Israel Matzav

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Last survivor of Hebron massacre passed away

Shlomo Slonim is no longer with us in this world. He has gone to join his family in the next world.

Post by World Zionist Organization - Israel.

I posted an interview with Slonim here.

UPDATE 4:09 PM

Unfortunately, YouTube removed that video.

Labels: 1929 Hebron massacre

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Jews not allowed at Jewish sites in Hebron

Oh my.... (Hat Tip: Reuth B).

Labels: 1929 Hebron massacre, Hebron, Hebron yeshiva

Tuesday, December 03, 2013

Synagogue or yeshiva?

I found this picture on Facebook, and as you can see it says that it's a picture of a synagogue from 1911. While the political message is 100% correct, the caption might not be - I can't really tell. You see, the official name of what is now known as the Hebron yeshiva (two branches - Jerusalem and Kiryat Sefer) is Knesset Yisrael. The yeshiva moved to Jerusalem after the massacre there in 1929.

Is this a synagogue or is it the yeshiva building?

More than intellectual interest: My Great Grandfather studied in the yeshiva when it was located in Slobodka (Lithuania) about 120 years ago.

Comments appreciated.

UPDATE WEDNESDAY 12:29 AM

I was right. It's the yeshiva (Hat Tip: YYW).

Labels: 1929 Hebron massacre, Hebron, Hebron yeshiva, Yeshiva

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

WaPo belittles the Jews of Hebron

Leo Rennert takes the Washington Post to task for belittling the Jews of Hebron.

The Post's correspondents then proceed to opine that Hebron is among "Jewish settlements in the West Bank that are considered by Palestinians and much of the world to be illegal under international law." In other worlds, Jews don't belong in Hebron. Out with Jews -- they have no business settling and living in Hebron ("Troops deaths put strain on Mideast peace talks," page A7, Sept. 23).

Unfortunately, this description of the Jewish presence in Hebron leaves much to be desired. There's far more to Hebron's history and religious importance.

So let's fill in the empty blanks left by the Post:

- Hebron is one of Judaism's four holy cities. The other three are Jerusalem, Safed, and Tiberias.

- Hebron is also the oldest Jewish community in the world.

- While the article acknowledges Abraham's purchase of the Cave of Machpelah, it fails to point out that this is the burial site of the Jewish patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the matriarchs Sarah, Rebecca, and Leah. In contrast, Muslims can claim only a single tie to the Tomb: Abraham. After Abraham, the generational family tree divides between the next Jewish patriarch, Isaac, and the separate forbear, Ismael, who is not Jewish and not buried in Hebron. Jews have much greater biblical claims to Hebron than Muslims. By a margin of 6 to 1. Giving them equal status with Jews doesn't tally with the Book of Genesis.

- Hebron's Jewish renown also includes the crowning of King David and his seven-year reign in Hebron before moving to Jerusalem.

- Jews lived in Hebron almost continuously for a thousand years throughout the Byzantine, Arab, Mameluke, and Ottoman periods.

- Only in 1929, when an Arab pogrom murdered 67 Jews, did Hebron become Judenrein, but even then for only a relatively short period.

Isn't it astounding how the foreign mainstream media manages to ignore anything that happened before 1948? I wonder where they got that idea.

Labels: 1929 Hebron massacre, anti-Israel media bias, Hebron, mainstream media, War of Independence, Washington Post

Monday, April 09, 2012

If there are no Jews in Hebron, no Jews will pray at the Machpeila cave

From 1929-67, Jews were barred from praying in the Machpeila Cave, because the Arabs controlled Hebron and the Jews had been expelled by the British Mandate. Since 1967, Israel has controlled Hebron and the Machpeila Cave and has guaranteed access to all. On a certain number of days of the year, the Cave is given over exclusively to Jews or exclusively to Muslims. Some of the Intermediate Days (Chol HaMoed) of Passover are included among the days on which Jews only are permitted in the Cave.

