Tel Rumeida

Tel Rumeida/Jabla al Rahama (Arabic: تل رميدة‎‎; Hebrew: תל רומיידה‎‎) is an agricultural and residential area in the West Bank city of Hebron. Within it lies an archaeological tell whose remains go back to the Chalcolithic period. It may have been a Canaanite royal city. Some Jewish scholars believe it was the location of biblical Hebron. It is also the location of a Palestinian neighbourhood and an Israeli settlement.

The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law, but the Israeli government disputes this.

Tel Rumeida is an agricultural and residential location on a slope to the west of Hebron's old quarter, running down east from Jebel Rumeida. On the east there is a spring, 'Ain Judēde. It lies at the edge of the zone, H2, and extends into a Palestinian quarter. Several Palestinian homes lie on the tel's apex, a further cluster lies north, and to the east by Ein Jadide. Lower down, to the north-east, are 3 parallel thick-walled vaults called es Sakawati, and slightly bfurther east the tomb of Sheikh al Mujahid/ Abu es Sakawati.

Much of the land is owned or worked by several Palestinian families, among them the Natshe and Abu Haikals. Three lots of land are regarded as in Jewish ownership, having been purchased in the 19th century by the old Jewish Hebronite community:2, lots 52 and 53, to the north, and one the south side. The Jewish settlement is called, Jesse's Lands (Admot Yishai). A Karaite cemetery, called er Rumeidy exists to the north-west, containing some 500 tombs.

Tel Rumeida is the oldest site in the city of Hebron. Pringle suggests that the site excavated 200–300 metres east of the hilltop mosque represents the old Kiryat Arba described by the Dominican pilgrim Burchard of Mount Sion in 1293 as vetus civitas quondam Cariatharbe dicta.

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