Old City of Hebron

Coordinates: 31°31′31″N 35°06′30″E / 31.52528°N 35.10833°E / 31.52528; 35.10833
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Old City of Hebron
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Old City of Hebron
Official nameHebron/Al-Khalil Old Town
LocationHebron, West Bank
IncludesCave of the Patriarchs
CriteriaCultural: ii, iv, vi
Reference1565
Inscription2017 (41st Session)
Endangered2017–
Area20.6 ha (0.080 sq mi)
Buffer zone152.2 ha (0.588 sq mi)
Coordinates31°31′31″N 35°06′30″E / 31.52528°N 35.10833°E / 31.52528; 35.10833

The Old City of Hebron (Arabic: البلدة القديمة الخليل) is the historic city centre of Hebron in the West Bank.

Much of the Old City was built in the Mamluk era. It is composed of a number of cell-like quarters with narrowly packed fortified houses functioning as a boundary to each area, with gates at the end of the main streets.[1] It has an approximate area of 20.6 hectares (51 acres; 0.206 km2), housing thousands of residents.

It became the third World Heritage Site in the State of Palestine in 2017,[2] and was inscribed on the official List of World Heritage in Danger as "Palestine, Hebron/Al-Khalil Old Town".[3]

The 1997 Hebron Agreement, part of the Oslo Accords, placed the Old City in area "H2", maintaining the Israeli military control which it has been under since 1967.[4] The Palestinian population in the Old City greatly declined since the early 1980s because of the impact of Israeli security measures, including extended curfews, strict restrictions on movement,[5] and the closure of Palestinian commercial activities near settler areas, and also due to settler harassment.[6][7][8][9] The efforts of the internationally funded Hebron Rehabilitation Committee resulted in the return of more than 6,000 Palestinians by 2015.[10] In 2019, the Temporary International Presence in Hebron was expelled from the city, after it issued a confidential report which found that Israel routinely violates international law in Hebron and that it is in "severe and regular breach" of the rights to non-discrimination laid out in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights over the lack of freedom to movement for the Palestinian residents of Hebron.[11]

Main sights

1863 (de Saulcy)
1898 (Schick)
1918 (Luftstreitkräfte)
2011 (OCHAoPt)
The Old City of Hebron in two 19th century maps, an early 20th century aerial photograph, and 21st century map of Israeli restrictions on Palestinian freedom of movement. The 1898 map includes a legend as follows:

1. Tomb of the Patriarchs;
2. The Castle, partly ruined;
3. Pool;
4. Pool;
5. Old well;
6. Old well;
7. Bijurd mosque;
8. Aly Bukka mosque "the second chief building in Hebron";

A. Sheikh 'Aly Bakka quarter Arabic: حارة الشيخ علي البكا;
B. Zawiya quarter (Haret ez Zawieh) Arabic: حارة باب الزاوية;
C. Glassmakers quarter (Haret Kezazin) Arabic: حارة القزازين (see Hebron glass);
D. el Akkabeh (quarter of the ascent) Arabic: حارة العقّابة;
E. Haram quarter Arabic: حارة الحرم;
F. Muheisin quarter (name of a family);
G. Cotton quarter (Haret Kotton) Arabic: حارة قيطون;
H. the eastern quarter (Haret Mesherky) Arabic: حارة المشارقة;

I. The new quarter Arabic: حارة الجديد

Shopping

Places of worship

Museums

Districts and subdivisions

At the end of the 19th century, the Old City was recorded as being divided into nine quarters:[14]

  • Sheikh 'Aly Bakka quarter Arabic: حارة الشيخ علي البكا;
  • Zawiya quarter (Haret ez Zawieh) Arabic: حارة باب الزاوية;
  • Glassmakers quarter (Haret Kezazin) Arabic: حارة القزازين (see Hebron glass);
  • el Akkabeh (quarter of the ascent) Arabic: حارة العقّابة;
  • Haram quarter Arabic: حارة الحرم;
  • Muheisin quarter (name of a family);
  • Cotton quarter (Haret Kotton) Arabic: حارة قيطون;
  • the eastern quarter (Haret Mesherky) Arabic: حارة المشارقة;
  • The new quarter Arabic: حارة الجديد;

The Old City includes three small Israeli settlements on its periphery – Beit Hadassah, Beit Romano, and Avraham Avinu – which have been described as forming a "loosely contiguous Jewish neighbourhood"[15] or a "Jewish Quarter".[16] The Jewish area in the late 19th century was in the Glassmakers quarter (Haret Kezazin).[17][18]

