By Chika Abanobi
#HEBRON
In August 2024, the Israeli army stormed the city of Hebron on a Saturday, in search of militants. While others raided houses and searched homes, snipers took positions on rooftops of adjacent residential buildings.
But Hebron said to be the richest and most populated city in the West Bank has not always been like that. The tension between Israeli settlers and Palestinian locals became heightened after the horrendous attack of Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023.
This was what necessitated the constant patrols by Israeli soldiers in the Old City. They were doing all they can to protect some 800 Israeli settlers who built a community known as Kibbutz, in Hebrew language, around the Cave of the Patriarchs, a sacred shrine to Jews and Muslims.
The soldiers did not want them to suffer similar attacks in the hands of their Arab neighbours. For instance, three Israeli police officers were killed, last month, September 2024, at a checkpoint in Hebron, by unknown gunmen.
What the city is known for in Bible days
But in the Bible, Hebron started, not as a place of mindless blood-letting, informed by years of hatred and unforgiving spirit, but a place where Abram, later called Abraham, built an altar for God after He appeared to reaffirm to him His promise. This was shortly after Lot separated from him (Genesis 13:11-18). This is also where he buried his wife, Sarah (Genesis 23:19).
In Joshua 14:15, we read that the name of Hebron before was Kirjath-Arba, Arba being a great man among the Anakims (Joshua 14:15). Hebron was the place given to Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, as an inheritance (Joshua 14:13-15). But in the Bible, the most important thing that we remember Hebron for is, that it is the place where David was not only crowned king (2 Samuel 2:1-7, 11) but also gave birth to most of his children (2 Samuel 3: 2-5).
Ben Gurion’s view on the place of Hebron
This is why David Ben Gurion, former Prime Minister of Israel, and one of the founding fathers of modern Israel strongly believes that the city is more important to the Jews than Jerusalem.
Although Israel relinquished control over it to Arab Palestinians in the armistice agreement it signed with Yasser Arafat, going by his opinion in that interview he had with BBC, it shouldn’t have been so.
He said: “Hebron is more Jewish than Jerusalem. Jerusalem became Jewish three thousand years ago under King David. But Hebron became Jewish four thousand years ago under Abraham.”
#JERICHO:
It is part of the Promised Land. Allotted to the tribe of Ephraim and Manasseh, in those days, it began at the Jordan, east of the springs of Jericho, and went up from there through the desert into the hill country of Bethel.
But many Christians met the name for the first time, through the accounts on the conquest of the old city, under Joshua (Joshua 2:1-7; 6:1-27). They even sing about “the wall of Jericho falling down flat as the children of God were praising the Lord.”
Searching the scriptures on Jericho
But a diligent search of the scriptures would show that the place had been in existence long before the city wall came up and later came crashing down like a pack of cards, under Joshua (Numbers 22:1; 26:3,63; 31:12; 33:50; 24:15; 35:13; Deut. 32:49; 34:1-3).
In the New Testament, it was here that Jesus met with the blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus. When he learnt that He was passing by, he cried aloud, asking Him to have mercy on him.
But the more people tried to hush him, the louder he cried out for mercy. Exhibiting a resilience that is rare among Christians of today, he did not stop until he attracted the attention and miracle of healing he was hoping for (Mark 10:46-52).
The Palestinian dilemma
Today, modern Jericho which came out of the ruins of its ancient site is located in the eastern part of West Bank.
In January 2024, Israeli forces shot dead in the city some young men said to be members of Hamas. They were busy, allegedly, planning an attack against an Israeli interest. But on Tuesday, October 1, 2024, a Palestinian man in the city was killed by falling missile debris from one of the 180 ballistic missiles Iran launched against Israel. So? Observers are asking: which way, Palestinians?
#NAZARETH
Formerly a Jewish village during the Roman and Byzantine periods, it is described in the New Testament as the childhood home of Jesus (Matthew 2:23; 4:13; 21:11; 26:71; Luke 2:39, 40, 51).
Today, it is home to about 80,000 residents, 60 per cent of whom are Arab-Israelis, while 30.9 per cent are Christians. Nathaniel, the man who said “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” and the one Jesus called “an Israelite in whom is no guile” comes from the city (John 1:45-47).
