Tel Rumeida ( ar, تل رميدة; he, תל רומיידה), also known as Jabla al-Rahama and referred to by

Israeli settlers Israeli may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the State of Israel * Israelis, citizens or permanent residents of the State of Israel * Modern Hebrew, a language * ''Israeli'' (newspaper), published from 2006 to 2008 * Guni Israeli (b ...

as Tel Hebron is an archaeological, agricultural and residential area in the

West Bank The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

city of

Hebron Hebron ( ar, الخليل or ; he, חֶבְרוֹן ) is a Palestinian. city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Nestled in the Judaean Mountains, it lies above sea level. The second-largest city in the West Bank (after Eas ...

. Within it, lies a tell whose remains go back to the

Chalcolithic period The Copper Age, also called the Chalcolithic (; from grc-gre, χαλκός ''khalkós'', "copper" and ''líthos'', "stone") or (A)eneolithic (from Latin '' aeneus'' "of copper"), is an archaeological period characterized by regular ...

, and is thought to constitute the

Canaan Canaan (; Phoenician: 𐤊𐤍𐤏𐤍 – ; he, כְּנַעַן – , in pausa – ; grc-bib, Χανααν – ;The current scholarly edition of the Greek Old Testament spells the word without any accents, cf. Septuaginta : id est Vetus T ...

ite,

Israelite The Israelites (; , , ) were a group of Semitic-speaking tribes in the ancient Near East who, during the Iron Age, inhabited a part of Canaan. The earliest recorded evidence of a people by the name of Israel appears in the Merneptah Stele o ...

and

Edom Edom (; Edomite: ; he, אֱדוֹם , lit.: "red"; Akkadian: , ; Ancient Egyptian: ) was an ancient kingdom in Transjordan, located between Moab to the northeast, the Arabah to the west, and the Arabian Desert to the south and east.N ...

ite settlements of Hebron mentioned in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
'' While most of the site's area is used as an

agricultural land Agricultural land is typically land ''devoted to'' agriculture, the systematic and controlled use of other forms of lifeparticularly the rearing of livestock and production of cropsto produce food for humans. It is generally synonymous with ...

, it is also the location of a

Palestinian Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...

neighbourhood and an Israeli settlement. The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law, but the Israeli government disputes this.

Topological description

Tel Rumeida is an agricultural and residential location on a slope to the west of Hebron's old quarter, running down east from Jebel Rumeida (from which it takes its name). On the east there is a spring, 'Ain Judēde. It lies at the edge of the administrative H2 zone and extends into a Palestinian quarter. Several Palestinian homes lie on the tel's apex, a further cluster lies north, and to the east by Ein Jadide ('Ain Judēde). Lower down, to the north-east, are three parallel thick-walled vaults called es-Sakawati, and slightly further east the tomb of Sheikh al-Mujahid/Abu es-Sakawati.

Claude Reignier Conder Claude Reignier Conder (29 December 1848, Cheltenham – 16 February 1910, Cheltenham) was an English soldier, explorer and antiquarian. He was a great-great-grandson of Louis-François Roubiliac and grandson of editor and author Josiah Conder. ...

Herbert Kitchener Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener, (; 24 June 1850 – 5 June 1916) was a senior British Army officer and colonial administrator. Kitchener came to prominence for his imperial campaigns, his scorched earth policy against the Boers, h ...

br>''The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology,''
Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund, London, 1883, Vol 3 pp.327-8. Much of the land is owned or worked by several Palestinian families, among them the Natshe and Abu Haikals. Three lots of land are regarded as in Jewish ownership, having been purchased in the 19th century by the old Jewish Hebronite community: 2, lots 52 and 53, to the north, and one the south side. The Jewish settlement is called ''

Jesse Jesse may refer to: People and fictional characters * Jesse (biblical figure), father of David in the Bible. * Jesse (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Jesse (surname), a list of people Music * ''Jesse'' ( ...

's Lands'' (Admot Yishai). ''Er-Rumeidy, a'' Jewish Karaite cemetery containing around 500 tombs, is located to the north-west.Yonathan Mizrachi
'Tel Rumeida Hebron’s Archaeological Park,'
Emek Shaveh November 2014

Archaeology

Tel Rumeida is the oldest site in the city of Hebron. Kenneth Anderson Kitchen
''On the Reliability of the Old Testament,''
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2003 p.184

Denys Pringle Reginald Denys Pringle (born 20 September 1951) is a British archaeologist and medievalist. He is best known for his numerous publications regarding Crusader castles and Crusader-era churches in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the 12th-13th century Crusa ...

suggests that the site excavated east of the hilltop mosque represents the old

Kiryat Arba :''This article is mainly about the modern Israeli settlement, not the biblical town'' Kiryat Arba or Qiryat Arba ( he, קִרְיַת־אַרְבַּע, , Town of the Four) is an urban Israeli settlement on the outskirts of Hebron, in the south ...

described by the Dominican pilgrim Burchard of Mount Sion in 1293 as "vetus civitas quondam Cariatharbe dicta".

br>''The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: A Corpus: Volume 2, L-Z''
Cambridge University Press, 1998 pp.203-204.

Settlement periods

The occupational sequence of the settlement is very similar to Jerusalem's.