Gallery

  • The Old City in 1910
    The Old City in 1910
  • A barrier dividing sections of the Old City
    A barrier dividing sections of the Old City
  • A net installed in the Old City to prevent garbage dropped by Israeli settlers into a Palestinian area.[19]
    A net installed in the Old City to prevent garbage dropped by Israeli settlers into a Palestinian area.[19]

See also

References

  1. ^ PEF Survey, volume III, p.305
  2. ^ Unesco Declares Hebron’s Core as Palestinian World Heritage Site
  3. ^ Decision : 41 COM 8C.1 Update of the List of World Heritage in Danger (Inscribed Properties)
  4. ^ "Protocol Concerning the Redeployment in Hebron". United Nations Information System on the Question of Palestine. Non-UN document. January 17, 1997. Archived from the original on October 24, 2007.
  5. ^ "B'Tselem – Press Releases – 31 Dec. 2007: B'Tselem: 131 Palestinians who did not participate in the hostilities killed by Israel's security forces in 2007". Btselem.org. 2007-12-31. Retrieved 2009-11-12.
  6. ^ "Israeli NGO issues damning report on situation in Hebron". Agence France-Presse. ReliefWeb. August 19, 2003.
  7. ^ "Hebron, Area H-2: Settlements Cause Mass Departure of Palestinians" (PDF). B'Tselem. August 2003. "In total, 169 families lived on the three streets in September 2000, when the intifada began. Since then, seventy-three families—forty-three percent—have left their homes."
  8. ^ "Palestine Refugees: a challenge for the International Community". United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. ReliefWeb. October 10, 2006. Archived from the original on October 17, 2006. Settler violence has forced out over half the Palestinian population in some neighborhoods in the downtown area of Hebron. This once bustling community is now eerily deserted, and presents a harrowing existence for those few Palestinians who dare to remain or who are too deep in poverty to move elsewhere.
  9. ^ "Ghost Town: Israel's Separation Policy and Forced Eviction of Palestinians from the Center of Hebron". B'Tselem. May 2007.
  10. ^ A ghost city revived: the remarkable transformation of Hebron
  11. ^ "Confidential 20-year monitoring report: Israel regularly breaks int'l law in Hebron". haaretz.com. 2018-12-17. Retrieved 2018-12-17.
  12. ^ Janine Zacharia (March 8, 2010). "Letter from the West Bank: In Hebron, renovation of holy site sets off strife". The Washington Post. {{cite news}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  13. ^ Hope in Hebron. David Shulman, New York Review of Books, 22 March 2013:
    ″Those who still live on Shuhada Street can’t enter their own homes from the street. Some use the rooftops to go in and out, climbing from one roof to another before issuing into adjacent homes or alleys. Some have cut gaping holes in the walls connecting their homes to other (often deserted) houses and thus pass through these buildings until they can exit into a lane outside or up a flight of stairs to a passageway on top of the old casba market. According to a survey conducted by the human-rights organization B’Tselem in 2007, 42 per cent of the Palestinian population in the city center of Hebron (area H2)—some 1,014 families—have abandoned their homes and moved out, most of them to area H1, now under Palestinian control.″
  14. ^ Schick, 1898, p.238
  15. ^ Auerbach, Jerold S. (16 July 2009). Hebron Jews: Memory and Conflict in the Land of Israel. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. pp. 110–. ISBN 978-0-7425-6617-0.
  16. ^ Neuman 2018, p. 3.
  17. ^ PEF Survey of Palestine, volume III, p.306: "The place is divided into three principal divisions: 1st, including the Haret el Haram (or el Kulah) and Haret Bab er Zawieh, the main part, with the Haram in the centre; 2nd, Haret esh Sheikh, so called from the mosque of Sheikh 'Aly Bukka, which is in it ; 3rd, Haret el Mesherky, which is towards the east, on the west side of the main road. The town extends for 3/4 mile parallel to the valley. The houses are well built of stone, with flat roofs having domes in the middle. The most prominent object is the Haram enclosure, standing over the houses. The mosque within and the upper portion of the great enclosing wall were newly whitewashed in 1874, and presented a very dazzling appearance. Since 1875 the town has grown, so that these various quarters are almost connected, and the Jews' quarter especially has been enlarged. To the four quarters named above must be added six others, viz., Haret el Kezazin, the Jews' quarter, north-west of the Haram ; Haret Beni Dar, just west of the Haram; Haret el 'Akkabeh and Haret el Kerad, on the hill behind the Haram ; Haret el Muhtcsbin, south-east of the Haram and of the great pool; and Haret es Suwakineh, north of the Haram, east of the Jews' quarter."
  18. ^ Biblical Researches in Palestine, volume II, p.446: "The Jewish dwellings are in the N.W. part of the main quarter of the town".
  19. ^ West Bank B&B in Hebron's Old City fully booked

Bibliography

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