Al-Khalīl/Hebron indeed is a special destination in Palestine/Israel, an aspect that is dealt with in #AffectiveTourism book: “Tourism as a political tool is skilfully used by Palestinians to rally international tourists to voice solidarity for life under occupation, such is the case of the city of al-Khalīl/Hebron. Hebron is one of the important Jewish holy places, but also a major Palestinian city (Bowman, 2001; Clarke, 2000), which lies about 20 kilometres south of Bethlehem (BaytLahm in Arabic, BetLehem in Hebrew) and 20 kilometres south of Al Quds/Jerusalem. The city used to be part of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan from 1948 after the end of the British Mandate in Palestine, and went under Israeli control following the 1967 war.
In Hebron, tourists visit the Tomb of the Matriarchs and Patriarchs called the Ibrahimi Mosque by Muslims, and the Cave of Macphelah by Jews (Paine, 1995). This site is on the majority of pilgrimage routes, as it is holy to the three monotheistic religions. Abraham, the father of the three religions, is buried there. As a result of the February 1994 massacre, when Baruch Goldstein opened fire and killed 30 Muslim worshippers in the Ibrahimi Mosque, the uneasy sharing of the site was replaced by an enforced separation of the building (Clarke, 2000). There are now two entrances, one for Jewish and one for Muslim worshippers, each entrance being guarded by Israeli Border Guards.” (page 112).