more than 900 m² in Ottoman Palestine to around 2500 m² in Iraq.  Originally it was how much land that could be 

plowed in a day by a team of oxen.  

                                                 

Baron Edmond Rothschild was a millionaire and Jewish.  He and his wife, Adelaide, were attached to Jewish religious traditions.  The 1st Zionist pioneers in Palestine appealed to him in the early 1880s to save them from financial collapse.  He supported Palestinian colonization unostentatiously and gradually taking under his protection all the new settlements, which would have had to be liquidated had it not been for his aid.  He visited the land 5 times, in 1887, 1893, 1899, 1914, and 1925.  Altogether, he bought 125,000 acres in Palestine and is to be credited with the settlement of the Galilee and Samaria.  In his last years, he cooperated with Weizmann and Sokolow and in 1929 was the honorary president of the Jewish Agency.  Rothschild and his wife were buried at Zikhron Yaacov in 1954.  

The land on which Jewish towns and villages were settled was bought and paid for with due regard for Arab rights.  The Arab community grew during those years by reason both of the economic prosperity brought about by Jewish immigration, and of Arab immigration which uncontrolled and unconditioned, was drawn to Palestine by its rapid development.  Within 30 years the Arab population nearly doubled.  This occurred AFTER the Brits had been given the 30 year mandate and told to HELP the Jews to create their Jewish Homeland.  Instead, with the 2nd  world war starting and Jews being the goal for death squads and they needing a place of refuse, their PROMISED LAND, were kept from it while the Arabs were allowed in.  

Those who are obscene in their narrative of Jews stealing their land are not truth tellers, but trying to cover up the history and tell their own versions.  It used to be that people were familiar with the story of David and Goliath, the giant, and connected the Jews as David and Goliath as the enemies of the Jews.  Today the opposite has happened.  People think of David being the Palestinians and Goliath as Israel.  Even the fact that every war has been the many against one little country, Israel, and they still have warped memories of the facts.  

The time is now, it has come.  Egypt and Jordan and now 4 more Arab countries so far have accepted Israel's return and legitimacy in returning.  Hallelujah!  Let it Be in the name of Peace.  

 

Resource:

Tanakh

http://en.hebron.org.il/history/598

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_land_purchase_in_Palestine

Facts About Israel 1973 version of book; published by the Division of Information, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Jerusalem 

  

Holiness To Jews In Hebron Taken By UNESCO

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                          

Housing Cave holding Jewish Patriarchs and Matriarchs in Hebron, Judea.

The most holy site in Jerusalem to Jews is the Temple Mount in Jerusalem where the 1st and then the 2nd Temple had been built.  The 2nd most holy site is the Cave of Machpelah-the Tomb of the Patriarchs, which UNESCO took from Israeli protection and gave to the rioting Palestinians.  Why?  Well, it happens to be situated in Hebron, now a Palestinian town.  The Palestinians call it "Sanctuary of Abraham or the Ibrahimi Mosque (Arabic: الحرم الإبراهيمي‎, "  This was a legal transaction and is cited in the Torah.  

UNESCO Declares Tomb of Patriarchs and Rachel's Tomb Muslim Sites

The vote in Paris was 26 in favor, six against and 15 abstentions. The US, Germany, United Kingdom, Estonia and Netherlands, Czech Republic voted against the resolution while a number of other European countries such as Albania, Austria, Ethiopia, Angola, France, Spain, and Italy were among those that abstained.

This means they will be in the hands of the Jordanians.  What religious leader could there be from the Palestinians?  

                                                                             

View of Cave of Patriarchs and the Tel Rumeida neighborhood in Hebron

Hebron, also called in Hebrew, Kiriath-Arba, is a very ancient city in Judah, 18 miles south of Jerusalem.  Before Abraham's time, it was controlled by the Hittites.
                                                                           

Abraham, the father of Ishmael and Isaac, had bought the plot of land 3,700 years ago with this cave from from a Hittite when he needed a plot to bury his wife and niece, Sarah. Ishmael's mother was Hagar, the handmaiden of Sarah and daughter of the Pharaoh.  The Bible connects the Hittites with the Canaanites being some lived in Eretz Yisrael at an early period.  They were one of the 7 different people from whom the Israelites conquered Canaan.  Later, they joined up with King David and were warriors in his army. King  Solomon, David's son,  married some Hittite women.

