Kiryat Arba
Encyclopedia
Kiryat Arba or Qiryat Arba , lit. "Town of the Four," is an Israeli settlement
in the Judean Mountains
region of the West Bank
on the edge of Hebron
. Its settlers consist of a mix of Russian immigrants, American immigrants, and native-born Israelis numbering close to 10,000. (Official census records in 2008 recorded a population of 7,200.)
The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law
, but the Israeli government disputes this.
chapter 14 verse 15 says (Darby Bible
): "Now the name of Hebron before was Kirjath-Arba; the great man among the Anakim..."
There are various explanations for the name, not mutually exclusive. According to the great Biblical commentator Rashi
, Kiryat Arba ("Town of Arba") means either the town (kirya) of Arba
, the giant who had three sons, or the town of the four giants: Anak (the son of Arba) and his three sons - Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmi - who are described as being the sons of a "giant" in : "On the way through the Negev, they (Joshua
and Caleb
) came to Hebron where [they saw] Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmi, descendants of the Giant (ha-anak)..." Some say that Anak ("Giant", see Anak
) is a proper name (Targum Jonathan and the Septuagint), and that he, Anak, may have been the father of the three others mentioned in the Book of Numbers
as living in Hebron, previously known as "Kiryat Arba."
Alternatively, the name may refer to the four couples buried in the Machpela Cave: Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebbecca, Jacob and Leah, and according to the Zohar
, Adam and Eve.
, Kiryat Arba is considered illegal under international law, though Israeli disputes this. The international community considers Israeli settlements to violate the Fourth Geneva Convention
's prohibition on the transfer of an occupying power's civilian population into occupied territory. Israel disputes that the Fourth Geneva Convention applies to the Palestinian territories as they had not been legally held by a sovereign prior to Israel taking control of them. This view has been rejected by the International Court of Justice
and the International Committee of the Red Cross
.
led by Rabbi
Moshe Levinger
and Rabbi Eliezer Waldman
founded Kiryat Arba on the eastern outskirts of Hebron
. Jewish settlement around Hebron was claimed to be justified in light of the 1929 Hebron massacre
and the continued presence of Jews in the area until then. Building began on an abandoned military base in 1970, and residents moved in 1971. The town is a self-sufficient community, with pre-nursery through post-secondary educational institutions, medical facilities, shopping centers, a bank and a post office
. Kiryat Arba attained local council
status in 1979. While Kiryat Arba is located within the territory of the Har Hebron Regional Council
, it is an independent local council.
, a far right
political party, who was assassinated in the United States by an Arab gunman. The grave of Baruch Goldstein
, who perpetrated the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre
, is across the street from the park. According to some news reports, it has become a place of pilgrimage for the far right.
Israeli settlement
An Israeli settlement is a Jewish civilian community built on land that was captured by Israel from Jordan, Egypt, and Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War and is considered occupied territory by the international community. Such settlements currently exist in the West Bank...
in the Judean Mountains
Judean Mountains
The Judaean Mountains, ;, also Judaean Hills and Hebron Hills is a mountain range in Israel and the West Bank where Jerusalem and several other biblical cities are located. The mountains reach a height of 1,000 m.-Geography:...
region of the West Bank
West Bank
The West Bank ) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan...
on the edge of Hebron
Hebron
Hebron , is located in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Nestled in the Judean Mountains, it lies 930 meters above sea level. It is the largest city in the West Bank and home to around 165,000 Palestinians, and over 500 Jewish settlers concentrated in and around the old quarter...
. Its settlers consist of a mix of Russian immigrants, American immigrants, and native-born Israelis numbering close to 10,000. (Official census records in 2008 recorded a population of 7,200.)
The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law
International law and Israeli settlements
The international community considers the establishment of Israeli settlements in the Israeli-occupied territories illegal under international law, but Israel maintains that they are consistent with international law because it does not agree that the Fourth Geneva Convention applies to the...
, but the Israeli government disputes this.
Etymology
Kiryat Arba is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. The Book of JoshuaBook of Joshua
The Book of Joshua is the sixth book in the Hebrew Bible and of the Old Testament. Its 24 chapters tell of the entry of the Israelites into Canaan, their conquest and division of the land under the leadership of Joshua, and of serving God in the land....
chapter 14 verse 15 says (Darby Bible
Darby Bible
The Darby Bible refers to the Bible as translated from Hebrew and Greek by John Nelson Darby. Darby published a translation of the New Testament in 1867, with revised editions in 1872 and 1884...
): "Now the name of Hebron before was Kirjath-Arba; the great man among the Anakim..."
