Ninety years after the 1929 slaughter of 67 Jews in Hebron at the hands of Arab rioters, ministers and MKs from the Likud, Shas, and smaller right-wing parties have asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to greenlight construction in the Jewish-owned wholesale market area of Hebron.
The lawmakers sent their appeal to Netanyahu ahead of his first scheduled visit to Hebron since 1998.
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The market area of Hebron is owned by Jews, but after the Jewish quarter of the city was wiped out in 1929, Arabs took it over. For the past 25 years, the area has stood empty after it was shut down following Baruch Goldstein's 1994 massacre of 29 Muslim worshippers at the Cave of the Patriarchs.
Nine months ago, Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit decided that the land belonged to Jews. Following that decision, head of the Hebron Jewish community Avraham Ben-Yosef called to build a renewed Jewish neighborhood there. Now 17 Likud ministers and MKs are backing Ben-Yosef's initiative.
Maj. Gen. (res.) Uzi Dayan has spent the last few days collecting signatures in favor of a Jewish neighborhood to be built in the Hebron market.
The Prime Minister's Office said the request was under review.