  Today, a mosque stands on this very site.  This became the family burial place and holds not only Sarah but also Abraham, son Isaac, grandson Jacob and his mother,  Rebecca and her sister, Leah.  Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Rebecca and Leah are our Jewish Patriarchs and Matriarchs.  Rachel, Jacob's wife, is buried near Bethlehem where she died in childbirth with Benjamin.
                                                                                 

Grandson of Abraham is Jacob and his family, standing with Rachel and baby Joseph, Leah with  6 children, and their handmaidens, Zilpah and Bilhah and their children by Jacob

Both the Tomb of the Patriarchs and Rachel's Tomb have just been handed over to the Palestinians who have no connection to Rachel and only to Abraham by UNESCO, an arm of the United Nations.  They have given in to demands of the Palestinians because they are now living in Hebron and Bethlehem and hate Jews, showing it and their decision not to be peaceful by rioting and knifing  Jews in Jerusalem at this very time of this decision.

Abraham (2nd millenniuim BCE)  had bought a double cave.  A massive building covers it in which many artifacts from the Early Israelite Period of the past 30 centuries have been uncovered from the days of Herod.  It has been a place for gatherings and Jews come to pray at the graves of their Patriarchs.

Moses (1391- 1271 BCE)  had died outside of Canaan and Joshua took over as leader of the Exodus from Egypt.  He assigned this very piece of land to be Hebron to Caleb, one of the leaders of the tribe of Judah and a member of the Kenizzite family,  and it became a levitical city and a city of refuge.  David reigned there for 7 1/2 years before making his capital in Jerusalem.                  

 (

                                                                               

Jews lived in Hebron during the Byzantine Period and under Arab rule.  The modern city of today is somewhat to the east of the historical location and was one of the 4 sacred towns to Jews; Hebron, Jerusalem, Tiberias and Safed.  Jews lived in Hebron throughout recent centuries and in 1890 had a population of 1,500 with a yeshivot and other religious schools.  The great Lithuanian yeshivah of Slobodka was transferred there in 1925.

In  1929, while the USA suffered from the worst stockmarket crash of all time, the Arabs massacred 67 Jews in Hebron, instigated and encouraged by the hateful Haj Amain al-Husseini, the Sherif of Jerusalem.  At that time, 700 Jews were living in Hebron.  Survivors fled from Hebron in order to continue living.  About 30 Jewish families returned 2 years later in 1931.  The Arabs rioted again in 1936, chasing any Jews living there away.

We know that May 14, 1948 was the birth of modern-day Israel, verified and legalized through both the League of Nations and the United Nations, a birth that was voted on and accepted by the majority of the world's nations. Hebron's population in 1967 was 38,310.  After the Six-Day War of 1967, a number of Jews had returned to Hebron and established the Kiryat Arba quarter east of the city.  This section held 3,700 Jews in 1988. 

                                                                              

 It was then that the Chief Rabbi of Israel's Defense Forces, Major-General Rabbi Shlomo Goren, was the 1st Jew to enter the Cave of Machpelah.  "Many restrictions are imposed on Jewish prayers and customs at the Tomb of the Patriarchs" because it was still controlled "by the Muslim Waqf (Religious Trust) that took control during the Arab conquest." 

                                                                                     

 Moshe Dayan had allowed this Jordanian control over the Temple Mount as well because of the Dome of the Rock mosque there, too.   It was his step towards having peaceful relations with the Jordanians. He was Israel's Minister of Defense during Six Day War. Before that, he was in the army and was chief of general staff of the Israeli army from 1953 to 58.  He joined the Knesset in 1959.  Today 700 Jews are living in Hebron and 250,000 Arabs.  