There are various explanations for the name, not mutually exclusive. According to the great Biblical commentator Rashi
Rashi
Shlomo Yitzhaki , or in Latin Salomon Isaacides, and today generally known by the acronym Rashi , was a medieval French rabbi famed as the author of a comprehensive commentary on the Talmud, as well as a comprehensive commentary on the Tanakh...
, Kiryat Arba ("Town of Arba") means either the town (kirya) of Arba
Arba
Arba was a man mentioned in assorted, but early, Old Testament verses of the Bible. In , he is cited as the "greatest man among the Anakites" and the father of Anak. Arba himself was the father of Anak, whose descendents went on to be called the Anakites, or "Anakim," which is the Hebrew plural...
, the giant who had three sons, or the town of the four giants: Anak (the son of Arba) and his three sons - Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmi - who are described as being the sons of a "giant" in : "On the way through the Negev, they (Joshua
Joshua
Joshua , is a minor figure in the Torah, being one of the spies for Israel and in few passages as Moses's assistant. He turns to be the central character in the Hebrew Bible's Book of Joshua...
and Caleb
Caleb
Caleb is a male given name. A character called Caleb is named in both the Bible and Quran.-Caleb:When the Hebrews came to the outskirts of Canaan, the land that had been promised to them by God, after having fled slavery in Egypt, Moses sent twelve spies into Canaan to report on what was...
) came to Hebron where [they saw] Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmi, descendants of the Giant (ha-anak)..." Some say that Anak ("Giant", see Anak
Anak
According to the Book of Numbers, during the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites, Anak was a well known figure, and a forefather of the Anakites who have been considered "strong and tall," they were also said to have been a mixed race of giant people, descendants of the Nephilim...
) is a proper name (Targum Jonathan and the Septuagint), and that he, Anak, may have been the father of the three others mentioned in the Book of Numbers
Book of Numbers
The Book of Numbers is the fourth book of the Hebrew Bible, and the fourth of five books of the Jewish Torah/Pentateuch....
as living in Hebron, previously known as "Kiryat Arba."
Alternatively, the name may refer to the four couples buried in the Machpela Cave: Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebbecca, Jacob and Leah, and according to the Zohar
Zohar
The Zohar is the foundational work in the literature of Jewish mystical thought known as Kabbalah. It is a group of books including commentary on the mystical aspects of the Torah and scriptural interpretations as well as material on Mysticism, mythical cosmogony, and mystical psychology...
, Adam and Eve.
Status under international law
Like all Israeli settlements in the Israeli-occupied territoriesIsraeli-occupied territories
The Israeli-occupied territories are the territories which have been designated as occupied territory by the United Nations and other international organizations, governments and others to refer to the territory seized by Israel during the Six-Day War of 1967 from Egypt, Jordan, and Syria...
, Kiryat Arba is considered illegal under international law, though Israeli disputes this. The international community considers Israeli settlements to violate the Fourth Geneva Convention
Fourth Geneva Convention
The Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, commonly referred to as the Fourth Geneva Convention and abbreviated as GCIV, is one of the four treaties of the Geneva Conventions. It was adopted in August 1949, and defines humanitarian protections for civilians...
's prohibition on the transfer of an occupying power's civilian population into occupied territory. Israel disputes that the Fourth Geneva Convention applies to the Palestinian territories as they had not been legally held by a sovereign prior to Israel taking control of them. This view has been rejected by the International Court of Justice
International Court of Justice
The International Court of Justice is the primary judicial organ of the United Nations. It is based in the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands...
and the International Committee of the Red Cross
International Committee of the Red Cross
The International Committee of the Red Cross is a private humanitarian institution based in Geneva, Switzerland. States parties to the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols of 1977 and 2005, have given the ICRC a mandate to protect the victims of international and...
.
Antiquity
Hebron is one of the earliest towns mentioned in history, and is the first Jewish settlement. According to the Bible (Numbers 13:23) it was founded seven years before Zoan or Tanis, the most ancient town in Lower Egypt, which means that it existed from the first half of the third millennium B.C. Josephus (Bel. Jud., IV, ix, 7) says that in his time the town was already 2300 years old. It was originally called Kiriat Arba, or Kiriat- ha-Arba (D. V. Cariath-Arbe, Genesis 23:2, 35:27; Joshua 14:15, 15:13, 15:54, 20:7, 21:11; Judges 1:10; Nehemiah 11:25) from the name of Arba, “the greatest among the Enacims” (Joshua 14:15).Since 1968
In 1968, a group of JewsJews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
led by Rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
Moshe Levinger
Moshe Levinger
Rabbi Moshe Levinger is an Israeli Religious Zionist who since 1967 has been a leading figure in the movement to settle Jews in the territories occupied by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War...
