Tel Rumeida
Tel Rumeida (Hebrew: תל רומיידה) is an archaeological tell in the West Bank believed to be the location of biblical Hebron.[1] It is also the location of an Israeli settlement.[2]
Archaeology
The occupational sequence at Tell Rumeida is very similar to Jerusalem. During the Early Bronze III and Middle Bronze II periods, there was a fortified city at the site. No Late Bronze Age, Iron Age I or IIA cities have been found there. Above the EBIII and MBII fortified city are 8th century BCE four room houses. Fragments of jars and burnished vessels may suggest that there was a small-scale occupation.[3] According to Haaretz, the six-dunam Tel Rumeida excavation site is Jewish-owned land.[4] Prior to the Second Intifada, a Palestinian family farmed the land as a protected tenant but the worsening security situation resulted in them being banned from farming the area.[4]
Land Ownership
In 1811, Rabbi Chaim Yeshua Bajayo, who was at that time, the head of the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish community in Hebron, purchased the land of Tel Rumeidah, including the remains of Citadel and Tombs of Jesse and Ruth. A total of 800 dunam of land was purchased with Bajayo's own personal money, and was donated to the Jewish community of Hebron[5] .
This land acquisition was a continuation of a previous land acquisition in 1807, where Bajayo purchased 5 dunam of land, where today the wholesale fruit market of Hebron sits.
In the 1929 Arab riots, the Jewish community of Hebron was decimated and no Jews remained in Tel Rumeida. In 1930, the family of Yaakov Ezra returned to live there; in a house that was eponymously called "Beit Ezra"; the house of Ezra. After 1936 when the British expelled all Jews from Hebron, the Ezra family continued to live there alone until November 1947. Yaakov Ezra's son, Yosef Ezra, is still the chairman of the Hebron Refugee Board today.
The bill of purchase for the land, which was also signed by the Islamic Waqf of Hebron, was preserved by the Bajayo family and passed from father to son until it reached Rabbi Chaim Bajayo (1873-1960), the last rabbi of the Jewish community of Hebron before the expulsion of the Jews in 1936. Rabbi Chaim Bajayo passed the legal documents to representatives of the community in Hebron, Franco and Hasson, who then passed them on to David Avissar.
Settlement
According to Ehud Sprinzak, an Israeli counterterrorism specialist and expert in far-right Jewish groups,[6] the hill was settled by "a small number of very radical Jewish families" in the mid-1980s.[7]
The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law, but the Israeli government disputes this.[8]
Notable residents
See also
References
- ^ Michael Dumper (2006). Cities of The Middle East and North Africa: A Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 167. ISBN 978-1576079195.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ Karin Aggestam (2005). "4. TIPH: Preventing Conflict Escalation in Hebron?". In Clive Jones, Ami Pedahzur (ed.). Between Terrorism and Civil War: The Al-Aqsa Intifada. Routledge. p. 52. ISBN 0415348242.
- ^ "Redefining the Centre: The Emergence of State in Judah". Tel Aviv: Journal of the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University. 31 (2). Maney Publishing: 219–220. 2004.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help); Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ a b Hasson, Nir (Jan. 9, 2014). "Israeli government funding dig in Palestinian Hebron, near Jewish enclave". Haaretz. Retrieved Jan. 9, 2014.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=and|date=(help) - ^ Arnon, Noam. [www.rabbijablon.com/Hebronbook.pdf "4000 Years & 40: The Story of the City of the Patriarchs"] (PDF). Retrieved 9 January 2014.
{{cite web}}: Check|url=value (help) - ^ "Ehud Sprinzak, 62; Studied Israel Far Right". The New York Times. 12 November 2002.
- ^ Ehud Sprinzak (2000). "3. Israel's Radical Right and the Countdown to the Rabin Assassination". The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. Stanford University Press. p. 104. ISBN 978-0804738378.
- ^ "The Geneva Convention". BBC News. 10 December 2009. Retrieved 27 November 2010.