« Chêne d’Abraham » [“Abraham's Oak”]

Nowadays, in the meanwhile deforested grove of Mamre near Hebron thrives only one bushy "oak", ostensibly 5,000 years old and of venerable beauty, under which the great forefather Abraham supposedly pitched his wandering hut. So it says in the holy scriptures. The tomb of Abraham also lies in Hebron, and the Arabic name of the city which is today located in the West Bank, al-Khalīl ("the friend [of God]"), equally refers to the common ancestors of the Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Hebron is sacred to many, and where something is deemed to be highly sacred and historical, it gets a little bit complicated.

Once the "Oak of Abraham" was a tourist magnet. Jews and Christians, to whom access was forbidden to the cave where, according to legend, the patriarch and matriarch lie buried, perform their prayers there. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the tree branches still sporadically bore leaves. In 1996 the main trunk died; since then, heavy iron clamps hold the rest of the tree together. Watchtowers, walls, fences and checkpoints characterise the urban image of Hebron today. In 1998 a small shoot of "Abraham's Oak" is said to have pierced through the ground.