On Monday, the State informed the Israeli Supreme Court of their decision to expel the two Jewish families living in Beit Ezra. The expulsion is due to occur towards the end of April. That is, after the elections. Bibi Netanyahu isn’t interested in photos and videos of Jews being expelled from their homes in Hebron before the elections. It wouldn’t win him any mandates.
Following the 1967Six-Day War, past residents of the Old City in Jerusalem who had been expelled during the 1948War of Independence asked for, and were granted a meeting with then Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, to request permission to return to their homes and property in the Old City, confiscated and occupied by Jordan. Dayan consented, and, as a result, Jerusalem’s Jewish Quarter today flourishes.
Simultaneously, past Hebron inhabitants, who had been expelled in 1929, and again in 1936, requested a similar meeting with Dayan, in order to return to their homes in the recently liberated city of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs. Dayan refused to meet with them.
So I heard, years ago, from Hebron residents, some of whom no longer alive.
The story of Hebron’s Jewish property is a reason for heartache and chagrin. Hebron Jews lost most of their assets in their expulsion by the British following the 1929 riots. As I was told by a survivor of those riots: “My father wrote to the British High Commissioner and asked why the victims had been punished – why the Jews were expelled after being slaughtered. His answer: ‘I knew you couldn’t continue living together and being that there were more Arabs than Jews it was easier to expel the Jews.’”
The untainted authenticity of Jewish land ownership in Hebron is indisputable. The “Jewish Quarter,” presently known as the Avraham Avinu neighborhood, was originally populated by Karites some 1,000 years ago. This land was purchased from them by Rabbi Malchiel Ashkenazi, himself exiled to Turkey from Spain in 1492. In 1540 he bought that area from the Karites and moved, with a small community, to Hebron. This neighborhood existed until the 1929 riots, massacre and exile.
Five dunam (1.235 acres) of land adjacent to this place was purchased by Rabbi Chaim Bajaiyo for the community in 1807, from the Kashkol family in Hebron. This, too, remained in Jewish hands until 1929. In the early 1960s, this property was taken over and occupied by Hebron merchants, who built a retail and wholesale market at the site.
Yosef Ezra is a ninth generation Hebronite. He and his father, Ya’akov Ezra, were the last Jews to leave Hebron, after the Nov. 29, 1947 UN decision to partition Eretz Israel. His father, who worked closely with Arabs, produced cheese and other dairy products. He worked in Hebron during the week and spent Shabbat with his family in Jerusalem, until November, 1947, when Hebron’s Arabs told him not to return to this holy city.
The Ezra property, within the boundaries of these two areas, was stolen, according to Yossi Ezra, by the Awawi family, who had worked with his father. Then 15, Yosef Ezra still remembers this family, who worked for his father, grazing sheep.
Presently, there is no doubt whatsoever that this is Jewish land, and that there are no real, justifiable, legal Arab claims on this property. However, the State Attorney General’s office has decided that Arabs who lived on this land which they had stolen from Jews have “protected resident status” and refuses to allow Hebron’s Jewish community to utilize the property. This despite a ruling by an Israeli military judicial panel of three judges which concluded that there is a firm legal basis to allow the Hebron Jewish Community to use the land.
The state’s decision expressed the possibility that the property will be made available to Hebron’s Jewish community, after the families have been expelled.
We’ve been through this before. Back in January, 2006 the Israeli government made a similar promise, whereby, after the voluntary exit of homes in “Mitzpe Shalhevet,” other families would be allowed back in, with full permission and government permits. This offer was made with the knowledge and consent of the defense and prime ministers. After all the families had moved out, Attorney General Manny Mazuz killed the deal. We were left with nothing.