As part of the so-called 'peace process,' the Arabs wish to regain control of Hebron and the Cave. What would happen if that happened? Would Jews be allowed to pray in the Machpeila Cave? Consider how the 'Palestinian' media reports on the "Jewish only" days at the Machpeila Cave:

Zeid Al-Jabari,the director of Al-Khalil Waqf, said that the Israeli occupation forces informed the Waqf department of its intention to close the Ibrahimi Mosque to Muslim worshipers this morning and tomorrow and opened all its corridors and courtyards to Israeli settlers to enable their celebration of the Passover.

Jabari stated that the occupation's decision "actually has begun since Saturday evening, where they prevented Muslims from performing the dawn prayer". This ban will continue until Monday evening, which means the Muslims will be banned from performing ten prayers in the Mosque.

Jabari added that during these two days the Mosque will be desecrated by the settlers, corrupting everything in the Mosque and causing a real damage. He pointed out that The IOA closes down the Ibrahimi Mosque before Muslims for ten days per year in accordance to the so-called Shamgar Commission that divided the Mosque and allowed Jews to access it, the commission was formed after the massacre at the Mosque in 1994 in which an armed Jewish settler killed 29 Palestinians while praying.

Jabari condemned the Israeli government’s arrogant measures and closure of the mosque, affirming that the Ibrahimi Mosque is only for Muslims and it will be forever.

If God forbid the Arabs had control of the Cave, does anyone really believe that Jews would be granted access at all?

More from Aaron Lerner here.

Those who want to remove the Jewish civilian presence in Hebron have to have the intellectual honesty to admit that what they are really saying is that retreating from Hebron is more important to them than preserving the right for Jews to pray there.

If they want to argue this position that's their business.

But they have to be honest about it.

Just as they have to be honest that schemes for insuring Jewish access to holy places in Jerusalem under non-Israeli control are more wishful thinking than reality.

Again. They can advocate hard choices. But they have to admit just how hard they really are.

Indeed. Look at Jewish access to Joseph's tomb in Shchem and to the Shalom al-Yisrael synagogue in Jericho. It's almost non-existent.

Labels: 1929 Hebron massacre, Hebron, Machpeila cave, Pesach

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Lies, lies and more lies

The 'Palestinian' representative to the United States, Maen Areikat, has an op-ed in the Washington Post. It starts with the lie that the 'Palestinians' lived in Israel under occupation before the Cananites(!) and it goes downhill from there.

We lived under the rule of a plethora of empires: the Canaanites, Egyptians, Philistines, Israelites, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Crusaders, Mongols, Ottomans and, finally, the British. This has made our region rich in history, culture and heritage. Indeed, if our olive trees could speak — some are centuries old — they would have a lot to say.

This makes us very proud and appreciative of our special place in this world. That is why we are so attached to our land and to our identity. I can’t think of a place that is quite like it. Yes, it is tumultuous, incomprehensible and, at times, very dangerous, but for us it is home. Centuries of rule by an eclectic assortment have taught us that empires come and go but legacies and values remain. We proudly carry those values today. Family is sacred, education is indispensable, and religious tolerance is innate. The fact that we outlived these empires is a testament to our resilience and strength.

Notice how he doesn't count Jordan as an occupying power (which they clearly were under international law), and therefore he speaks of their 'religious tolerance' without mentioning the facts that every Jewish synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem was destroyed by the Jordanians,that the gravestones of the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives were used as latrines and paving for a hotel by the Jordanians, and that Jews were denied access to our Holy sites during the 19 years that the Jordanians controlled the Old City of Jerusalem. Some 'religious tolerance.' And that's without even considering the steep decline in the Christian population in Judea and Samaria since the 'Palestinian Authority' came to power there in 1994.

Before World War II, Palestinians and Jews living in Palestine enjoyed times of great harmony. My grandfather shared a bakery shop with a Jewish partner, Aaron, in Jerusalem’s Bak’a Tahta neighborhood. My mother told me stories of the period of peace and tranquillity they enjoyed with Jews during this time. That period ended in 1948, however, and a conflict began. The result was our subjugation to the rule of others and more than half of our people being dispossessed. It was a traumatic experience. It triggered our characteristic defense mechanism, which has stood the test of time — stout perseverance and a faith in the manifest destiny of those who uphold their values in the face of oppression.

