Jews Buying Land In Hebron for Almost 4,000 Years

The first recorded land purchase in Hebron was made almost 4,000 years ago by Avraham, the first Jew. He purchased a burial cave for his family for 400 shekels. The surprising thing is that on the going rate, our patriarch OVERPAID for the cave. A Jew overpaying? Thats almost traif.

Avraham knew that the price was high but he actually named his price. No, it wasn't that the first Jew had no business sense, it was that he had a keen sense of history. By purchasing the site and overpaying no one could ever say that he stole the land, and that his children couldn't live there. That is until today.

Today almost three hundred Jews moved into a building they bought in Hebron and everyone is in an uproar. Why the big deal? Because Jews are no longer welcome in Hebron just as they are no longer welcome at the top of the Temple Mount another place that was purchased by a biblical figure King Dovid.

Its ironic that 2-300 Jewish students occupy a building that was purchased for them, other Jews, the IDF may have to kick them out based on orders from the Spineless Prime Minister.

The Torah tells us that Avraham purchased the land for a reason. Hashem wants us to know that it was ours we bought it. As his descendants we should be allowed to live and prosper there and to visit the burial place he made for his wife and children. But Olmert may have other ideas.

200 Jews Enter Hevron "Peace House"

by Gil Ronen

(IsraelNN.com) Between 200 and 300 Jews, mostly yeshiva students from the Hevron area, entered a four-story building in the City of the Patriarchs Monday night, and have named it "Shalom House." MK Chaim Oron (Meretz) says the government must throw them out.

The house, which is only partially built and stood empty, was legally purchased by the Jews from its previous Arab owner two years ago. It is located strategically, in a spot overlooking "Worshippers Route," which leads from Kiryat Arba to the Cave of Patriarchs. According to one report, the decision to enter the building now was reached after the Jews of Hevron received information that Arabs intended to enter the building in the near future.

"Shalom House" has a floor space of about 3,500 square meters. It was reportedly purchased by a Jewish American businessman through a Jordanian real estate agency for about $700,000.

The house's top floor had been used by the IDF for a lookout point. Twelve IDF troops and local Jewish residents were ambushed and killed by Arab terrorists on the Worshippers' Route in November 2002.

MK Ariel: This is a moment of trial for the government

Upon entering the building in the evening hours, the new residents began singing and dancing. One of the youths told a reporter that he and others had reached the building by running through an Arab village. The Hevron Jewish Community's spokesperson, Noam Arnon, said the entry into the house was not meant for provocation but for peaceful residence by Jews. "We already have a long waiting list of potential residents," he added.

"This is a house that has been under construction for several years. No one lives in it yet, so no one was evacuated from it," said Arnon. "Right now there are young people living there, but in the future, after we renovate it, families will live there, like in other areas of Jewish settlement in Hevron."

The Yesha Council – the umbrella group for Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria – congratulated the house's new occupants. "The people of the Jewish Community are continuing in the path of the Patriarch Abraham, who paid full price for the Cave of Machpela," the council noted.

MK Uri Ariel (NU/NRP) said, "Any act of strengthening the hold of Jewish roots in the City of Patriarchs is a blessing for the people and the land." He added that because the purchase was carried out legally, "this is a moment of trial for the government: shall it make the law subject to its political whims, or will it prove that the government too is subject to the law, and allow the Jews to remain in their house?"

MK Chaim Oron (Meretz) said today that the issue is not whether or not the property was legally bought, but the separation of populations. He called upon the government "to throw them out of there fast."

An Arab claiming to be the house's owner denies the house was ever sold to Jews. "The house is all mine," claimed Baez Rajabi, "and I have all of the documents proving it." However, another Arab man, Mohammed Al-Baradei, is also quoted in some media outlets as saying the house is his: "I handed all of the documents over to police after making copies," said Baradei.

Sheikh Ibrahim Sarsur of the Islamic Movement, a member of Israel's Knesset, called upon authorities to evacuate "this group" from the building. Sarsur claimed that the military government and the army in Hevron allow a small group of settlers to turn the lives of local Arabs "into hell."

Over the past ten days, Arabs have attacked IDF forces and Jewish residents of Hevron several times. Among the attacks: A pipe bomb, a female terrorist caught with a knife who later confessed she had planned an attack, the infiltration and stealing of an animal from a petting zoo, rocks at girls, rocks at a nursery, and more.