Mahmoud Jaabari, the 19-year-old grandson of the late Mayor of Hebron, Mohammad Ali Al-Jaabari, will be converted to Judaism next week and has adopted a Hebrew name, Yaacov Ben Avraham. According to a report in Yediot Achronot today, the Arab youth has been studying secretly at the yeshiva in Kiryat Arba, the religious township adjacent to Hebron, for the past three months.
His interest in Judaism was reportedly stimulated by contacts he had with Kiryat Arba residents. He worked with them for a year installing solar heating systems. The newspaper reported Jaabari’s uncle as being in a state of shock when informed of his nephew’s im- pending conversion. He refused to comment before consulting with the rest of the family.
Mahmoud Jaabari’s grandfather served for 40 years as Mayor of Hebron and was that town’s undisputed leader. His role in the 1929 massacre of Hebron Jews remains uncertain. But after Israel occupied Hebron in 1967, Mayor Jaabari cooperated fully with the Israeli authorities. He was always a strong supporter of a Palestinian-Israeli peace settlement.
Jaabari was replaced as Mayor by Fahed Kawassme, a strong Palestinian nationalist who was deported from the West Bank after the ambush slaying of six yeshiva students in Hebron in 1980. Jaabari died several years ago but his family still wields considerable influence in the town.
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