Chalcolithic

The settlement dates back to at least the

, c. 3500 BCE.

Bronze Age

During the Early Bronze III (EB; 2800-2500 BCE) the settlement expanded, with a fortified area extending over 30 dunams. This settlement was subsequently abandoned until, it was reoccupied and rebuilt in the Middle Bronze I-II periods (2000-1600), and girded by

cyclopean walls Cyclopean masonry is a type of stonework found in Mycenaean architecture, built with massive limestone boulders, roughly fitted together with minimal clearance between adjacent stones and with clay mortar or no use of mortar. The boulders typic ...

built with stones measuring by . A

cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedge-sh ...

economic text, with 4 personal names and a list of animals, unearthed at the site and dated 17-16 century BCE indicates Tel Rumeida/Hebron was composed of a

multicultural The term multiculturalism has a range of meanings within the contexts of sociology, political philosophy, and colloquial use. In sociology and in everyday usage, it is a synonym for " ethnic pluralism", with the two terms often used interchang ...

pastoral society of Hurrians and

Amorites The Amorites (; sux, 𒈥𒌅, MAR.TU; Akkadian: 𒀀𒈬𒊒𒌝 or 𒋾𒀉𒉡𒌝/𒊎 ; he, אֱמוֹרִי, 'Ĕmōrī; grc, Ἀμορραῖοι) were an ancient Northwest Semitic-speaking people from the Levant who also occupied lar ...

, run by an independent administrative system with its palace scribes perhaps under kingly rule. The Late Bronze Age (LBA; 1600-1200) levels have yielded no sign of settlement, aside from a few graves, one of which appears however to have been in continuous use from the LBA through to the Iron Age. Neither Tel Rumeida nor the surrounding Hebron area show signs of settlement at this time, throughout this period, when the centre of the region was located in biblical

Debir A Biblical word, dvir () may refer to: __NOTOC__ Names * Debir King of Eglon, a Canaanite king of Eglon, slain by Joshua (). Aided by miracles, Joshua's army routed the Canaanite military, forcing Debir and the other kings to seek refuge in a cave ...

/ Khirbet Rabud.Jericke
p.24

Iron Age

Tel Rumeida was only revived during Iron Age I and IIA (1200-1000), with structures attesting to a small settlement in the transition from LBA to IA1. Ofer infers on the basis of some material excavated to the north that this was a "Golden Age for Hebron", characterized by intensive settlement (11-10 B.C.E.) For two centuries there is an absence of finds, until signs of a third phase of settlement, in a period when Hebron formed part of the

Kingdom of Judah The Kingdom of Judah ( he, , ''Yəhūdā''; akk, 𒅀𒌑𒁕𒀀𒀀 ''Ya'údâ'' 'ia-ú-da-a-a'' arc, 𐤁𐤉𐤕𐤃𐤅𐤃 ''Bēyt Dāwīḏ'', " House of David") was an Israelite kingdom of the Southern Levant during the Iron Age. C ...

, from the 8th century BCE, above the EBIII and MBII fortified city are 8th-century BCE four-room houses, granaries and LMLK seal stamps "for the king, Hebron" (''lmlk ḫbrn'') on jar handles. Fragments of jars and burnished vessels may suggest that there was a small-scale occupation.

Babylonian and Persian periods

The Israelite settlement at Tel Rumeida was destroyed in 586 BCE, and the town's population city became predominantly Edomite throughout the subsequent Babylonian and Persian periods.

Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine periods

In 167 BCE, this

Idumean Edom (; Edomite: ; he, אֱדוֹם , lit.: "red"; Akkadian: , ; Ancient Egyptian: ) was an ancient kingdom in Transjordan, located between Moab to the northeast, the Arabah to the west, and the Arabian Desert to the south and east. ...

settlement, attested during Hellenistic times was devastated by Judah Maccabee who wrecked its fortress walls, leaving only a gate tower. The Edomite survivors moved downhill to relocate in Machpelah, to remain the majority population of Hebron down to Roman times. During the 2014 excavations, Lot 53 yielded a large, Early Roman period large compound. The Late Roman period sees a new settlement (3-4th centuries CE) that survived into the Byzantine period, by which time the centre of the city moved from Tel Rumeida to what is now the Old City of Hebron.

Deir Al Arba'een

On the top of Tel Rumeida (''Jabal Rumeida'') are the ruins of the ''

Deir Al Arba'een Deir Al Arba'een ( ar, دير الأربعين, lit=Sanctuary of the Forty), also Masha'ad Al Arba'een, is a ruined building approximately 300 meters to the West of the Old City of Hebron. It is considered the most notable ancient structure on Tel ...

'' complex which contains three distinct edifices, consisting of two ruins and a tomb complex. The PEF Survey of Palestine described it as "a modern Arabic work on older foundations". The ''Deir al-Arba'een'' was, according to Platt, probably built to fulfill two functions, that of a fortress and government building. One tomb is known as the ''

Tomb of Jesse and Ruth , alternate_name = Mashhad al-Arba’in (Sanctuary of the Forty), later D(a)ir al-Arba'in (Mosque of the Forty itnesses , image = Tomb of Ruth and Jesse Hevron 06.jpg , alt= , caption= , map_type= , map_alt= , map_size = 220 ...