and Rabbi Eliezer Waldman
Eliezer Waldman
Eliezer Waldman is an Israeli rabbi and former politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Tehiya between 1984 and 1990.-Biography:Born in Petah Tikva during the Mandate era, Waldman attended Yeshiva University and Brooklyn College...
founded Kiryat Arba on the eastern outskirts of Hebron
Hebron
Hebron , is located in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Nestled in the Judean Mountains, it lies 930 meters above sea level. It is the largest city in the West Bank and home to around 165,000 Palestinians, and over 500 Jewish settlers concentrated in and around the old quarter...
. Jewish settlement around Hebron was claimed to be justified in light of the 1929 Hebron massacre
1929 Hebron massacre
The Hebron massacre refers to the killing of sixty-seven Jews on 23 and 24 August 1929 in Hebron, then part of the British Mandate of Palestine, by Arabs incited to violence by rumors that Jews were massacring Arabs in Jerusalem and seizing control of Muslim holy places...
and the continued presence of Jews in the area until then. Building began on an abandoned military base in 1970, and residents moved in 1971. The town is a self-sufficient community, with pre-nursery through post-secondary educational institutions, medical facilities, shopping centers, a bank and a post office
Post office
A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...
. Kiryat Arba attained local council
Local council (Israel)
Local councils are one of the three types of local government found in Israel, with the other two being cities and regional councils. As of 2003, there were 144 local councils in Israel, these being settlements which pass a minimum threshold enough to justify their operations as independent...
status in 1979. While Kiryat Arba is located within the territory of the Har Hebron Regional Council
Har Hebron Regional Council
The Har Hevron Regional Council is an Israeli regional council in the southern Judean Hills area of Mount Hebron, in the southern West Bank. The headquarters are located adjacent to Otniel. The council was established in 1983...
, it is an independent local council.
Neighborhoods
Kiryat Arba consists of four neighborhoods: the Kirya, Ashmoret Yitzhak, Ramat Mamre (also known as Givat Harsina) and Givat Avot, near the entrance of Hebron.Landmarks
Kahane Memorial Park is named for Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of KachKach and Kahane Chai
Kach was a far-right political party in Israel. Founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane in the early 1970s, and following his Jewish nationalist ideology , the party entered the Knesset in 1984 after several electoral failures...
, a far right
Far right
Far-right, extreme right, hard right, radical right, and ultra-right are terms used to discuss the qualitative or quantitative position a group or person occupies within right-wing politics. Far-right politics may involve anti-immigration and anti-integration stances towards groups that are...
political party, who was assassinated in the United States by an Arab gunman. The grave of Baruch Goldstein
Baruch Goldstein
Baruch Kopel Goldstein was an American-born Jewish Israeli physician and mass murderer who perpetrated the 1994 Cave of the Patriarchs massacre in the city of Hebron, killing 29 Palestinian Muslim worshipers and wounding another 125....
, who perpetrated the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre
Cave of the Patriarchs massacre
The Cave of the Patriarchs massacre was a terrorist attack that occurred when Baruch Goldstein, an Israeli settler and member of the far-right Israeli Kach movement, opened fire on unarmed Palestinian Muslims praying inside the Ibrahim Mosque at the Cave of the Patriarchs site in Hebron in the...
, is across the street from the park. According to some news reports, it has become a place of pilgrimage for the far right.
Arab-Israeli conflict
Between 1981-1986, four residents of Kiryat Arba were shot and wounded in the Hebron marketplace. In 1994, a 17-year old girl from Kiryat Arba was shot to death in a drive-by shooting. On August 31, 2010, four Jewish residents, including a pregnant woman, were shot to death in their car outside Kiryat Arba.Notable residents
- Dov LiorDov LiorDov Lior is an Israeli rabbi, who currently serves as the Chief Rabbi of Hebron and Kiryat Arba in the southern West Bank. He is also the rosh yeshiva Kiryat Arba Hesder Yeshiva, and also heads the "Council of Rabbis of Judea and Samaria".-Biography:...
, chief rabbi and rosh yeshivaRosh yeshivaRosh yeshiva, , , is the title given to the dean of a Talmudical academy . It is made up of the Hebrew words rosh — meaning head, and yeshiva — a school of religious Jewish education... - Elyakim Ha'etzni, former lawyer and Knesset member