Great harmony. Especially during the Hebron massacre in 1929, the riots in Jerusalem in 1936-39, the war on the Jews that five Arab countries declared as soon as the nascent Jewish state was born. The conflict didn't begin in 1948 and it didn't just begin by itself.

I won't bother with the rest of his drivel. Shame on the Washington Post for allowing an opinion writer to reinvent facts.

Labels: 1929 Hebron massacre, 1930's, Jerusalem, Palestinian people, War of Independence

Thursday, October 06, 2011

'Palestinians' offended over AP fact check

The 'Palestinians' are offended that al-AP actually had the audacity to check some of the facts in Abu Mazen's UN General Assembly speech.

However, the Associated Press has decided not only to provide news but also its own opinions and terminology, thus misrepresenting its own reported news and adopting the discourse of one of the parties to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict; that of the occupier. We the Palestinians have been greatly disappointed about AP regarding several news reports, including their last “fact check” or opinion piece on the historic speech delivered by president Mahmoud Abbas at the United Nations.

It is greatly unfair and undemocratic for AP in its capacity as a news agency to distribute its commentaries, ideas, and erroneous fact checks, while it refuses to allow rebuttal through the same channel. Respectable news agencies in a democratic and transparent mode of behavior are accountable to the public. They cannot be beyond accountability. If they misquote, disseminate erroneous news, or editorialize, they must allow correction, apologies, and provision of equal space for rebuttal.

And what did the AP find and say that so offended the 'Palestinians'?

The Associated Press opinion piece questioned the historic speech of President Abbas. We believe that the so-called fact checks raised by AP are mostly ideological and not factual. AP adopts the Israeli language, and misinterpretation of facts. Some of the responses to President Abbas' speech were:

-- In response to “we are the last people living under occupation”, AP says “The world is full of ethnic minorities that might claim to be ruled by occupiers, ranging from Tibetans living under Chinese rule, to Kurds in Turkey, Basques in Spain, Chechens in Russia and Muslim separatists in Indian-ruled Kashmir.”

Our case cannot be compared to any of those (honoring the legitimacy that every people have). We are not an “ethnic minority” aiming to separate from a bigger country that we have been part of for centuries. We are the indigenous population of this land that has been colonized by illegal foreign occupiers. In 1917, we were colonized by Britain, which helped deliver 78 percent of our land to the Israelis in 1948, who in 1967 occupied the rest of our country i.e. the West Bank and Gaza. It is not up to a news agency to decide who we are; the world has already accepted the fact that we have been living under colonial rule for the past decades.[No they're not an ethnic minority, but they're not indigenous either. CiJ].

-- In response to a reference of Palestinian prisoners being prisoners of conscience and struggle for freedom, AP says “Abbas did not mention that most Palestinian prisoners are being held because of alleged involvement in violence against Israelis. Israel's prison service says it's holding some 6,000 "security" prisoners, many of them involved in planning or carrying out deadly attacks on civilians.”

With this response, AP has officially recognized the legitimacy of Israeli military tribunals over Palestinian civilians. International law is clear, civilian prisoners deserve a fair trial that cannot be guaranteed by the State of Israel, the occupying power. Military prisoners should be treated as prisoners of war, under the Geneva conventions. AP omits that since the Israeli occupation began in 1967, almost 900,000 Palestinians have been detained by Israeli forces. One wonders if you think that the majority has been involved in what Israel calls "security" offenses. Under Israeli military laws, the Israeli army can detain any Palestinian without any justification. Thousands were imprisoned under "administrative detention" regulations requiring no declared pretext, or legal reasons. AP accepted unquestionably the Israeli claim. [So is a 'Palestinian' suicide bomber in civilians clothes military or civilian? And who is responsible for blurring the distinction? CiJ]

-- AP criticized President Abbas for not stating the ties of the Jewish religion with the Holy Land.