'', and another as the tomb the ''Tomb of as-Saqawātī''.

Tomb of Jesse and Ruth

The Jewish settlers of Hebron, carrying on an earlier Hebronite Jewish tradition of reverence for the place, view ''Deir Al Arba'een'' as the ancient burial site of two biblical figures:

, father of

David David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

, and

Ruth the Moabite Ruth (; ) is the person after whom the Book of Ruth is named. She was a Moabite woman who married an Israelite. After the death of all the male members of her family (her husband, her father-in-law, and her brother-in-law), she stays with her m ...

, David's great-grandmother. The tombs ascribed to Jesse and Ruth are visited frequented, especially during Shavuot, by Jews and

converts to Judaism Conversion to Judaism ( he, גיור, ''giyur'') is the process by which non-Jews adopt the Jewish religion and become members of the Jewish ethnoreligious community. It thus resembles both conversion to other religions and naturalization. " ...

who come to pay homage for Ruth. A

Torah scroll A ( he, סֵפֶר תּוֹרָה; "Book of Torah"; plural: ) or Torah scroll is a handwritten copy of the Torah, meaning the five books of Moses (the first books of the Hebrew Bible). The Torah scroll is mainly used in the ritual of Tor ...

placed inside it by settlers has been removed by the IDF,Marshall J. Breger, Yitzhak Reiter, Leonard Hammer (eds.)
''Sacred Space in Israel and Palestine: Religion and Politics''
Routledge, 2013 p.479 and the site was vandalized in 2007. Left-wing archaeological critics view the excavations on the site as pretexts for expanding the settlement - the City of David (Ir David) and

Susya Susya ( ar, سوسية, he, סוּסְיָא; Susiyeh, Susiya, Susia) is a location in the southern Hebron Governorate in the West Bank. It houses an archaeological site with extensive remains from the Second Temple and Byzantine periods, incl ...

are compared - a form of 'annexation in the guise of archaeology'.Haaretz Editorial
'Hebron Dig: Annexation in the Guise of Archaeology'
Haaretz, 10 January 2014

The tomb of as-Saqawātī

Lower down the hill there are 3 parallel vaults in an olive grove, at the eastern end of which is a tomb called as-Saqawātī. It stands next to a mulberry tree bearing an Arabic inscription which refers to a certain

Sayyid ''Sayyid'' (, ; ar, سيد ; ; meaning 'sir', 'Lord', 'Master'; Arabic plural: ; feminine: ; ) is a surname of people descending from the Islamic prophet Muhammad through his grandsons, Hasan ibn Ali and Husayn ibn Ali, sons of Muhamma ...

, or lineal descendant of Mohammad, by the name Muḥammad Ibn ‘Abdallah al-Ḥusayni, from whom a Hebronite clan, the Āl ash-Sharīf, claim descent, saying he was a Maghrebi Arab from the as-Sāqiyah al-Ḥamrā’, from which his

nisba The Arabic language, Arabic word nisba (; also transcribed as ''nisbah'' or ''nisbat'') may refer to: * Arabic nouns and adjectives#Nisba, Nisba, a suffix used to form adjectives in Arabic grammar, or the adjective resulting from this formation **c ...

, or onomastic for place of descent, seen in the tomb's local name, Saqawātī, is derived. According to this narrative, the person arrived in Jerusalem with

Saladin Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadi () ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known by the epithet Saladin,, ; ku, سه‌لاحه‌دین, ; was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from an ethnic Kurdish family, he was the first of both Egypt and ...

in 1187, taught at the

Al-Aqsa Mosque Al-Aqsa Mosque (, ), also known as Jami' Al-Aqsa () or as the Qibli Mosque ( ar, المصلى القبلي, translit=al-Muṣallā al-Qiblī, label=none), and also is a congregational mosque located in the Old City of Jerusalem. It is situate ...

and then settled in Hebron.

Moshe Sharon Moshe Sharon ( he, משה שָׁרוֹן; born December 18, 1937) is an Israeli historian of Islam. He is currently Professor Emeritus of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem where he serves as Chair in Bahá ...

suspects this story to be a fabrication by the clan. A local legend has it that the structure lies in the open because all roofs built over it would collapse. The site is still a place for prayers, especially in times of drought.

''Corpus Inscriptionum Arabicarum Palaestinae'', Vol 5, H-I BRILL, 2013 pp.45-52.
/ref>

Property claims

1807-1967

In 1807, ''

Rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...

Haim Yeshua Hamitzri'' (Haim the Jewish Egyptian), a Sephardic Jewish immigrant from

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

, purchased 5 dunams on the periphery of the

Old City of Hebron The Old City of Hebron ( he, עיר העתיקה של חברון ar, البلدة القديمة الخليل) is the historic city centre of Hebron in the West Bank, Palestine. The Hebron of antiquity is thought by archaeologists to have ori ...

, and, in 1811, signed two lease contracts for 800 dunams of land, among which were 4 plots at Tel Rumeida. The duration of the lease was 99 years. Since his descendant Haim Bajaio, the last Sephardic rabbi in the city, administered it after the Jews were evacuated from Hebron, it is believed that the lease must have been renewed. These properties were appropriated by the Jordanian government in 1948, and the Israeli government in 1967.

