Under Yitzhak Rabin , the Israeli government proposed closing down the settlement at Tel Rumeida after the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre . Far-right rabbis moved to block evacuation of the settlements by issuing an Halakhic ruling against removal of settlements in Eretz Israel . The collective influence of the settlers and their Rabbis , in what one scholar has called , ' one of the most effective mobilization efforts in settler history , ' persuaded Prime Minister Rabin to back down . The Dir al-Arba ' in mosque , where Hebronite Palestinians had prayed until the mid-1990s , was declared a closed military zone , and converted into a synagogue , renamed by settlers '' Tomb of Ruth and Jesse '' , and thenceforth all access to it by Muslims was forbidden ostensibly for security reasons . According to Karin Aggestam , attempts to convert the mosque into a Jewish national shrine , including painting its door blue , are in violation of the Hebron Protocol , which committed both Israel and Palestine to preserving and protecting the historic character of the city without harm or changes . During the Al-Aqsa Intifada , the Jewish settlement came under regular fire from Palestinian militants
Cave of the Patriarchs massacre
Cave of the Patriarchs massacre
Tel Rumeida