This statement is purely ideological. President Abbas was representing the rights of his people. Palestine shows great respect for all peoples and religions that have passed though Palestine, including Assyrians, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. [But not Jews who have had a continuous presence in what he calls 'Palestine' for 3,000 years. CiJ].

To blame President Abbas for not explicitly stating the Jewish connection with the Holy Land is for AP to officially adopt the Israeli position and to impose it on its readers. [No news agency can impose anything on its readers. You are always free to question, although in the 'Palestinian Authority' and in most other Arab and Muslim countries, you may not, or you may be restricted in doing so openly. CiJ] President Abbas did not say that Palestine is exclusively for the followers of Christianity or Islam, whereas Mr Netanyahu wants Israel to be exclusively for the Jews, thus jeopardizing the rights and future of 1.5 million citizens, comprising 22 percent of the population of Israel, all of whom are indigenous native Christian and Muslim citizens and not settlers imposed by the force of military occupation on their land. [No, they are not indigenous. If anything, the Jewish claim to the land goes back far before any Christian or Muslim claim - or even existence. And by the way, why does Israel have to accept Arab citizens - which it said it would do - if the 'Palestinians' insist that 'Palestine' be Judenrein. CiJ]

-- In response to the reference made regarding the Gaza Strip and President Abbas' condemnation of Israel for committing war crimes against the civilian population of Gaza, AP considers that Hamas' actions ends Gaza's relationship with Palestine, giving Israel the right to kill 1,400 of its civilians, injuring 50,000, many with phosphorus bombs, and destroying 20 percent of its homes. [Huh? And by the way, about 1,100 of those killed were proven to be Hamas militia. If you think that 300 civilian casualties (at most) out of 1,400 is a high percentage, check those statistics against US-caused civilians deaths in Iraq or NATO-caused civilian deaths in Bosnia, among others. CiJ] AP disqualifies President Abbas from condemning the Israeli actions deemed as war crimes by the UN, and its investigating committee led by Richard Goldstone. [Except that Goldstone recanted.... CiJ]

-- AP says that “The Palestinians did not accept two Israeli peace offers, in 2000 and 2008, that offered them a state in the vast majority of the territories they claim. Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has repeatedly offered to launch negotiations -- but refused to accept minimum outlines of a peace deal endorsed by the Palestinians and the international community. He has also not met the Palestinian condition of a settlement freeze for the duration of the talks.”

AP once again has adopted the official Israeli line of blaming the Palestinian side for not accepting to sign these Israeli "peace offers" requiring the Palestinians to accept a state without international borders, no control over air space, electromagnetic sphere, natural resources nor access to our capital Jerusalem as well as no solution to the Palestinian refugee issue. AP fails to mention the countless Palestinian attempts to have meaningful negotiations, the Palestinian Peace Proposal of 1988, the Arab Peace Plan of 2002, and all the other proposals made by the Palestinian side. Regarding the 2008 offer, we point out that AP failed to mention that Mr Olmert, the former Israeli prime minister, refused to continue the negotiations because of his war on Gaza and later on for his Israeli legal problems. When Mr Netanyahu spent 19 hours negotiating with President Abbas during the month of September, 2010 shuttling between Washington, Sharm el-Sheikh and Jerusalem, he refused to negotiate any of the major six core points, which outline all our joint negotiating effort, insisting that he had no mandate to do so until President Abbas accepts his two preconditions:

1. Accepting the exclusive Jewish character of Israel and

2. Accepting Netanyahu's defense doctrine of maintaining indefinitely the Israeli occupation of the Jordan Valley, and territories 10 kilometers deep into the western borders of the West Bank.[Please.... When I searched 'Palestinian peace proposal of 1988, the first result I found was this. And as to the Saudi plan, it basically says, "give us all the land, let us flood what's left with 'refugees' and then we'll talk." Some peace plan. There's never been a real 'Palestinian' peace plan and there's never been a 'Palestinian' response to an Israeli one. CiJ].