Jewish claims since 1967

It is on the basis of the original lease taken out for 99 years by Haim Yeshua Hamitzri that the current Jewish settlers, none of whom is related to the original lessee, then asserted a claim to the land in Tel Rumeida, a claim dismissed by Haim Hanegbi, a founder of Matzpen, who argues that settlers in Hebron have no right to speak in the name of the old Jewish families of the city.Edward Platt
''City of Abraham: History, Myth and Memory: A Journey through Hebron''
Pan Macmillan 2012, pp.79ff; p.129Michelle Campos, 'Remembering Jewish-Arab Contact and Conflict', in Mark LeVine (ed.
''Reapproaching Borders: New Perspectives on the Study of Israel-Palestine''
Rowman & Littlefield, 2007 pp.41-66; p.41. The

Israeli Supreme Court ar, المحكمة العليا , image = Emblem of Israel dark blue full.svg , imagesize = 100px , caption = Emblem of Israel , motto = , established = , location = Givat Ram, Jerusalem , coordina ...

ruled in 2011 that Jews have no right to properties they possessed in places like Hebron and Tel Rumeida before 1948. 2012

Arab claims

According to the Abu Heikal family, they rented the land from Jordanian government's Custodian of Enemy Property. After 1967, a new lease was signed with Israeli government's Custodian of Absentee Property.'Israelis begin construction on new settlement in central Hebron'

Ma'an News Agency Ma'an News Agency (MNA; ar, وكالة معا الإخبارية) is a large wire service created in 2005 in the Palestinian territories. It is part of the Ma'an Network, a non-governmental organization media network created in 2002 in the Palest ...

5 January 2014. The Custodian refused to accept the Abu Heikal's rent payments in 1981, but, after an agreement was renegotiated in 2000, the back rent for 1981-2000 was reportedly paid up by the family, and fees were regularly accepted for the following 2 years, after which the land was declared a closed military zone, rent payments were rejected and the family was refused further access. The Abu Heikal's land is subject to increasing encroachment by settlers on the basis of an archaeological claim. Summer water delivery was secured by purchases frem the Hebron municipal water truck until frequent smashing of its windows by settlers forced the council to cancel the deliveries. Christian Peacemaker volunteers who tried to accompany the trucks were detained and received death threats. In 2005, an Israeli settler company with Jordanian registration, Tal Construction & Investments LTD, took over a 0.75 acre property, whose owners, the Bakri family, had been forced to move out of during the Second Intifada. The company produced documents to the effect that it had legally purchased the property, for $300,000, from a certain Hani Naji al-Batash who in turn claimed he had bought the property from the original owners. A police investigation that year determined that al-Batash had no rights to the area, and that the documents used for the sale transaction were forged. The Bakri family appealed through various Israeli legal venues, with a court recognizing that they had proven they had never sold the contested property, a verdict confirmed by the Israeli Supreme Court in 2014. The company appealed claims rights from Ottoman law and compensation, but in 2019 all settler claims were rejected. The Jerusalem District court rejected an appeal by the construction company, which was ordered to pay the Palestinian owners 579,600 shekels ($166,000) in usage fees. On appeal the sum was reduced by 80,000 shekels due to the settlers' improvements, while it was ruled that the Bakri family be paid 15,000 shekels for expenses incurred. The settlers were evicted.

Israeli settlement

The Ramat Yeshai settlement started in 1984, set up by settlers from Hebron who established 6 portable caravans at ''Deir Al Arba'een''. The initiative obtained official Israeli approval in 1998, and the Israel Defense Ministry gave the go-ahead for building 16 housing units on the site in 2001. Since then the land adjacent to the settlement is being incrementally taken over, notwithstanding stop-work orders handed down in judgements from the

.''OCCUPATION IN HEBRON,''

OCHA The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is a United Nations (UN) body established in December 1991 by the General Assembly to strengthen the international response to complex emergencies and natural disaster ...

March 2004, pp.12,18-19. Both the Abu Haikal and Abu Aisha families had saved and protected Jews from the slaughter of other Arabs during the

1929 Hebron massacre The Hebron massacre refers to the killing of sixty-seven or sixty-nine Jews on 24 August 1929 in Hebron, then part of Mandatory Palestine, by Arabs incited to violence by rumors that Jews were planning to seize control of the Temple Mount i ...

and the Israeli Interior Minister

Yosef Burg Shlomo Yosef Burg ( he, שלמה יוסף בורג, 31 January 1909 – 15 October 1999) was a German-born Israeli politician. In 1949, he was elected to the first Knesset, and served in many ministerial positions for the next 40 years. He was on ...

had, according to Abu Aisha, specifically asked settlers not to harm the Abu Aisha for this reason in the early 80s.'Jungle law' in Hebron

Gulf Daily News The ''Gulf Daily News'' (''GDN'') is an English-language local newspaper published in the Kingdom of Bahrain by Al Hilal Group. The paper, which is one of six daily newspapers in Bahrain, calls itself "The Voice of Bahrain". Al Hilal Group publi ...

