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Hebron
31°31′43″N 35°05′49″E / 31.52861°N 35.09694°E
Hebron is a city in the southern West Bank, Palestine, and the capital of the Hebron Governorate, which is the largest in the West Bank. It is located 30 kilometers (19 mi) south of Jerusalem. The population inside in the city limits is 201,063, while the adjacent metropolitan area within the governorate is home to over 700,000 people. Hebron spans across an area of 74.1 square kilometers (28.6 sq mi). It is the third largest city in the country after Gaza and East Jerusalem. The city is often considered one of the Four Holy Cities in Judaism, as well as in Christianity and Islam.
It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the Levant. According to the Bible, Abraham settled in Hebron and bought the Cave of the Patriarchs as burial place for his wife Sarah. Biblical tradition holds that the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, along with their wives Sarah, Rebecca, and Leah, were buried in the cave. The city is also recognized in the Bible as the place where David was anointed king of Israel. Following the Babylonian captivity, the Edomites settled in Hebron. During the first century BCE, Herod the Great built the wall that still surrounds the Cave of the Patriarchs, which later became a church, and then a mosque. With the exception of a brief Crusader control, successive Muslim dynasties ruled Hebron from the 7th century CE until the Ottoman Empire's dissolution following World War I, when the city became part of British Mandatory Palestine.
The 1929 Hebron massacre of nearly 70 Jews and the Arab uprising of 1936–39 led the British government to evacuate the Jewish community from Hebron. The 1948 Arab–Israeli War saw the entire West Bank, including Hebron, occupied and annexed by Jordan, and since the 1967 Six-Day War, the city has been under Israeli control. Following Israeli occupation, Jewish presence was restored in the city. Since the 1997 Hebron Protocol, most of Hebron has been governed by the Palestinian National Authority. The city is often described as a "microcosm" of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the Israeli occupation of the West Bank. The 1997 protocol divided the city into two sectors—H1 Hebron, governed by the Palestinian National Authority, and H2 Hebron, occupied by Israeli authorities. All security arrangements and travel permits for local residents are coordinated between the Palestinian Authority and Israel via the COGAT. The Jewish settlers have their own governing municipal body, the Committee of the Jewish Community of Hebron.
The largest city in the southern West Bank, Hebron is a chief commercial and industrial center in the region. It is a busy hub of trade, generating roughly a third of the area's GDP, largely due to the sale of limestone from quarries in its area. Hebron has a local reputation for its grapes, figs, ceramics, plastics, pottery workshops, metalworking and glassblowing industry. The city is home to numerous shopping malls. The Old City of Hebron features narrow, winding streets, flat-roofed stone houses, and old bazaars. It is recognized as a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO. Hebron is also known as a regional educational and medical hub.
The name Hebron appears to trace back to two northwest Semitic languages, which coalesce in the form ḥbr, having reflexes in Hebrew and Amorite, with a basic sense of 'unite' and connoting a range of meanings from 'colleague' to 'friend'. In the proper name Hebron, the original sense may have been 'alliance'.
The Arabic name for Hebron, al-Khalīl, emerged as the city's actual name in the 13th century. Earlier Muslim sources refer to the city as Ḥabra (حبرة) or Ḥabrūn (حبرون). The name al-Khalīl derives from the Qur'anic epithet for Abraham, Khalīl al-Raḥmān, i.e. 'Beloved of the Merciful' or 'Friend of God'. Arabic Al-Khalīl thus precisely translates the ancient Hebrew toponym Ḥeḇrōn, understood as ḥaḇēr ('friend').
Archaeological excavations reveal traces of strong fortifications dated to the Early Bronze Age, covering some 24–30 dunams centered around Tel Rumeida. The city flourished in the 17th–18th centuries BCE before being destroyed by fire, and was resettled in the late Middle Bronze Age. This older Hebron was originally a Canaanite royal city. Abrahamic legend associates the city with the Hittites.[clarification needed] It has been conjectured that Hebron might have been the capital of Shuwardata of Gath, an Indo-European contemporary of Jerusalem's regent, Abdi-Ḫeba, although the Hebron hills were almost devoid of settlements in the Late Bronze Age.
