Netanyahu: Hebron won’t be Judenrein

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised that Jews would remain in the biblical West Bank city of Hebron forever when he made history Wednesday by becoming the first Israeli prime minister to deliver a public speech in Hebron.

Netanyahu is fighting for enough right-wing support to ensure that his party beats top rival Blue and White in the September 17 election.

But while the very fact of his visit was significant, he did not follow it with any dramatic announcements.

He did not speak of the application of sovereignty in Hebron or elsewhere in Judea and Samaria, even though two Likud ministers, Yuli Edelstein and Miri Regev, had called on him to do so.

“We did not come to dispossess anyone, but neither will we be dispossessed,” he said.

He did promise that he would address issues raised regarding access for those with disabilities to the Tomb of the Patriarchs and issues of property rights.

Yet, there was no definitive announcement authorizing Jewish building at the site of the abandoned market stalls in the Avraham Avenu neighborhood.

Attempts to rebuild Jewish Hebron after the 1929 Hebron massacre did not succeed, Netanyahu said, but the hope for the community’s revitalization did not fade. Instead it materialized after the Six Day War, Netanyahu said.

Jews can now enter the Tomb of the Patriarchs, whereas beforehand they could not go past the seventh step.

“We erased the disgrace of the seventh step,” he said. “We have secured the freedom of religious worship for all: Jews, Muslims and everyone.

“If were not here, that would not have happened,” he continued.

More significantly, he said, a Jewish community was rebuilt in Hebron that was a restoration of historical justice.