Throughout history, Jews have seen foreign conquerors and invaders come and use the site for their own purposes depending on their religion.  The Byzantines and Crusaders turned the spot into a church.  Muslims built a mosque here when they conquered Hebron 700 years ago.  They then forbid Jews entry to the Tomb.  They were not even allowed past the 7th step on the staircase outside the building.

With Jerusalem's liberation in 1967, 300,000 people have come yearly to visit the Tomb of the Patriarchs.  It is divided into 3 rooms:  Ohel (tent) Avraham, Ohel Yitzhak (Isaac), and Ohel Ya'akov (Jacob).  Jews have not been given access to Ohel Yitzhak, the largest room, with the exception of 10 days a year.  Why this room is a mystery to me.
                                                                                     

Abbas, Chairman of Palestine Authority

Now, with this ruling, will Jews be allowed to visit their holy sites?  We know that Palestinians have already said that they will not allow any Jews to live in their Palestine, once they have it.  Under Israeli law, all religions have been free to visit their holy sites.  There is no comparison between the 2 people.  When under Muslim ruling, this is how they treated Jewish sites.

"Upon its capture by the Arab Legion, the Jewish Quarter of the Old City was destroyed and its residents expelled. Fifty-eight synagogues—some hundreds of years old—were destroyed, their contents looted and desecrated. Some Jewish religious sites were turned into chicken coops or animal stalls. The Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives, where Jews had been burying their dead for over 2500 years, was ransacked; graves were desecrated; thousands of tombstones were smashed and used as building material, paving stones or for latrines in Arab Legion army camps. The Intercontinental Hotel was built on top of the cemetery and graves were demolished to make way for a highway to the hotel. The Western Wall became a slum area."  

Resource: http://honestreporting.com/idns-10212015-unesco-israel/?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=email_this&utm_source=email
 https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/machpelah.html
"http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/28970/israeli-president-holds-hebrons-jewish-roots-close-heart-judea-and-samaria/
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_print=1&x_context=7&x_issue=4&x_article=1355
Victor Sharpe, writer
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/17745
Update: http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2015/10/unrwa-admits-that-employees-post.html#.Vim6htKrRkg

Why Three Areas in Israel Are Such Contested Property

Nadene Goldfoot                                                              

"And Jacob arrived safely [in] the city of Shechem ... and he bought the part of the field where he had pitched his tent from the sons of Hamor.

GENESIS (33:18-19)"1

"The city of Shechem, located in Samaria, is mentioned 60 times in the Bible, and is one of three locations in the Land where an actual land purchase is recorded in the Bible. The other two are Abraham's purchase of the cave in Hebron (Gen. 23:8-17) and King David's purchase of the Temple Mount (II Samuel 24:24). And why are these three areas the most contested in the world today?"1

The Five Books of Moses of which Genesis is the first has verified that our ancestors bought land from the people who lived there first, making it quite legal.  Shechem, today called Nablus, only 30 miles north of Jerusalem, has been taken over by the Palestinian Arabs.  It had been an ancient Canaanite town.  It had been in the territory Jordan had taken in 1948 and kept by them until they lost the 1967 war with Israel.   Nablus as of 2007 had a population of 426,132.  Since 1995, the city has been governed by the Palestinian National Authority.  It's a center of protests, and is not safe for tourists then.  

 It had been under Egyptian control as early as the  period of the 12th dynasty.  It's earliest walls date from about 2,000 BCE.  This is going WAY back since Moses lived from 1391 to 1271 BCE.  Our biblical patriarch of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob camped under its walls.  It was pillaged by 2 of the 12 tribes of Jacob;  Simeon and Levi as told in Gen.34.

Jacob had just arrived at Shechem from Paddan-aram (which is in northern Mesopotamia) , and had camped before the city.  He bought the land from Hamor for 100 kesitahs. (Subsequently, the kesitah was probably a piece of money of a particular weight, cast in the form of a lamb (or unminted of a certain weight, the price of a lamb). Monuments in Egypt show that such weights were used as a form of currency).   Then he set up and altar and proclaimed, G-d, the G-d of Israel.  At this point he hasn't been given the name of Israel as yet, so Israel was also the name of his band of people.