-- AP also claims that the settlement freeze is a Palestinian precondition to negotiate, while in reality it is an Israeli obligation according to the Road Map, the same way that East Jerusalem is not “disputed” but internationally recognized as occupied (another regular misrepresentation made by AP reporting). [AFTER the 'Palestinians' shut down all the terror organizations. We're still waiting on that one. CiJ]

AP’s so-called fact check continues this line of argument by stating: “Israel might argue — as Netanyahu did in his rebuttal Friday — that Arab enmity to Israel long preceded the settlement of lands occupied in 1967".

AP thus completely misrepresents the history of Palestine. The two-state solution, adopted officially by the PLO in 1988, has been the greatest step to peace. However, allowing Israel to continue its colonial settlement project in the occupied Palestinian territory is illegal, unfair, and makes the two-state solution impossible to implement. President Mahmoud Abbas was also clear that the injustice against the Palestinian people began with our exile in 1948 rather than only with the 1967 occupation. The catastrophe of the 1948 Nakba and forced transfer of our refugees has been unveiled by Israel's own prominent historians such as Benny Morris, and recognized by the Israeli negotiating paper on refugees in Taba, 2001. We would like to ask the so called "fact-checkers" how this Netanyahu false interpretation of history makes settlements legal, and its continuation acceptable, despite international rulings, and the Road Map. [He's changing the subject. Hebron 1929. The 1936-38 riots. The Peel Commission. Let's just revise history. CiJ]

Last but not least, AP omits to say that Israel is the only country in the United Nations whose acceptance as a member was conditional to the respect of two UN resolutions: 181 (two states) and 194 (right to return). Israel has not implemented any of these requirements. [Three no's of Khartoum anyone? In any event, they weren't requirements and Israel was accepted to the UN by the General Assembly (Resolution 273 (III)) and the Security Council (Resolution 69) and not by 181 or 194. CiJ].

Sorry not many links in this one. If you put in the comments that you want to see them, I will try to find them, but all of these things have been discussed here before. Click the labels.

Labels: 1929 Hebron massacre, 1947 partition plan, fourteen reservations, Peel Commission, Three no's of Khartoum, UN General Assembly Resolution 273(III), UN Security Council Resolution 69

Friday, August 19, 2011

82 years since Hebron massacre

I wanted to get this in earlier today, but there has been way too much to report.

The arabs want to convince the world the Israelis and Jews are the aggressors and killers, while at the same time trying to cause the world to forget the first massacre, a massacre they committed against Jews, while trying to make people forget that over one million jews were forced to flee arab and muslim lands to save themselves....many died but thanks to G-d many fled and survived.

The video you are about to watch documents events that took place on the 18th day of the Jewish month of Av in 5789 (1929), 82 years ago today.

Let's go to the videotape.

Labels: 1929 Hebron massacre

Wednesday, June 01, 2011

Michael Totten visits Hebron

It took him a while to write about it, but Michael Totten visited Hebron when he was in Israel last summer, and he's now written about it.

Everyone on the street could plainly see Eve’s Israeli license plates, and the posture from some of the young men walking by was palpably hostile.

Most communication between humans is non-verbal. It’s conveyed through body language and is the same across cultures. I wasn’t imagining the hatred directed at me from some of the Palestinian men on that road. It was obvious.

I am not paranoid around Arabs, not after having lived in an Arab country. Nor am I paranoid around Palestinians. I’ve met too many to count in Israel and was never once stared at in a hostile manner in Ramallah, perhaps because it was obvious, at least to some, that I was American and not Israeli, at least while I was walking around and talking to people. On my way into Hebron, however, no one could have known that I was American. Thanks to the plates on Eve’s car and the glass between me and them, they naturally assumed I was Israeli. And I felt their hatred as though it were heat.

Just a few weeks after I left, several Israeli civilians in a car much like Eve’s—including a pregnant woman—were shot to death on that very road by Palestinian gunmen.

...

