History of Hebron

s="MsoNormal">Although a significant number of people relocated to Jerusalem from Hebron during the Jordanian period, Hebron itself saw a considerable increase in population with 35,000 settling in the town. During this period, signs of the previous Jewish presence in Hebron were removed. Apparently, even the old Jewish cemetery was destroyed by the order of the Jordanian government.

Israeli rule

After the Six-Day War in June 1967, Israel occupied Hebron along with the rest of the West Bank. In an attempt to reach a land for peace deal, Yigal Allon proposed that Israel annex 45% of the West Bank and return the remainder to Jordan. According to the Allon Plan, the city of Hebron would lie in Jordanian territory, and in order to determine Israel's own border, Allon suggested building a Jewish settlement adjacent to Hebron. David Ben-Gurion also considered that Hebron was the one sector of the conquered territories that should remain under Jewish control and be open to Jewish settlement. Apart from its symbolic message to the international community that Israel's rights in Hebron were inalienable, settling Hebron also had theological significance in some quarters. For some, the capture of Hebron by Israel had unleashed a messianic fervor.

Rabbi Yechezkel Sarna, a survivor of the 1929 massacre, now wished to reopen the former Hebron Yeshiva. In the spring of 1968, without government consent, Rabbi Moshe Levinger together with a group of Israelis posing as Swiss tourists rented the main hotel in Hebron and then refused to leave. The Labor government's survival depended on the National Religious Party, and was reluctant to evacuate the settlers, given the massacre that occurred decades earlier. After heavy lobbying by Levinger, the settlement gained the tacit support of Levi Eshkol and Yigal Allon, while it was opposed by Abba Eban and Pinhas Sapir