Tel Rumeida (; ), also known as Jabla al-Rahama and Tel Hebron is an archaeological, agricultural and residential area in the West Bank city of Hebron. Within it, lies a tell whose remains go back to the Chalcolithic period, and is thought to constitute the Canaanite, Israelite and Edomite settlements of Hebron mentioned in the Hebrew Bible and Second Temple period literature.
While most of the site's area is used as an agricultural land, it is also the location of a Palestinian neighbourhood and an Israeli settlement.Charles Selengut, Our Promised Land: Faith and Militant Zionism in Israeli Settlements Rowman & Littlefield, 2015 978-1-442-21687-7 p.88 The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law, but the Israeli government disputes this.
Topological description Tel Rumeida is an agricultural and residential location on a slope to the west of Hebron's old quarter, running down east from Jebel Rumeida (from which it takes its name). On the east there is a spring, 'Ain Judēde. It lies at the edge of the administrative H2 zone and extends into a Palestinian quarter. Several Palestinian homes lie on the tel's apex, a further cluster lies north, and to the east by Ein Jadide ('Ain Judēde). Lower down, to the north-east, are three parallel thick-walled vaults called es-Sakawati, and slightly further east the tomb of Sheikh al-Mujahid/Abu es-Sakawati.Claude Reignier Conder, Herbert Kitchener, The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology, Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund, London, 1883, Vol 3 pp.327-8.
Much of the land is owned or worked by several Palestinian families, among them the Natshe and Abu Haikals. Three lots of land are regarded as in Jewish ownership, having been purchased in the 19th century by the old Jewish Hebronite community: 2, lots 52 and 53, to the north, and one the south side. The Jewish settlement is called Jesse's Lands (Admot Yishai). Er-Rumeidy, a Jewish Karaite cemetery containing around 500 tombs, is located to the north-west.
Archaeology Tel Rumeida is the site of the ancient city of Hebron. Denys Pringle suggests that the site excavated east of the hilltop mosque represents the old Kiryat Arba described by the Dominican pilgrim Burchard of Mount Sion in 1293 as "vetus civitas quondam Cariatharbe dicta".Denys Pringle, The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: A Corpus: Volume 2, L-Z, Cambridge University Press, 1998 pp.203-204. The occupational sequence of the settlement is very similar to Jerusalem's.
Chalcolithic The settlement dates back to at least the Chalcolithic period, c. 3500 BCE.
Bronze Age Early Bronze III During the Early Bronze III (EB; 2800–2500 BCE) the settlement expanded, with a fortified area extending over 30 dunams. This settlement was subsequently abandoned.
Middle Bronze It was reoccupied and rebuilt in the Middle Bronze I–II periods (2000–1600), and girded by cyclopean walls built with stones measuring by .Jericke, p. 21
A cuneiform economic text, with 4 personal names and a list of animals,Jericke, 21–22. unearthed at the site and dated 17–16 century BCE indicates Tel Rumeida/Hebron was composed of a multicultural pastoral society of Hurrians and Amorites, run by an independent administrative system with its palace scribes perhaps under kingly rule.Richard S. Hess, Israelite Religions: An Archaeological and Biblical Survey, Baker Academic, 2007 p.136
Late Bronze The Late Bronze Age (LBA; 1500–1200) levels have yielded signs of a settlement, including pottery, domestic structures and a scarab of Ramesses II, while the previous Middle Bronze city wall was still in use. According to Jericke, neither Tel Rumeida nor the surrounding Hebron area show signs of a major settlement at this time, throughout this period, when the centre of the region was located in biblical Debir/Khirbet Rabud.Jericke, p.24. Chadwick, however, argues that archaeological findings indicate that Tel Rumeida was a thriving city throughout the Late Bronze period.
Iron Age Iron I Tel Rumeida was also settled during Iron Age I and IIA (1200–1000), with structures attesting to a walled settlement in the transition from LBA to IA1. Ofer infers on the basis of some material excavated to the north that this was a "Golden Age for Hebron", characterized by intensive settlement (11–10th centuries BCE).Jericke, p.25 This Iron I city may have been destroyed by Sheshonq I during his campaign in the late-10th century BCE.
Iron II Findings attest to a third phase of settlement from the Iron Age IIA, when Hebron formed part of the Kingdom of Judah, until its destruction during Sennacherib's campaign. Signs of this settlement above the EBIII and MBII fortified city are 8th-century BCE four-room houses, granaries and LMLK seal stamps "for the king, Hebron" (lmlk ḫbrn) on jar handles.Jericke, p.27. Fragments of jars and burnished vessels may suggest that there was a small-scale occupation. Some Bronze Age fortifications were enhanced in the Iron IIB period, possibly by King Hezekiah in anticipation of the Assyrian invasion. After the destruction of this city, a new Iron IIC settlement was established in the second half of the 7th century BCE.
Babylonian and Persian periods The last Israelite settlement at Tel Rumeida was destroyed in 586 BCE, and the town's population city became predominantly Edomite throughout the subsequent Babylonian and Persian periods.Thomas L. Thompson, Biblical Narrative and Palestine's History: Changing Perspectives 2, Routledge 2014 p.335.Jerold Auerbach, Hebron Jews: Memory and Conflict in the Land of Israel, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2009 p.24.
Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine periods In 167 BCE, this Idumean settlement, attested during Hellenistic times was devastated by Judah Maccabee who wrecked its fortress walls, leaving only a gate tower. The Edomite survivors moved downhill to relocate in Machpelah,Auerbach pp.23–25. to remain the majority population of Hebron down to Roman times.