, Bahrain 19 May 2006:'Abu Haikal's grandfather ran a grocery shop with a Jewish partner and lit the homes of Jewish neighbours on the Sabbath, which under Jewish law is considered work. During the 1929 riots, he personally shielded Jews from death."I used to ask my father why did you protect them? He told me we lived with the Jews and looked after each other as humans," says Hani, unable to quite understand how it could have changed in a generation.'Aryeh Daya
'Two Tales of One City,'
Haaretz 18 January 2007:'At the beginning of the 1980s, he relates, Dr. Yosef Burg, who was then interior minister, and whose wife was born in Hebron, visited the town. According to Abu Aisha, Burg "told the settlers that they must not harm the Abu Aisha family, because everyone knows that members of the family saved Jews. But Burg departed and left us with Baruch Marzel.’ According to Ehud Sprinzak, an Israeli counterterrorism specialist and expert in far-right Jewish groups, "a small number of very radical Jewish families" settled in the area in the mid-1980s. According to Muhammad Abu Aisha, relations with the original settlers were amicable until the arrival of two Kahanists, Baruch Marzel and Noam Federman who took up residence there. On Marzel's arrival at Tel Rumeida he began to promote the ultra-nationalist Kahanist ideology, outlawed by Israeli law. Settlers are said to purposefully provoke Palestinian residents: numerous testimonies of continuous harassment have been collected from several Palestinian families such as the Abu 'Aisha, the Shamsiyeh, whose 8-year-old daughter's hair was reportedly set alight by a settler, and the Azzeh. Peace activists stationed in the area report frequent threats or acts of settler stoning at both activists and local residents who venture there, or who try to work their lands. Palestinians cannot adequately defend themselves, because the

settlement Settlement may refer to: *Human settlement, a community where people live *Settlement (structural), the distortion or disruption of parts of a building * Closing (real estate), the final step in executing a real estate transaction *Settlement (fin ...

is defended by an entire company of the

Israeli Defense Force The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branch ...

.Ehud Sprinzak, 'Israel's Radical Right and the Countdown to Rabin's Assassination,' in Yoram Peri (ed.)
''The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin,''
Stanford University Press 2000 pp.104f. An English graffiti reading 'Gas the Arabs', said to be the handiwork of the

Jewish Defense League The Jewish Defense League (JDL) is a Jewish far-right religious-political organization in the United States and Canada, whose stated goal is to "protect Jews from antisemitism by whatever means necessary". It has been classified as "a right wi ...

, has been sprayed on one of the streets. Under

Yitzhak Rabin Yitzhak Rabin (; he, יִצְחָק רַבִּין, ; 1 March 1922 – 4 November 1995) was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–77, and from 1992 until h ...

, the Israeli government proposed closing down the settlement at Tel Rumeida after the

Cave of the Patriarchs massacre The Cave of the Patriarchs massacre, also known as the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre or the Hebron massacre, was a shooting massacre carried out by Baruch Goldstein, an American-Israeli extremist and member of the far-right Kach movement. On 25 F ...

. Far-right rabbis moved to block evacuation of the settlements by issuing an Halakhic ruling against removal of settlements in

Eretz Israel The Land of Israel () is the traditional Jewish name for an area of the Southern Levant. Related biblical, religious and historical English terms include the Land of Canaan, the Promised Land, the Holy Land, and Palestine (see also Isra ...

. The collective influence of the settlers and their Rabbis, in what one scholar has called, 'one of the most effective mobilization efforts in settler history,' persuaded Prime Minister Rabin to back down. The Dir al-Arba'in mosque, where Hebronite Palestinians had prayed until the mid-1990s, was declared a closed military zone, and converted into a synagogue, renamed by settlers ''Tomb of Ruth and Jesse'', and thenceforth all access to it by Muslims was forbidden ostensibly for security reasons. According to Karin Aggestam, attempts to convert the mosque into a Jewish shrine, including painting its door blue, are in violation of the Hebron Protocol, which committed both Israel and Palestine to preserving and protecting the historic character of the city without harm or changes. During the

Al-Aqsa Intifada The Second Intifada ( ar, الانتفاضة الثانية, ; he, האינתיפאדה השנייה, ), also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada ( ar, انتفاضة الأقصى, label=none, '), was a major Palestinian uprising against Israel ...

, the Jewish settlement came under regular fire from Palestinian militants. In 2005, violence against Palestinians in Hebron most frequently originated with the settlement at Tel Rumeida. The Abu Haikel family is reported to be harassed many times. Of the original 500 Palestinian families resident there, only 50 had remained after what

Gideon Levy Gideon Levy ( he, גדעון לוי; born 2 June 1953) is an Israeli journalist and author. Levy writes opinion pieces and a weekly column for the newspaper '' Haaretz'' that often focus on the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories ...

called a 'reign of terror'. Palestinian cars are torched. Long curfews, restrictions on Palestinian movements in the area, and the difficulty of sending children to school like the local Qurtuba (Cordoba) elementary school whose main entrance was sealed with razor wire by the IDF in 2002 and whose students are subject to settler stoning, have, according to one testimony, forced residents in the Palestinian neighbourhood to abandon their homes, and a grocery business and a small hospital to close. Palestinian vehicles are forbidden on Tel Rumeida's streets, and Arab residents can only move in the area on foot.'Ghost Town:Israel’s Separation Policy and Forced Eviction of Palestinians from the Center of Hebron,'

B'tselem B'Tselem ( he, בצלם, , " in the image of od) is a Jerusalem-based non-profit organization whose stated goals are to document human rights violations in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, combat any denial of the existence of su ...

