Knesset Speaker squashes conference about ridding Hebron of Jews

“This is a type of ‘final solution’ — to evict our ethnic minority from the cradle of Jewish civilization in order to appease the jihad,” Hebron’s Jewish community spokesperson stated.

By JNS.org and World Israel News

Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein put the kibosh on a planned conference at the Knesset that would have called for the immediate expulsion of Jews from the ancient city of Hebron. The conference was organized by Arab MKs and their radical, left-wing Jewish colleagues in Israel’s parliament.

Conference organizers attempted to sidestep Knesset regulations that require conferences to be approved by the Knesset Speaker by defining the event as a “gathering.”

“Time after time, certain MKs try to act behind my back and that of the professional staff of the Knesset for cheap political gain. Lies are destined to be revealed,” Edelstein said.

Arab Joint List MKs Ayman Odeh and Dov Khenin, as well as Meretz MK Michal Rozin, had issued a statement before the cancellation, saying:

“The settlement in Hebron is the expression of an extremist government policy that pours mass sums of money and endangers human lives to strengthen and maintain a handful of extremist settlers. The evacuation of the settlement in Hebron is a first and necessary step to promoting a diplomatic solution and bringing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to an end.”

The “Hebron First” conference was to include a speech by the executive director of the radical pro-Palestinian organization B’Tselem, who had recently been invited by the U.N. Security Council to give a speech condemning Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.

Leaders of Breaking the Silence, Peace Now, Yesh Din, and Palestinians from Hebron were also invited.

However, members of Hebron’s Jewish community did not receive invitations to participate or discuss any of the organizers’ statements or accusations. They said the conference reflected undemocratic and extreme policy ideas.

“Let’s just call this conference what it is: a plan to ethnically cleanse the tiny Jewish minority in Hebron and make it Judenrein,” Yishai Fleisher, the International Spokesperson for the Jewish Community of Hebron said before news of the cancellation came out.

“This is a type of ‘final solution’ — to evict our ethnic minority from the cradle of Jewish civilization in order to appease the jihad — will only make further war against Israel and against decent Arabs who want to live in a free and diverse Jewish state.”

Organizers of the conference said that the 85 families and hundreds of students living in Hebron represent a “cruel segregation regime,” though Jewish families live in just three percent of the city, which is home to approximately 200,000 Arabs.

Fleisher called Hebron a “part of Israel’s core identity” and said the organizers’ opinions are “out of touch” with the Israeli public.

Conference organizers ‘out of touch’ with Israeli public

“It’s obvious that the organizers of this conference are not in touch with the Israeli public, who visit Hebron to the tune of 700,00 visitors a year, and 40,000 over Shabbat Chayei Sarah, which is also attended by several Knesset members and government ministers,” he said.

“I think they’re totally out of touch with how the nation of Israel identifies with Hebron and how much it is a part of Israel’s core identity,“ continued Fleisher. “Moreover, the Israeli government has just approved new building in Hebron for the first time in 20 years. So that is where we’re going, and that is where the U.S. administration is going, and this conference will only serve to show the true face of the Arab parties and the out-of-touch extreme left.”

Hebron is an ancient city making its introduction to Jewish tradition in the first book of the Bible, which records Abraham’s purchase of the Tomb of Machpelah as a burial site for his wife, Sarah. Though control of the city exchanged hands over the millennia, Hebron boasted an almost continuous Jewish presence until the present day.