Shechem had 44,000 people in 1967 and had a tiny Samaritan community but is mostly inhabited by Muslims today.  It has for decades been the center of fanatical Arab nationalism.  A small Jewish community used to live there.  Joseph, Jacob's 11th  and favorite son by Rachel, is buried here.   Abimelech, the illegitimate son of Gideon, tried  to establish a monarchy at Shechem in about the 12th century BCE.  He killed his 70 brothers except Jotham, Gideon's youngest son,  and ruled for 3 years in Shechem with the support of the chiefs of that city, and was killed in the ensuing revolt.  (Judg. 9).  Jotham had stood on Mt. Gerizim and uttered a parable rebuking the people of Shechem for electing Abimelech king.
                                                                       

 This goes back to the story of Dinah and Shechem, who was the son of Hamor, the Hivvite, one of the 7 "nations" with princes living in Canaan, who fell for her and they had sex; most likely rape, though a recent movie on TV had it that they fell for each other and it was not rape.  The Bible  does say he fell in love with her and wanted to marry her.  Here, Dinah's father, Jacob, thought that at last he had found the land of Eretz Yisrael  where he would experience tranquility, and his family experienced this moral outrage of rape on his daughter right after they had arrived..  Dinah's brothers, Simeon and Levi,   took revenge for their sister and attacked Shechem's city by killing every male with their sword, found Dinah there and took her home.  Their 10 brothers then plundered the city when they found those killed and took all their livestock and money,  as well as their children and wives as captives.

Jacob was shocked and angry.  He told his sons that now they had made Jacob odious among the natives of the land, the Canaanites and Perizzites.  He was now in mortal danger being they were many and he and his band were few.  They replied that they couldn't let them treat their sister like a harlot (prostitute)  and just rape and kidnap her.   She was one special girl with 12 brothers to protect her.
                                                                           

Esau and Jacob, twins of Isaac

Jacob was told by G-d to leave and go to Beth-el and live there instead and build an altar to G-d.  He reminded him that when he had to flee from his fraternal twin brother, Esau, that is what he had to do, also.  He called the place El-beth-el.  Deborah died here and was buried below Beth-el, below the plateau.  Jacob is now told that his name will change to Israel, and that he should be fruitful and multiply.  A nation and a congregation of nations shall descend from you, and kings shall come from your line.  G-d gave the land that he had given to Abraham and Isaac he now gave to Israel and to your offspring after you.  This place where G-d had spoken to Jacob-Israel was called Beth-el, later to be called Bethlehem.

Jacob continued to use the name of  Jacob  for matters that were physical and the mundane.  He used Israel  for matters of the spiritual concerning himself and his descendants.
                                                                           

Abraham's wife, Sarah, who was also his niece,  died at age 127 in Kiriath-arba in Hebron in Canaan.  Abraham went to the people of Heth telling them that he is an alien but lives among them and asked if he could buy land to bury his wife.  He wished to have the Cave of Machpelah that belonged to Ephron, son of Zohar and lay on the edge of his field.  He said he would pay the full price.  Ephron was among the people of Heth and said he would give it to him.  They argued about giving and paying and Ephron said it was worth 400 silver shekels.  Abraham paid it.  Abraham had bought the field, which was in Machpelah, facing Mamre, the field and the cave within it and all the trees in the field, within all its surrounding boundaries was confikred as Abraham's as a purchase in the view of the people of Heth, among all who came to the gate of his city.  He then buried Sarah in this burial site.

As it turns out, Ephron's public generosity was a sham.  He had no intention of making a gift of the cave.  He hypocritically implied to Abraham that he expected an outrageously high price.

A saying from the sages about this haggling is that: THE RIGHTEOUS SAY LITTLE BUT DO MUCH, BUT THE WICKED PROMISE MUCH AND PERFORM NOT EVEN A LITTLE. THEY WOULD OFFER TO ANOINT WITH OIL FROM AN EMPTY FLASK.

Today, Hebron (al-Khalil)  is the governate of many cities in Area A,B, and in C with the total population of about 563,146 mostly Muslims.

