“Breaking the Silence” lies about Jewish history in Hebron

 

 

“Breaking the Silence” held a “virtual tour” of Hebron on Facebook Live on Sunday.

This short excerpt shows how little this NGO cares about the truth.

 

Jews first settled in Hebron during the Ottoman Empire? No, Jews have been there almost continuously since Biblical times, except during Byzantine rule and the time between the 1929 riots and 1968. 

Jews lived peacefully in Hebron with the Arabs? Just based on Wikipedia, we see:

Jews were banned from visiting the Tomb of the Patriarchs, and Jewish women disguised themselves as Muslim women in order to visit, at much risk to their lives, in the 15th century.

Turkish pashas extorted funds from only the Jews in the 18th century, almost crushing the community.

Not long after, Arabs falsely  accused Jews of Hebron of having murdered the son of a local sheikh and they had to pay another exorbitant amount to not be slaughtered.

Hebron had a “strong tradition of hostility to Jews.”

Were Jews a small minority in Hebron? According to the 1837 Union Bible Dictionary, there were 400 Arab families and 120 Jewish families, "the latter having been reduced greatly in number by a bloody battle in 1834, between them and the troops of Ibrahim Pasha."

Did the Jews speak Arabic? Some did, but as this 1825 account says, “Many of them speak a little Arabic, but badly, and there is not one who can read it.” In other words, they learned just enough to survive in an Arab-majority town but they weren't friends with the Arabs.  

Another story from that same 1825 book indicates the truth: Christian visitors came to visit a sheikh, who was enraged at how small their gift to him was, so they took it back and left. But the Jews begged them to return and give him a better gift because they were worried that he would make some heavy demand on them after they left.

Breaking the Silence is purposefully twisting history to make Hebron look like it has always been an Arab town that was friendly to Jews before Zionism.  This is not true at all….which gives one an idea of how truthful their other stories are.

(h/t iTi)