During the 2014 excavations, Lot 53 yielded a large, Early Roman period large compound.
The Late Roman period sees a new settlement (3–4th centuries CE) that survived into the Byzantine period, by which time the centre of the city moved from Tel Rumeida to what is now the Old City of Hebron.
Deir Al Arba'een
On the top of Tel Rumeida (Jabal Rumeida) are the ruins of the Deir Al Arba'een complex which contains three distinct edifices, consisting of two ruins and a tomb complex. The PEF Survey of Palestine described it as "a modern Arabic work on older foundations". The Deir al-Arba'een was, according to Platt, probably built to fulfill two functions, that of a fortress and government building. One tomb is known as the Tomb of Jesse and Ruth, and another as the tomb the Tomb of as-Saqawātī.
Tomb of Jesse and Ruth
The Jewish settlers of Hebron, carrying on an earlier Hebronite Jewish tradition of reverence for the place, view Deir Al Arba'een as the ancient burial site of two biblical figures: Jesse, father of David, and Ruth the Moabite, David's great-grandmother. The tombs ascribed to Jesse and Ruth are visited frequented, especially during Shavuot, by Jews and converts to Judaism who come to pay homage for Ruth.Tovah Lazaroff, 'Converts pay homage to Ruth at her Hebron tomb', Jerusalem Post, 18 May 2010. Over time, the site has also functioned as a small informal prayer space, reflecting its role in contemporary religious practice alongside its traditional identification. Limited maintenance and minor improvements were carried out intermittently, though the site remained relatively undeveloped for much of the late 20th century. A Torah scroll placed inside it by settlers has been removed by the IDF,Marshall J. Breger, Yitzhak Reiter, Leonard Hammer (eds.), Sacred Space in Israel and Palestine: Religion and Politics, Routledge, 2013 p.479A. Nir, N. Shragai, 'IDF Removes Torah Scroll Placed BY Settlers in Jesse's Tomb', Haaretz (Hebrew) 22 November 1995 and the site was vandalized in 2007.Rebecca Anna Sotil, 'Vandals damage Jesse's Tomb in Hebron', Jerusalem Post, 30 January 2007. Left-wing archaeological critics view the excavations on the site as pretexts for expanding the settlement—the City of David (Ir David) and Susya are compared—a form of 'annexation in the guise of archaeology'.Haaretz Editorial, 'Hebron Dig: Annexation in the Guise of Archaeology', Haaretz, 10 January 2014Hanne Eggen Røislien, 'Living with Contradiction: Examining the Worldview of the Jewish Settlers in Hebron' , IJCV, Vol.1 (2) 2007, pp.169–184.
The tomb of as-Saqawātī Lower down the hill there are 3 parallel vaults in an olive grove, at the eastern end of which is a tomb called as-Saqawātī. It stands next to a mulberry tree bearing an Arabic inscription which refers to a certain Sayyid, or lineal descendant of Mohammad, by the name Muḥammad Ibn ‘Abdallah al-Ḥusayni, from whom a Hebronite clan, the Āl ash-Sharīf, claim descent, saying he was a Maghrebi Arab from the as-Sāqiyah al-Ḥamrā’, from which his nisba, or onomastic for place of descent, seen in the tomb's local name, Saqawātī, is derived. According to this narrative, the person arrived in Jerusalem with Saladin in 1187, taught at the Al-Aqsa Mosque and then settled in Hebron. Moshe Sharon suspects this story to be a fabrication by the clan. A local legend has it that the structure lies in the open because all roofs built over it would collapse. The site is still a place for prayers, especially in times of drought.Moshe Sharon, Corpus Inscriptionum Arabicarum Palaestinae, Vol 5, H-I BRILL, 2013 pp.45-52.
Property claims 1807–1967 In 1807, Rabbi Haim Yeshua Hamitzri (Haim the Jewish Egyptian), a Sephardic Jewish immigrant from Egypt, purchased 5 dunams on the periphery of the Old City of Hebron, and, in 1811, signed two lease contracts for 800 dunams of land, among which were 4 plots at Tel Rumeida. The duration of the lease was 99 years. Since his descendant Haim Bajaio, the last Sephardic rabbi in the city, administered it after the Jews were evacuated from Hebron, it is believed that the lease must have been renewed. These properties were appropriated by the Jordanian government in 1948, and the Israeli government in 1967.
Jewish claims since 1967 It is on the basis of the original lease taken out for 99 years by Haim Yeshua Hamitzri that the current Jewish settlers, none of whom is related to the original lessee, then asserted a claim to the land in Tel Rumeida, a claim dismissed by Haim Hanegbi, a founder of Matzpen, who argues that settlers in Hebron have no right to speak in the name of the old Jewish families of the city.Edward Platt, City of Abraham: History, Myth and Memory: A Journey through Hebron, Pan Macmillan 2012, pp.79ff; p.129Michelle Campos, 'Remembering Jewish-Arab Contact and Conflict', in Mark LeVine (ed.),Reapproaching Borders: New Perspectives on the Study of Israel-Palestine, Rowman & Littlefield, 2007 pp.41-66; p.41.
The Israeli Supreme Court ruled in 2011 that Jews have no right to properties they possessed in places like Hebron and Tel Rumeida before 1948.Chaim Levinsohn, 'Israel Supreme Court Rules Hebron Jews Can't Reclaim Lands Lost After 1948 ,' Haaretz 18 February 2011.
Arab claims