From the Lord’s remarks about Nathaniel, we understand that if there is no guile or craftiness involved (Psalm 34:13; 1 Peter 2:1), it doesn’t take long for any war going on anywhere, whether within or outside us (James 4:1), to come to a stop.
Making hidden things known in Nazareth
Jesus said that there is nothing hidden that shall not be made manifest (Luke 8: 17; Mark 4:22). This truth came to pass in Nazareth in the first week of November, 2023, when Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, in a bid to capture and keep by his side, its huge Arab population, screened for public viewing a 43-minute long video of violent rape committed by the invading Hamas operatives against young Israeli women.
Before the public screening came up in Nazareth, the film, produced uncensored by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), had been shown to journalists and to members of Israel’s Knesset (parliament). There had also been limited screenings around the world, including the United Nations. The reason Israel did this was to rally support for its war against Hamas. Before then, Hamas seemed to be winning the propaganda war, by mobilising the entire world’s opinion, including university campus students in the United States, against Israel.
In the same November 2023, the Israeli police arrested Mohammad Barakeh, an Arab-Israeli, for attempting to organize, in Nazareth, an anti-war protest against the conflict. A former member of the Knesset (1999-2015), he is currently the head of the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel.
On Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, when Iran fired about 180 ballistic missiles at Israel, some of the stray missiles fell in Nazareth. Iran claimed, though, that its missiles were not aimed at civilian targets and infrastructures but at military bases and the headquarters of Mossad, Israel’s intelligence service.
#CAESARIA
The town is the capital of the Roman province of Judea in 6. A.D. It was also a major intellectual centre during the time of Herod and later an important centre for religious study and learning. Origen, the great early Christian scholar and apologist, was said to have visited Caesarea in 231 AD and turned the city into a centre of Christian studies and scholarship.
Besides Azotus and a few other cities on the way, it was one of the towns in which Philip preached, after being caught away by the Spirit of God while coming out of the water with the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:40). It was also the hometown/service station of Cornelius, “a centurion of the band called the Italian band” (Acts 10:1). He is said by church history to be the first Gentile Christian convert.
The reason for the demonstrations in Caesaria
Today, Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence is located in Caesaria, just as Generals Ibrahim Babangida and Abdusalami Abubakar’s houses are in Minna, or Muhammadu Buhari’s is, in Daura or as Olusegun Obasanjo’s is in Ota.
On November 4, and December 2, 2023, protests were held near Netanyahu’s residence, to pressurise his government to negotiate with Hamas to release the hostages.
Angry demonstrators said to number about 3,000 shouted through the megaphones, waved flags and banged on drums while police officers guarding the place stood by, looking on, at the barricades
“We’ve been abandoned – Elections now!” read one of the placards carried by the protesters. “How much more blood will be spilt until you leave,” they chanted. “Bring home the hostages and leave!”
#ASHKELON:
In the Old Testament, the city is remembered as the place where Samson slew 30 Philistines, took their clothes and belongings and gave them to men who gave correct answers to his riddle (Judges 14:10-19).
The city used to be the oldest and largest seaport in Canaan, and part of the pentapolis (a grouping of five cities) of the Philistines, north of Gaza City and south of Jaffa.
Today, it’s still a coastal city in the Southern District of Israel, on the Mediterranean coast, just like Warri, Apapa, Calabar and Lokoja are, in Nigeria.
The hostage from Ashkelon
Located 50 kilometres, south of Tel Aviv and 13 north of the border with Gaza, Alexander Lobanov, one of the 251 people taken hostage on October 7, 2023, at the Nova music festival, comes from this town.
As you know, the 32-year-old father of two, who worked as bar manager at the music festival, was murdered in cold blood, in the last week of August, by Hamas operatives, along with other five Israelis.
- Abanobi, pioneer staff, Weekend Concord, former Associate Editor, The Sun newspaper, Lagos, and winner of Governor Olusegun Mimiko Prize for Foreign News Reporter of the Year: 2018 Nigeria Media Merit Award (NMMA) is member, Journalists for Christ International Fellowship. All rights reserved. No part of this write-up should be republished without the author’s permission.