According to Jerold S. Auerbach:
The recent announcement that new housing has been authorized for Hebron Jews predictably stoked fury among Israelis on the political left, for whom Hebron — where Jewish history in the Biblical Land of Israel began — should be reserved for Palestinian Arabs.
Opposition on the part of the international community and the Palestinian Authority are not surprising. They refer to all of Judea-Samaria as if it is occupied territory even though Israel officially regards it as disputed lands and has done so since 1967. But it is hard to understand why Israeli Jews have fallen under the “occupation” spell.
Peace Now, an Israeli leftist NGO is quite acerbic in their Facebook Post:
Since the 1980s, no government has dared to build a new settlement in the heart of the largest Palestinian city in the West Bank,. . . . The settlement in Hebron is the ugly face of Israeli control of the territories. The moral and political price of having a settlement in Hebron is unbearable.
Regarding this post, firstly, one might ask if the new settlement (in fact, a 31-unit apartment building going up on part of what serves as an army base in the Jewish quarter) is really in the heart of the largest city in the PA. It is in the heart of the Jewish quarter, not of the city as a whole. In fact, 97% of Hebron is off limits to Jews even though leftwing Jewish organizations convince foreign journalists and others that Hebron consists of the one street closed off to Arabs in the 3% of the city that is open to Jews.
But, let us say that you are convinced, as Peace Now is, that having a settlement (neighbourhood) in Hebron is ugly and morally indefensible — as are all the other Jewish settlements (communities) in Area C of Judea-Samaria and that they should all be “given back” to the Arabs who now call themselves Palestinians. I wonder if you are really unaware that the Arabs in the PA regard ALL of Israel as an illegitimate settler-colonial project that has occupied ALL of what they view as historical Palestine (sic). Below is just a selection of evidence of this.
Are you willing to give all of it “back”?
Jaffa
Tel Aviv
Jerusalem
Jaffa, Jerusalem, Ramallah, Haifa and all of occupied Palestine participating in the #StrikeForPalestine today.
This heartwarming national unity proves that colonial borders are only effective in the minds of the colonizers. #SaveSheikhJarrah pic.twitter.com/QOPe7B9lVx
— Mohammed El-Kurd (@m7mdkurd) May 18, 2021
Haifa
Palestinians stand in front of their stolen house and settlers inside it, in the village of Ijzim, south of occupied Haifa??
Imagine that pic.twitter.com/N6jIVNOm6V— Ula the Gardener #FreePalestine #CorbynForever (@Citruscrush) May 17, 2020
This one is laughable. Do you know why?
This sewage cover is present in the city of Haifa within the occupied Palestinian territories since 1930 AD, that is, older than the occupation entity. pic.twitter.com/grps4zU5pd
— World Mix (@world_mix0) May 17, 2021
In 1930, the “Government of Palestine” refers to the British Mandate over Palestine and not a never-existent Arab state called “Palestine”.
Member of the leftwing NGO, Combatants for Peace think that referring to Haifa as having been occupied in 1948, helps to promote peace between Arabs and Jews. They really do not understand the Middle East mentality and the danger inherent in their tours and “educational” programmes.
Logical conclusion if you believe Hebron et al are occupied territories
If you agree it is all “Palestinian”, then you will not mind Tel Aviv being in the sights of Arabs after you hand “back” Judea-Samaria because, after all, it is theirs to wipe off the map. If you do not agree that all of Israel is occupied, just the so–called West Bank (Judea-Samaria), then you are agreeing to the second step in the plan to get it all back. The first step was Oslo.
Palestinian account tweets a photo of beautiful Tel Aviv, calling it “occupied Jaffa”. The photo is taken from the village of Luban a-Sharqiya, exhibiting perfectly the dangers of a hostile Palestinian state. https://t.co/ndCKT17ZsJ
— Imshin (@imshin) January 7, 2020
Feature Image Credit: screenshot from Peace Now video on construction on the new apartment building going up in the Jewish section of Hebron
Israel as a settler-colonial state Jewish community in Hebron Jewish settlement in Hebron Palestinian Occupied Territories
Last modified: December 11, 2025