May 2007 pp.15,19-20,23,25 Visits by the

International Committee of the Red Cross The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC; french: Comité international de la Croix-Rouge) is a humanitarian organization which is based in Geneva, Switzerland, and it is also a three-time Nobel Prize Laureate. State parties (signato ...

to check the conditions of Palestinian residents are met by vandalism of vehicles: the flags are stolen, and the emblems on cars damaged since apparently the symbol of the Christian cross is considered 'offensive' to Jewish settlers in the area.Peter Bouckaert
''Center of the Storm: A Case Study of Human Rights Abuses in Hebron District,''

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...

2001 pp.86,197. B'tselem has a project to provide Palestinians with videos to capture violence against them, and one of the best known videos in the series deals with the harassment Palestinian residents of Tel Rumeida are subject to. According to

David Dean Shulman David Dean Shulman (born January 13, 1949) is an Israeli Indologist, poet and peace activist, known for his work on the history of religion in South India, Indian poetics, Tamil Islam, Dravidian linguistics, and Carnatic music. Bilingual ...

, Palestinian residents have opened a ''Center for Sumud and Challenge,'' where the virtue of non-violent resistance and steadfast perseverance ( sumud) in the face of harassment is advocated. Situated close to Admot Yishai, the centre, run by Youth Against Settlements (YAS), was subject to an arson attempt in 2013.Marion Lecoquierre
'Bienvenue à Hébronland,'
Le monde diplomatique 10 December 2013. 2012

A Palestinian resident who refused lucrative offers for her home, has stated that settlers have used home-made napalm to poison their fields, continually burn their cars, and destroy their agricultural tools. In 2011, according to

Christian Peacemaker Teams Community Peacemaker Teams or CPT (previously called Christian Peacemaker Teams) is an international organization set up to support teams of peace workers in conflict areas around the world. The organization uses these teams to achieve its aims ...

, a further 16 trees from the Haikal's olive groves, some of them reputedly 1,000 years old, were destroyed by fire when settlers set them alight. Palestinian firefighter teams trying to extinguish the flames had their hoses confiscated, and replaced by older ones. Settlers reportedly uprooted roughly 100 olive-tree saplings planted with the help of a Jordanian NGO in the yard of a Palestinian school in Tel Rumeida. In 2012 an Israeli court ruled that settler claims to have purchased a house in Tel Rumedia in 2005, which had been abandoned by its owner Zechariah Bakri in 2001 when restrictions were imposed on Palestinian movements, were based on forgeries. The house, occupied by 6 settler families, was under a court order requiring them to evacuate it. At 6 a.m. on 6 November, Israeli forces occupied several Palestinian homes and the Beit Sumoud headquarters of the ''Youth Against Settlements'', detaining residents while declaring that their occupation of the dwellings would continue for 24 hours. Palestinian TV crews were reportedly prevented from documenting the incident. Subsequently, the 50 Palestinian families who refuse to leave Tel Rumeida were required to have ID cards permitting them to move in the area: no one else will be permitted to enter the zone. Subsequently, the IDs of Tel Rumeida and Shuhada Street were stamped with numbers, a practice which led to protests by Palestinians who stated 'Israel is the last place in the world that should give people numbers'. The measure, reportedly a local measure, was revoked when higher echelon commanders reviewed the practice. In late November 2015 Baruch Marzel led a settler assault, demanding the closure of the Beit Sumoud, and engaged in a sit-in occupying its seats, on 28 November. In July 2016 an attempt by local Tel Rumeida Gandhian-style peace activist Issa Amro, and Jawad Abu Aisha, the owner of an old factory to clean up the site and establish infrastructure for a cultural cinema project was blocked by soldiers. Amro had called on Jewish activists to help them, trusting that their presence and privilege would ensure them the few hours require to clear the area and set up a film center. Some 52 mainly diaspora activists, many from religious backgrounds, turned up. Settlers reportedly started tomatoes at them, and the army then detained 15 activists. Subsequently, a military closure was imposed on the site.

Peter Beinart Peter Alexander Beinart (; born February 28, 1971) is an American liberal columnist, journalist, and political commentator. A former editor of ''The New Republic'', he has also written for ''Time'', ''The New York Times'', and ''The New York Revie ...

'What I Saw Last Friday in Hebron,'
Haaretz 19 July 2016.

Fatal incidents

*On 1 July 1995 Ibrahim Khader Idreis (16), while on a visit from Jordan to Tel Rumeida relatives, after stepping outside to buy bread, was shot dead by Baruch Marzel and an IDF soldier. Palestinian residents say he had been ordered to stop by Marzel, and shot in the leg and chest when he didn't. A soldier nearby then shot him in the stomach. The IDF later claimed he had tried to stab the soldier, though no knife was ever produced. Marzel testified that he had acted after the boy threw a stone at him. *On 21 August 1998, Rabbi Shlomo Ra'anan, the grandson of

Abraham Isaac Kook Abraham Isaac Kook (; 7 September 1865 – 1 September 1935), known as Rav Kook, and also known by the acronym HaRaAYaH (), was an Orthodox rabbi, and the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of British Mandatory Palestine. He is considered to be one ...

and protégé of

Zvi Yehuda Kook Zvi Yehuda Kook ( he, צבי יהודה קוק, 23 April 1891 – 9 March 1982) was a prominent ultranationalist Orthodox rabbi. He was the son of Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak Hacohen Kook, the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of British Mandatory Pal ...

