Editing Hebron (section)

===British Mandate===
[[File:British loyalty meeting in Hebron, 3 July 1940.jpg|thumb|British loyalty meeting in Hebron, July 1940]]

The British [[Occupied Enemy Territory Administration|occupied]] Hebron on December 8, 1917; governance transited to a [[Mandatory Palestine|mandate]] in 1920. Most of Hebron was owned by old Islamic charitable endowments (''[[waqf]]s''), with about 60% of all the land in and around Hebron belonging to the Tamīm al-Dārī waqf.<ref>{{harvnb|Kupferschmidt|1987|pp=110–11}}.</ref> In 1922, its population stood at 16,577, of which 16,074 (97%) were Muslim, 430 (2.5%) were Jewish and 73 (0.4%) were Christian.<ref>[[:File:J. B. Barron, ed. Palestine, Report and General Abstracts of the Census of 1922. Government of Palestine.djvu|J. B. Barron, ed. Palestine, Report and General Abstracts of the Census of 1922. Government of Palestine]], page 9</ref><ref name="CP7fYghBFQC 1936, p. 887">{{cite book|author=M. Th. Houtsma|title=E. J. Brill's First Encyclopaedia of Islam, 1913–1936|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7CP7fYghBFQC&pg=PA887|volume=4|year=1993|publisher=Brill|isbn=978-90-04-09790-2|page=887}}</ref> During the 1920s, Abd al-Ḥayy al-Khaṭīb was appointed Mufti of Hebron. Before his appointment, he had been a staunch opponent of [[Haj Amin al-Husseini|Haj Amin]], supported the Muslim National Associations and had good contacts with the Zionists.<ref>{{harvnb|Cohen|2008|p=64}}.</ref> Later, al-Khaṭīb became one of the few loyal followers of Haj Amin in Hebron.<ref>{{harvnb|Kupferschmidt|1987|p=82}}: "In any event, after his appointment, Abd al-Hayy al-Khatib not only played a prominent role in the disturbances of 1929, but, in general, appeared as one of the few loyal adherents of Hajj Amin in that town."</ref> During the late Ottoman period, a new ruling elite had emerged in Palestine. They later formed the core of the growing Arab nationalist movement in the early 20th century. During the Mandate period, delegates from Hebron constituted only 1 percent of the political leadership.<ref name="Tarākī 2006 12–14">{{harvnb| Tarākī|2006|pp=12–14}}.</ref> The Palestinian Arab decision to boycott the 1923 elections for a Legislative Council was made at the [[Palestine Arab Congress|fifth Palestinian Congress]], after it was reported by Murshid Shahin (an Arab pro-Zionist activist) that there was intense resistance in Hebron to the elections.<ref>{{harvnb|Cohen|2008|pp=19–20}}.</ref> Almost no house in Hebron remained undamaged when an [[1927 Jericho earthquake|earthquake struck Palestine]] on July 11, 1927.<ref>Ilan Ben Zion (April 27, 2015). [http://www.timesofisrael.com/eyeing-nepal-experts-warn-israel-is-unprepared-for-its-own-big-one/ "Eyeing Nepal, experts warn Israel is unprepared for its own Big One"]. ''[[The Times of Israel]]''.</ref>

The Cave of the Patriarchs continued to remain officially closed to non-Muslims, and reports that entry to the site had been relaxed in 1928 were denied by the [[Supreme Muslim Council]].<ref>{{harvnb|Kupferschmidt|1987|p=237}}</ref>

At this time following attempts by the [[Lithuania]]n government to draft yeshiva students into the army, the Lithuanian [[Hebron Yeshiva]] (Knesses Yisroel) relocated to Hebron, after consultations between Rabbi [[Nosson Tzvi Finkel (Slabodka)|Nosson Tzvi Finkel]], [[Yechezkel Sarna]] and [[Moshe Mordechai Epstein]].<ref>{{harvnb|Wein|1993|pp=138–39}},</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Bauman|1994|p=22}}</ref> and by 1929 had attracted some 265 students from Europe and the United States.<ref>{{harvnb|Krämer|2011|p=232}}.</ref> The majority of the Jewish population lived on the outskirts of Hebron along the roads to Be'ersheba and Jerusalem, renting homes owned by Arabs, a number of which were built for the express purpose of housing Jewish tenants, with a few dozen within the city around the synagogs.<ref>{{harvnb|Segev|2001|p=318}}.</ref> During the [[1929 Hebron massacre]], Arab rioters slaughtered some 64 to 67 Jewish men, women and children<ref>{{harvnb|Kimmerling|Migdal|2003|p=92}}</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=NyopAQAAMAAJ Post-holocaust and anti-semitism – Issues 40–75 – Page 35] Merkaz ha-Yerushalmi le-ʻinyene tsibur u-medinah, Temple University. Center for Jewish Community Studies – 2006: "After the 1929 riots in Mandatory Palestine, the non-Jewish French writer [[Albert Londres]] asked him why the Arabs had murdered the old, pious Jews in Hebron and Safed, with whom they had no quarrel. The mayor answered: "In a way you behave like in a war. You don't kill what you want. You kill what you find. Next time they will all be killed, young and old." Later on, Londres spoke again to the mayor and tested him ironically by saying: "You cannot kill all the Jews. There are 150,000 of them." [[Raghib al-Nashashibi|Nashashibi]] answered "in a soft voice, 'Oh no, it'll take two days."</ref> and wounded 60, and Jewish homes and synagogs were ransacked; 435 Jews survived by virtue of the shelter and assistance offered them by their Arab neighbors, who hid them.<ref>{{harvnb|Segev|2001|pp=325–26}}: ''The Zionist Archives preserves lists of Jews who were saved by Arabs; one list contains 435 names.''</ref> Some Hebron Arabs, including Ahmad Rashid al-Hirbawi, president of Hebron chamber of commerce, supported the return of Jews after the massacre.<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://newrepublic.com/article/64363/the-tangled-truth|title=The Tangled Truth |date=May 7, 2008|magazine=The New Republic}}</ref> Two years later, 35 families moved back into the ruins of the Jewish quarter, but on the eve of the [[1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine|Palestinian Arab revolt]] (April 23, 1936) the British Government decided to move the Jewish community out of Hebron as a precautionary measure to secure its safety. The sole exception was the 8th generation Hebronite Ya'akov ben Shalom Ezra, who processed dairy products in the city, blended in well with its social landscape and resided there under the protection of friends. In November 1947, in anticipation of the [[United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine|UN partition vote]], the Ezra family closed its shop and left the city.<ref>{{harvnb|Campos|2007|pp=56–57}}</ref> Yossi Ezra has since tried to regain his family's property through the Israeli courts.<ref name="Levinsohn2011">Chaim Levinsohn (February 18, 2011). [http://www.haaretz.com/israel-supreme-court-rules-hebron-jews-can-t-reclaim-lands-lost-after-1948-1.344090 "Israel Supreme Court Rules Hebron Jews Can't Reclaim Lands Lost After 1948"]. ''[[Haaretz]]''.</ref>