(IsraelNN.com) Science Minister Prof.-Rabbi Daniel Hershkowitz, chairman of the Jewish Home party, visited Hevron Tuesday and was surprised to discover a flourishing Arab economy while the Jewish Quarter is restricted from expanding.
The freshman minister, whose three-Knesset Member party is a government coalition partner, toured the Jewish area and saw rising Arab skyscrapers and a new mall in the background.
Hevron Jewish leaders explained to him restrictions of civil rights to Jews and asked the minister for help thaw the freeze on building for Jews. Hevron, one of the four cities in Israel that are traditionally referred to as holy, was the first area in Judea and Samaria to which Jews returned after it was restored to the Jewish State in the Six-Day War in 1967.
Jewish leaders in the city also explained to him the plight of Jewish owners of buildings where the High Court ordered them to leave temporarily, but the office of the attorney-general later ruled they could not return. The buildings remain empty.
The Science Minister went to a Hevron yeshiva where students are forced to live in crowded rooms because of the government clamp on Jewish expansion. He also toured the Patriarchs' Cave, where Arabs frequently try to attack visitors and soldiers, and visited the Jewish museum.
"There are people who see more value in a human contract than a G-dly contract," he said. "We indeed have a G-dly contract on the entire Land of Israel, but here at the Cave of our Patriarchs there is also a human contract – we read clearly in the Torah that our forefather Abraham bought this place for 400 shekels [Biblical weight of silver], there's no question about that. And so, here we have both – G-dly taboo, and human taboo. This place belongs to the nation of Israel and it will always stay in the hands of the nation of Israel. We're looking forward to the days when there will be no limitations for Jews in any area of the Cave of our Patriarchs."
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/134610