, was stabbed and killed by a

Hamas Hamas (, ; , ; an acronym of , "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam ...

operative in his trailer home at Tel Rumeida. The attacker then set the house on fire by throwing a

Molotov cocktail A Molotov cocktail (among several other names – ''see other names'') is a hand thrown incendiary weapon constructed from a frangible container filled with flammable substances equipped with a fuse (typically a glass bottle filled with fla ...

. The incident determined Prime Minister

Benjamin Netanyahu Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu (; ; born 21 October 1949) is an Israeli politician who served as the ninth prime minister of Israel from 1996 to 1999 and again from 2009 to 2021. He is currently serving as Leader of the Opposition and Chairman of ...

to approve construction in Tel Rumeida, which was premised on preliminary archaeological work. By the time the excavations had been completed, a different Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, was in power and refused to issue the necessary building permits. These were eventually forthcoming after the election of Ariel Sharon during the

.Jerold S. Auerbach
''Hebron Jews: Memory and Conflict in the Land of Israel,''
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2009 p.147. *On 21 October 2015, a local resident, physician Hashem al-Azzeh (54) was reportedly denied an ambulance while suffering from cardiac problems. On walking down to the ''Bab al-Zawiye'' checkpoint, he was forced to stop and breathed in tear-gas from local clashes, collapsed and died soon afterwards. His wife reportedly had suffered two miscarriages from settler attacks and a 9-year-old nephew had had his teeth smashed in by a rock thrown by a settler. *On 24 March 2016 a resident, shoemaker Imad Abu Shamsiya, was subject to a barrage of abuse and received threats after filming a video of fatally shooting a Palestinian, who had been lying wounded after stabbing an Israeli soldier, outside Abu Shamsiya's home in Tel Rumeida. An Israeli interrogator reportedly asked him to deny he had filmed the incident, and warned him of the danger he had placed himself among settlers for revealing his identity as the person who filmed the incident. His house was subject to a night-time raid by Israeli forces to check identity papers after Palestinian and international activists blockaded themselves inside after settlers reportedly threatened to burn it.

Itamar Ben-Gvir Itamar Ben-Gvir ( he, אִיתָמָר בֶּן גְּבִיר; born 6 May 1976) is an Israeli lawyer and politician, who serves as the Minister of National Security. He is additionally a member of the Knesset and leader of Otzma Yehudit. He h ...

and

Ben-Zion Gopstein Ben-Zion "Bentzi" Gophstein ( he, בן־ציון "בנצי" גופשטיין, born 10 September 1969) is a political activist affiliated with the far-right in Israel, a student of Meir Kahane, and founder and director of Lehava, an Israeli Jewish ...

later filed a complaint with police against Shamsiya claiming he had coordinated with the terrorists in order to get the incident on film. Elor Azariya, the soldier who executed the wounded Palestinian, testified at his trial that "Hebron is a really tense city. there is always a feeling of tension in the air, especially in Tel Rumeida, which is where there is the most friction between Palestinians and Jews anywhere in the world. It's a stressful place."

Foreign impressions

Nobel Prize winning novelist

Mario Vargas Llosa Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquess of Vargas Llosa (born 28 March 1936), more commonly known as Mario Vargas Llosa (, ), is a Peruvian novelist, journalist, essayist and former politician, who also holds Spanish citizenship. Vargas Ll ...

made a tour of Tel Rumeida in 2005, during which he chanced to meet the Israeli journalist

. He recorded his impressions first in the newspaper

El Pais EL, El or el may refer to: Religion * El (deity), a Semitic word for "God" People * EL (rapper) (born 1983), stage name of Elorm Adablah, a Ghanaian rapper and sound engineer * El DeBarge, music artist * El Franco Lee (1949–2016), American p ...

. What struck Llosa was the resilience of the 50 Palestinian families, out of 500, who had managed to remain in Tel Rumeida in the face of 'a ferocious, systematic persecution by settlers'. The latter:

throw stones at them, toss rubbish and excrement on their homes; organize raids to invade and devastate their houses, assault their children as the latter return from school while Israeli soldiers look on with total indifference. No one told me about this: I saw it all with my own eyes, heard it with my own ears from the mouths of the victims themselves. I possess a video which shows a hair-raising scene where the boys and girls of the Tel Rumeida settlement hurl stones and kick Arab students and their schoolmistresses at the local Cordoba school, who, to give each other protection, return to their houses in groups, never alone. When I spoke of these facts with my Israeli friends, some stared at me with incredulity and I noted in their eyes the suspicion that I was either exaggerating or lying, as novelists are wont to do. The fact of the matter is that none of them has ever been to Hebron or ever read Gideon Levy’s articles, someone whom they regard indeed as a typical example of the ‘Jew-hating and anti-Semitic’ Jew.