King David was feeling very guilty for the sins he had committed and an angel of death was there destroying with a pestilence in Israel with many people dying, a known 70,000 men, and David begged that the sheep not die because of him.  Gad, a seer of David,  told him to build an altar on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. (The Jebusites lived in the hill region around Jerusalem which they called Jebus.  Joshua had defeated them, but Jerusalem was occupied only in the reign of David (II Sam. 5:6-7)  The last Jebusite king was Araunah.  They remained in the city under David and became tributary under Solomon.  In the course of time, they appear to have been assimilated.)   King Araunah saw the king and his servants coming to him, and Araunah went out and put his face to the ground in supplication and fear.  David told him he wanted buy his threshing floor in order to build an altar to G-d so that the pestilence would end.  Araunah told David to take it and offer whatever is proper in his eyes.  The cattle are available for elevation-offerings, and the threshing tools and the implements of the cattle are available for firewood.  King Araunah  gave all of it to  king David, and Araunah said to David, "May your G-d accept your offerings.  But King David told King Araunah that he wanted to buy it from him for a price and he wasn't about to offer his G-d free offerings.  So David bought the threshing floor and the cattle for money--50 shekels.  David built an altar there to G-d, and he offered elevation-offerings and peace- offerings.  The pestilence then left Israel.    
                                                                         

   This turns out to be today's Temple Mount.  

                                                                         

It's where King David's son, King Solomon, built the first Temple which was a shrine for the Ark, the sacred vessels, and offerings, with a court for worshippers.  It was a hall, shrine and inner sanctum (the holy of holies.)  It was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BCE and rebuilt from 538 to 515 BCE and called the 2nd Temple.  It was destroyed in 70 CE by the Romans who afterwards built a Roman temple on the site.  
                                                                        

Since about  1193 CE, a mosque has stood there which is the Mosque of Omar.  The Mosque of Omar was built in its current shape by the Ayyubid SultanAl-Afdal ibn Salah ad-Din in 1193 in memory of this event. It has a 15 metres (49 ft) high minaret that was built before 1465 and was renovated by Ottoman sultan Abdulmecid I (1839–1860). 

Also called the Dome of the Rock, it is built in the center of the Temple area (al-Harim ash-Sherif) in Jerusalem  and another source said it was built by Caliph Abd al-Malik in about 738 to replace the temporary structure set up by Caliph Omar a century earlier (638.  Mohammad died in 632.)  It is situated on the traditional site of Mt. Moriah.  

Omar was the 2nd caliph who ruled from 634 to 644.  During his reign, several regions with ancient Jewish communities were conquered;  Palestine, Syria and Mesopotamia.  On his orders, Jews were expelled from Northern Arabia.  Omar is said to have made the covenant with Jews and Christians which assured them protection in return for the payment of a special poll-tax, but also put certain restrictions and disabilities on them like prohibition against erecting new houses of worship, had to wear distinctive clothing to let people know who they were, couldn't run for public office, etc.  

These 3 places were bought and paid for, not just part of the property taken by Joshua at the time of the Exodus and when they entered Canaan and had to fight for it.  They were legitimate purchases done on purpose so as to show that legally, this land belonged to the buyers, Abraham, Jacob and King David, the Jewish patriarchs.

Today, King David's purchase is the Temple Mount which is in Jerusalem but is governed by Jordan, a deal made by Moshe  Dayan from the 1967 war.  Jews are not allowed near the mosque and cannot even be seen to move their lips in prayer because of the 1st and 2nd Temples that had stood there in the past.  Politics are now in motion to allow Jews there as well.  It's a site of much contention, and one rabbi was almost killed for trying to promote allowing Jews there.  So far, Jews must be satisfied with the Western Wall  (Wailing Wall) as a place of prayer.

1 Resource:  Israel 365 picture and Biblical line.
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
The Tanakh, the Stone Edition
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vie/Nablus.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nablus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_administered_by_the_Palestinian_National_Authority
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosque_of_Omar_%28Jerusalem%29
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0015_0_15315.html
update: 3/12/15 on Mosque of Omar from NSJ Encyclopedia