“That’s certainly a primary reason,” David [Wilder] said. “Hebron is the first Jewish city in Israel. This is where Abraham came 3700 years ago. He lived here. All the patriarchs and matriarchs lived here. King David started the Kingdom of Israel here before he went up to Jerusalem. And with very few exceptions, Jews have always been living here. The last time there were no Jews here before the riots in 1929 was back in 1100 when the Crusaders threw all the Jews out and replaced them with Christians. The Christians have since been replaced with Arabs. But otherwise there were always Jews here. This community is part of a chain that goes all the way back to the beginning of Judaism.”

...

“Do you have any contact at all with the Palestinians here?” I said.

“Today?” David said. “Virtually none. There used to be contact. Relations between Jews and Arabs used to be good. Most relationships were positive. But in 1929, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Mohammad Amin al-Husayni, began inciting the Arabs. The Jews here were warned to gather weapons for self-defense, but they said no, the Arabs are our friends, they will protect us. They protected us in 1921, and the Jews here were sure they’d be protected again. So they didn’t take up weapons. And they were defenseless.”

...

“If you’re afraid you can’t live here,” David said, “but Jews in Israel are targeted no matter where they live. I know who lives around us, and I know what they’ve done. I’ve seen it. I’ve seen it many times. Somebody put a teddy bear out here in the market that had wires sticking out of it. It was a bomb. They were hoping one of our kids would pick it up. So the army closed the market.”

He took me around the corner and showed me a destroyed home that Israelis recently occupied before the army threw them out.

“When we came back in 1967,” David said, “there was nothing here. Everything was destroyed. More recently we asked if we could move into empty buildings that were old Jewish property. The government, of course, wouldn’t let us. But after the baby was killed by a sniper, we moved in anyway. We put some apartments in here. And after five years the army evicted us. A year later two families who didn’t have anywhere else to go moved back in, one here and one at the other end. After they were discovered, the government sent hundreds of Israeli soldiers in to pull them out. The soldiers came in with sledgehammers and destroyed everything.”

Nobody gets to live in that building, not Jews and not Arabs, so the building is wasted and ruined. An entire swath of the old city is like this. Hebron would be a beautiful place if everyone could live together peaceably like they do elsewhere, but they can’t, so it’s not.

“These buildings,” he said, “without any doubt, belong to us. The courts accept that. But they won’t let us use the buildings because then there would be more Jewish families here. Some people don’t think we shouldn’t be here in the first place, so they certainly won’t let us grow. Palestinians have 97 percent of this city. They can build whatever they want wherever they want, but we’re not allowed to build anything.”

“There are, what, 800 Jews here?” I said. “And as many, if not more, Israeli soldiers? Why are there so many soldiers protecting so few people?

“It’s true that they’re here to protect us,” he said. “They’re also here to protect you and the other visitors. The main reason they’re here, though, isn’t to patrol this area, but to patrol the other side of the city. They go over there and arrest terrorists before they can blow themselves up in Jerusalem. They’re protecting the entire country and making sure Hamas doesn’t take over the area. If the Israeli army wasn’t doing that, Hamas would have taken over a long time ago. And everyone knows it.”

He took me to a memorial for the victims of the 1929 massacre. Sixty seven of Hebron’s Jews were killed in late August that year. Houses and synagogues were vandalized. Hundreds, though, were saved by Arabs who not only refused to participate, but hid would-be victims from their rampaging neighbors in their own houses.

“The killers did horrible things to people,” David said. “They castrated men. An Arab working at a bakery put his Jewish boss into the oven and baked him. They cut off women’s breasts and horribly raped them. These are the easy pictures to look at.”

...

Human life is surely more important than property and the right to move freely, but security here comes at a terrible cost to the city in the absence of peace and civil relations. What the Israeli military calls the “sterile zone” was once a vibrant ancient city. Today, it looks like a ghost town, as though everyone had been driven out by a violent catastrophe, which is pretty close to what happened. These streets are in Hebron’s old city, a part of town that would overflow with thousands of tourists and pilgrims from all over the world if it weren’t a slum made hideous by hatred and war.