They always were and always will be Jewish holy lands. Muslims only invaded the region and looted and murdered the people, however the land has never been Muslim holy land as they fraudulently claim.
Greedy Muslims already have Mecca and Medina, they should stay away from other people's holy lands. Even Christians have much more of a claim than Muslims do. At least Jesus was born and raised in that region. The terrorist prophet Mohammad never set his foot in the Holy land.
They've been living there for over 2000 years.
**** you and anyone who looks like you.
The Arabs who are recent 20th century invaders from Jordan, Egypt and Syria lived in Israel for over 2000 years? Ha ha ha ha.
Even the founder of the Palestinian national bowel movement Arafat himself was born and raised in EGYPT.
*Sigh* the "Fellahin" were always there; they were " איכר" in Hebrew, they ere "
رعیت" in Persian, the Greeks called them "χωρικόi". the Romans "Paganii" and the Arabs and Turks فلاحين "Fellahin". Looking back through history, there were cultures that dominated the region who formed the "ruling elite", but they were just a veneer. The people of the land remained the same.
It's a matter of historical fact that the Arab conquest in the 7th Century did not bring about an influx of settlers into Palestine. The Greek speaking Christian Romano-Byzantine elite was given the choice to convert or leave and most left; their vacant estates were taken over by the Arab nobility in turn, and these ensured that the overwhelming majority of Arab settlers from the Hejaz were "moved on" into Mesopotamia and elsewhere. The Turks never bothered to displace the Arab elites, often ruling through them, keeping a minimal administration.
The only true invaders were Christian Crusaders, the Mongols and the Europeans and only the European jewish and Christian Zionists made any attempt to disposess the Fellahin. Arafat may well have been born and raised in Egypt, but his father was from Gaza. Compared with the first cabinet of the new state of Israel who mostly came from Eastern Europe, Arafat had a more legitimate claim.
To anyone interested in an objective history of the region, these books are well worth a read:
The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates The Islamic Near East from the 6th to the 11th Century A History of the Near East Amazon.co.uk Hugh Kennedy 9780582405257 Books
The Great Arab Conquests How The Spread Of Islam Changed The World We Live In Amazon.co.uk Hugh Kennedy 9780753823897 Books
Wrong again, asswipe, the Jews were there throughout the millennia. They even defended Hebron from the Crusaders over 600 years ago. That was before the Arabs invaded and decided to commit genocide and ethnic cleansing on the ancient Jews of Hebron in 1929. Of course now the animals claim Hebron as an Arab city.
1929 Hebron massacre - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia
From Biblical Times to 1967
Numbers 13:22 states that (Canaanite) Hebron was founded seven years before the Egyptian town of Zoan, i.e. around 1720 BCE, and the ancient (Canaanite and Israelite) city of Hebron was situated at Tel Rumeida. The city's history has been inseparably linked with the
Cave of Machpelah, which the Patriarch
Abraham purchased from Ephron the
Hittite for 400 silver shekels (
Genesis 23), as a family tomb. As recorded in Genesis, the Patriarchs
Abraham,
Isaac, and
Jacob, and the Matriarchs
Sarah,
Rebekah and
Leah, are buried there, and — according to a Jewish tradition —
Adam and
Eve are also buried there.
Hebron is mentioned 87 times in the Bible, and is the world's oldest Jewish community. Joshua assigned Hebron to Caleb from the tribe of Judah (
Joshua 14:13-14), who subsequently led his tribe in conquering the city and its environs (
Judges 1:1-20). As Joshua 14:15 notes, "the former name of Hebron was Kiryat Arba..."
Following the death of King Saul, God instructed David to go to Hebron, where he was anointed King of Judah (
II Samuel 2:1-4). A little more than 7.5 years later, David was anointed King over all Israel, in Hebron (
II Samuel 5:1-3).
The city was part of the united kingdom and — later — the southern Kingdom of
Judah, until the latter fell to the
Babylonians in 586 BCE. Despite the loss of Jewish independence, Jews continued to live in Hebron (
Nehemiah 11:25), and the city was later incorporated into the (Jewish)
Hasmonean kingdom by
John Hyrcanus. King
Herod(reigned 37-4 BCE) built the base of the present structure — the 12 meter high wall — over the
Tomb the Patriarchs.
The city was the scene of extensive fighting during the
Jewish Revolt against the Romans (65-70, see
Josephus 4:529, 554), but Jews continued to live there after the Revolt, through the later
Bar Kochba Revolt (132-135 CE), and into the
Byzantine period. The remains of a
synagogue from the Byzantine period have been excavated in the city, and the Byzantines built a large church over the Tomb of the Patriarchs, incorporating the pre- existing Herodian structure.
Jews continued to live in Hebron after the city's conquest by the Arabs (in 638), whose generally tolerant rule was welcomed, especially after the often harsh Byzantine rule — although the Byzantines never forbade Jews from praying at the Tomb. The Arabs converted the Byzantine church at the
Tomb the Patriarchs into a mosque.
Upon capturing the city in 1100, the Crusaders expelled the Jewish community, and converted the mosque at the Tomb back into a church. The Jewish community was re-established following the
Mamelukes' conquest of the city in 1260, and the Mamelukes reconverted the church at the Tomb of the Patriarchs back into a mosque. However, the restored Islamic (Mameluke) ascendancy was less tolerant than the pre-Crusader Islamic (Arab) regimes — a 1266 decree barred Jews (and Christians) from entering the Tomb of the Patriarchs, allowing them only to ascend to the fifth, later the seventh, step outside the eastern wall. The Jewish cemetery -- on a hill west of the Tomb — was first mentioned in a letter dated to 1290.
The
Ottoman Turks' conquest of the city in 1517 was marked by a violent pogrom which included many deaths, rapes, and the plundering of Jewish homes. The surviving Jews fled to Beirut and did not return until 1533. In 1540, Jewish exiles from
Spain acquired the site of the "Court of the Jews" and built the Avraham Avinu ("Abraham Our Father") synagogue. (One year — according to local legend — when the requisite quorum for prayer was lacking, the Patriarch
Abraham himself appeared to complete the quorum; hence, the name of the synagogue.)
Despite the events of 1517, its general poverty and a devastating plague in 1619, the Hebron Jewish community grew. Throughout the Turkish period (1517-1917), groups of Jews from other parts of the Land of Israel, and the
Diaspora, moved to Hebron from time to time, joining the existing community, and the city became a rabbinic center of note.
In 1775, the Hebron Jewish community was rocked by a blood libel, in which Jews were falsely accused of murdering the son of a local sheikh. The community -- which was largely sustained by donations from abroad -- was made to pay a crushing fine, which further worsened its already shaky economic situation. Despite its poverty, the community managed, in 1807, to purchase a 5-dunam plot -- upon which the city's wholesale market stands today -- and after several years the sale was recognized by the Hebron Waqf. In 1811, 800 dunams of land were acquired to expand the cemetery. In 1817, the Jewish community numbered approximately 500, and by 1838, it had grown to 700, despite a pogrom which took place in 1834, during Mohammed Ali's rebellion against the Ottomans (1831-1840).
