Astonishing and shameful

Last week I had the honor of being present at the ceremony commemorating the 90th anniversary of the Hebron massacre of 1929. I was part of a delegation representing a coalition of British Christian organizations known as Love Never Fails.

We were invited to lay a wreath to express our sorrow and shame at the fact that the British Mandate authorities failed to provide protection for the Jewish population in Hebron when it was well-known that a pogrom was about to take place. Sixty-seven Jewish people were murdered, and scores more were maimed, and bore the scars for the rest of their lives.

The Jewish community in Hebron was among the oldest in the world, having had a continuous presence there since the Babylonian Exile more than 2,500 years ago. Instead of bringing the Arab perpetrators to justice, the British authorities ethnically cleansed Hebron of its Jewish population. This was, in principle, a violation of Article 6 of the Mandate for Palestine, let alone more recent international protocols.

The visit of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Hebron this past month to mark this occasion was an important milestone after the city was largely ceded (at the Wye Agreement in 1999) to those who work toward Israel’s destruction. Historically and sequentially Hebron was the second capital city of Israel after Shiloh and before Jerusalem.

As a British person I find it both astonishing and shameful that the international community, including my own nation, refuses to acknowledge the Jewish right of dwelling in any of these historic key cities, which was recognized in international law through the Mandate for Palestine and the League of Nations. HUGH KITSON Sussex, UK