Edelstein: It’s time for Israeli sovereignty in Hebron

The Knesset speaker was visiting the city for a state ceremony to mark 90 years since the Hebron massacre in which 67 Jews were killed.

By TOVAH LAZAROFF
Benjamin Netanyahu and Yuli Edelstein at swearing in of 21st Knesset (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
Benjamin Netanyahu and Yuli Edelstein at swearing in of 21st Knesset
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
The time has come for Israel to apply Israeli sovereignty in Hebron, Knesset speaker Yuli Edelstein said Wednesday as he visited the city for a state ceremony to mark 90 years since the 1929 massacre in which 67 Jews were killed.
“Ninety years after 1929, we have to say in a clear voice, ‘It’s time Hebron. It’s time for sovereignty in Hebron. It’s time for the Jewish community to grow by the thousands in Hebron. It’s time that visiting the Tomb of the Patriarchs will become the easiest and most natural thing to do,’” Edelstein said during a ceremony for the victims in Hebron’s Jewish cemetery.
Holding a state ceremony in Hebron is one step toward sovereignty, he said.
“We have to do everything we can to ensure that when the state ceremony is held for the 100th anniversary of the massacre, it will be held in Israel’s sovereign territory” of Hebron, Edelstein said.
Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev also called on Netanyahu to declare sovereignty on Hebron.
Last week, Netanyahu promised to apply sovereignty to all of Judea and Samaria, which would include Hebron.
"So here we are, and now is the time," she said, adding that this was the moment to say from Hebron that such sovereignty would be applied. She spoke with reporters outside of the Tomb of the Patriarchs, adding that "fate of Hebron, is the fate of Tel Aviv."
Later, when the prime minister made his speech, he did not call for sovereignty.