The American Jewish writer

described one joint Jewish-Palestinian attempt to create a small cinema on an abandoned Palestinian factory in Tel Rumeida. The venture was quickly blocked by an IDF order declaring the site a closed military zone and by the detention of several Jewish activists. Beinart drew an analogy between the work of the local activist Issa Amro and Bob Moses, likening their effort to that of American activists against racial segregation in

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

in 1964. He added that:

Why were we performing Kabbalat Shabbat? I can’t speak for everyone, but for me, it was partly to remind myself of who I am. I had spent the day working alongside Palestinians and being protected by them. I had spent the day fearing Jewish soldiers and police. It was a jarring experience. The normal order of things, as I had learned them since childhood, had been turned upside down. Welcoming Shabbat was a way of centering myself. It was a reminder that no matter how many people tell me I hate Judaism, the Jewish people and the Jewish state — no matter how many people tell me I hate myself — I know who I am. I know when I’m living in truth. And nothing feels more Jewish than that.

Beinart announced his intention of getting 500 Jews to join him in at the same area in 2017 to protest the 50th anniversary of the Israeli Occupation of the West Bank.

Excavation history

Excavations were carried out in the 1960s and in the 1980s at Tel Rumeida in an area where ownership is contested between Palestinian Arabs and Jews, and again in 2014.

American Expedition to Hebron (1960s)

During the period of Jordanian rule, excavations at the site were undertaken by Philip C. Hammond (1964-1966).K. Van Bekkum
''From Conquest to Coexistence: Ideology and Antiquarian Intent in the Historiography of Israel’s Settlement in Canaan,''
BRILL 2011 pp.520-524, sums up the results given by Hammond's student, Jeffrey Chadwick, in his 1992 doctoral dissertation - J.R. Chadwick, ''The Archaeology of Biblical Hebron in the Bronze and Iron Ages: An Examination of the Discoveries of the American Expedition to Hebron'', University of Utah 1992. The work is criticized as subpar by Jericke,pp
20
21

Judean Hill Country Expedition (1984–1986)

In the wake of Israel's capture of the West Bank in the

1967 Six Day War The Six-Day War (, ; ar, النكسة, , or ) or June War, also known as the 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab states (primarily Egypt, Syria, and Jordan) from 5 to 10 Ju ...

, and concomitant occopation, Israeli Prime Minister

authorized archaeological digs on Jewish lots, reportedly to preempt the expansion of settlements there, and these were conducted by the Judean Hill Country Expedition under Avi Ofer.

IAA and Ariel University (2014)

In 2014, after a lapse of over a decade, the

Israel Antiquities Authority The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA, he, רשות העתיקות ; ar, داﺌرة الآثار, before 1990, the Israel Department of Antiquities) is an independent Israeli governmental authority responsible for enforcing the 1978 Law of ...

(IAA) renewed excavations in the lots with attested Jewish ownership, which extends over a 6 dunam area.Nir Hasson
'Israeli Government Funding Dig in Palestinian Hebron, Near Jewish Enclave,'
Haaretz 9 January 2014 This third wave of excavation was undertaken above the settlement of Admot Yishai and between the Palestinian homes, with the intention of creating an archaeological parkland. The new excavations began as a result of a settler initiative, which had been turned down by several prominent Israeli archaeologists, but was accepted by Emanuel Eisenberg of the IAA and David Ben-Shlomo of

Ariel University Ariel University ( he, אוניברסיטת אריאל), previously a public college known as the Ariel University Center of Samaria, is an Israeli university located in the urban Israeli settlement of Ariel in the West Bank. The college preced ...

, in a project that secured state funding.Yifa Yaakov
State funding archaeological dig in heart of Hebron

The Times of Israel ''The Times of Israel'' is an Israeli multi-language online newspaper that was launched in 2012. It was co-founded by Israeli journalist David Horovitz, who is also the founding editor, and American billionaire investor Seth Klarman.

, 9 January 2014. In Lot 52, other than ancient walls and agricultural implements, Muslim tombs were uncovered, and removed from the site.'Update: The Archaeological Excavations in Tel Rumeida, Hebron,'
Emek Shaveh, April 2014. For

Eyal Weizman Eyal Weizman MBE FBA (born 1970) is a British Israeli architect. He is the director of the research agency Forensic Architecture at Goldsmiths, University of London where he is Professor of Spatial and Visual Cultures and a founding director t ...

, Tel Rumeida has become 'the most literal embodiment of the relationship of Israeli settlements to archaeology'.

Hollow Land: Israel's Architecture of Occupation
Verso Books, 2012 p.275 n.37. Archaeologist Yonathan Mizrachi argues that settler pressure to create an archaeological park in Tel Rumeida is a technique for taking over the terrain and asserting their power and legitimacy in the area.Megan Hanna
The dark role of archeology in the battle for Hebron's Tel Rumeida

, 29 November 2015. Dr. Ahmed Rjoub, the Palestinian Authority's director of the Department of Site Management, claims that the excavations have removed artifacts attesting to both the Roman and Islamic heritage.

Notable residents

* Baruch Marzel (born 1959), Israeli far-right politician and activist * Noam Federman (born 1969), Israeli far-right activist

References

{{coord, 31.524, 35.104, display=title, type:city_region:PS Populated places established in the 4th millennium BC Hebron Religious Israeli settlements Archaeological sites in the West Bank Chalcolithic sites of Asia