Israeli Army Commander Permits Settlers to Renovate Hebron’s Tomb of the Patriarchs
The Tomb of the Patriarchs in 2021.Credit: Ohad Zwigenberg
Due to the sensitivity of the site, which is sacred to both Jews and Muslims as the site that tradition holds is the burial ground of the biblical patriarchs and matriarchs, all infrastructure work there must be approved at the political level in Israel.
Israeli government officials were never notified of the roofing work, an omission that senior IDF officers deemed serious enough to endanger national security. In recent years, Jewish settlers in Hebron have demanded that roofing work be carried out at the tomb for the benefit of visitors to the tomb. But infrastructure work there is viewed as a possible step that could worsen the security situation in the West Bank and is therefore done in consultation between Israel and senior Jordanian officials along with the Waqf, the Muslim religious trust.
Infrastructure work by one party at the site, which is shared by Jews and Muslims, requires approval at the political level in Israel and oversight by senior security officials to ensure that the agreed-upon terms are complied with. In recent years, both sides have refrained from performing work on infrastructure there.
In July, staff at the Waqf were surprised to receive videos from Palestinian residents of Hebron showing settlers carrying out roofing work at the Tomb of the Patriarchs with the use of a crane. Jordanian officials presented the information to senior Israeli officials, seeking clarifications about the work, about which they had never been notified. On social media, Palestinians called for demonstrations across the West Bank to “stop the Jews from taking over” the site. On the same day, Palestinian Authority’s governor for Hebron, Khaled Doudin, labeled the work “aggression” that “establishes facts on the ground, violating the sanctity of the site and hurting Muslims’ feelings.”
Israeli government officials asked the army brass to look into the matter. A preliminary examination revealed that a group of settlers had come to the site in the middle of the night with heavy equipment and installed a roof on the Jewish side of the tomb, completing the work by that morning.