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Hebron
31°31′43″N 35°05′49″E / 31.52861°N 35.09694°E
Hebron is a city in the southern West Bank, Palestine, and the capital of the Hebron Governorate, which is the largest in the West Bank. It is located 30 kilometers (19 mi) south of Jerusalem. The population inside in the city limits is 201,063, while the adjacent metropolitan area within the governorate is home to over 700,000 people. Hebron spans across an area of 74.1 square kilometers (28.6 sq mi). It is the third largest city in the country after Gaza and East Jerusalem. The city is often considered one of the Four Holy Cities in Judaism, as well as in Christianity and Islam.
It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the Levant. According to the Bible, Abraham settled in Hebron and bought the Cave of the Patriarchs as burial place for his wife Sarah. Biblical tradition holds that the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, along with their wives Sarah, Rebecca, and Leah, were buried in the cave. The city is also recognized in the Bible as the place where David was anointed king of Israel. Following the Babylonian captivity, the Edomites settled in Hebron. During the first century BCE, Herod the Great built the wall that still surrounds the Cave of the Patriarchs, which later became a church, and then a mosque. With the exception of a brief Crusader control, successive Muslim dynasties ruled Hebron from the 7th century CE until the Ottoman Empire's dissolution following World War I, when the city became part of British Mandatory Palestine.
The 1929 Hebron massacre of nearly 70 Jews and the Arab uprising of 1936–39 led the British government to evacuate the Jewish community from Hebron. The 1948 Arab–Israeli War saw the entire West Bank, including Hebron, occupied and annexed by Jordan, and since the 1967 Six-Day War, the city has been under Israeli control. Following Israeli occupation, Jewish presence was restored in the city. Since the 1997 Hebron Protocol, most of Hebron has been governed by the Palestinian National Authority. The city is often described as a "microcosm" of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the Israeli occupation of the West Bank. The 1997 protocol divided the city into two sectors—H1 Hebron, governed by the Palestinian National Authority, and H2 Hebron, occupied by Israeli authorities. All security arrangements and travel permits for local residents are coordinated between the Palestinian Authority and Israel via the COGAT. The Jewish settlers have their own governing municipal body, the Committee of the Jewish Community of Hebron.
The largest city in the southern West Bank, Hebron is a chief commercial and industrial center in the region. It is a busy hub of trade, generating roughly a third of the area's GDP, largely due to the sale of limestone from quarries in its area. Hebron has a local reputation for its grapes, figs, ceramics, plastics, pottery workshops, metalworking and glassblowing industry. The city is home to numerous shopping malls. The Old City of Hebron features narrow, winding streets, flat-roofed stone houses, and old bazaars. It is recognized as a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO. Hebron is also known as a regional educational and medical hub.
The name Hebron appears to trace back to two northwest Semitic languages, which coalesce in the form ḥbr, having reflexes in Hebrew and Amorite, with a basic sense of 'unite' and connoting a range of meanings from 'colleague' to 'friend'. In the proper name Hebron, the original sense may have been 'alliance'.
The Arabic name for Hebron, al-Khalīl, emerged as the city's actual name in the 13th century. Earlier Muslim sources refer to the city as Ḥabra (حبرة) or Ḥabrūn (حبرون). The name al-Khalīl derives from the Qur'anic epithet for Abraham, Khalīl al-Raḥmān, i.e. 'Beloved of the Merciful' or 'Friend of God'. Arabic Al-Khalīl thus precisely translates the ancient Hebrew toponym Ḥeḇrōn, understood as ḥaḇēr ('friend').
Archaeological excavations reveal traces of strong fortifications dated to the Early Bronze Age, covering some 24–30 dunams centered around Tel Rumeida. The city flourished in the 17th–18th centuries BCE before being destroyed by fire, and was resettled in the late Middle Bronze Age. This older Hebron was originally a Canaanite royal city. Abrahamic legend associates the city with the Hittites.[clarification needed] It has been conjectured that Hebron might have been the capital of Shuwardata of Gath, an Indo-European contemporary of Jerusalem's regent, Abdi-Ḫeba, although the Hebron hills were almost devoid of settlements in the Late Bronze Age.
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