The residents of Hebron face a daily battle for their safety and security, according to Yishai Fleisher, director of international affairs for the Jewish community of Hebron.
PROTECTING A LEGACY
Speaking to ILTV News on Sunday, Fleisher highlighted the challenges of living in the ancient city, home to one of Judaism’s holiest sites: the Cave of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs. For centuries, Hebron was largely inaccessible to Jews. It is also the site of the 1929 Hebron massacre, where nearly 70 Jews were killed by local Muslims.
In 1967, Israel regained control of Hebron during the Six-Day War.
Today, around 1,100 Jews live in the city, surrounded by approximately 200,000 Arabs in an area governed by the Palestinian Authority, many of whom support Hamas, Fleisher said.
“Some people call it even a Hamas city,” he noted.
The security concerns extend beyond the residents. Fleisher emphasized that visitors to the holy site also require protection.
“On the one hand, we're a security town. On the other hand, we're a touristic town,” Fleisher said. “So, in many ways, we mirror what Israel is, which is a country that has a security element but wants to bring in people and connect with a lot of people.”
Hebron also faces what Fleisher described as a “narrative war.”
“We face a lot of besmirchment of the history of the Jewish community of Hebron, an effort to erase our history, an effort to blacken our name,” he said. “But we fight through that with the amazing message of the history of the Jewish community of Hebron and the connections of the forefathers and mothers and the heritage of the Jewish people in this place.”