Philip retweetledi
Yitzhak Ben Hebron, the last surviving witness of the 1929 Hebron massacre, has died at age 100.
He was 4 years old when Arab rioters slaughtered 67 Jews in Hebron, raped women, mutilated bodies, looted homes, and destroyed a Jewish community that had existed continuously for centuries.
His mother barricaded their home with a heavy sewing machine before the family escaped through the windows of the Avraham Avinu Synagogue while Arab mobs rampaged through the streets.
His older sister survived by hiding under a bed in the home of Eliezer Dan Slonim, where many Jews had gathered hoping for protection. The attackers murdered those inside anyway. Blood from the victims dripped onto her while she hid and the rioters assumed she was dead. She later testified about the murders and rapes she witnessed and identified perpetrators in police lineups.
After the massacre, the surviving Jews were expelled from Hebron, ending one of the world’s oldest Jewish communities. Yitzhak later fought in the Haganah and Palmach, and after 1967 returned to Hebron with the first Jews rebuilding the community that had been destroyed.
This happened decades before the establishment of Israel. Before “occupation.” Before “settlements.” Before the false accusations of apartheid or genocide. The Jews of Hebron weren't soldiers. They were an ancient minority community living in one of Judaism’s holiest cities, and they were butchered anyway.
People who insist the conflict only exists because of 1967 or Israeli policy can never really explain why Jews in Hebron were hacked to death in 1929.
Why is this so hard for the world to understand?
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