The Mirror of a City’s Culture is its Residents: A Comparative Study of Hebron and Bethlehem

Abstract

The current research aims to identify the social and political history that both Bethlehem and Hebron experienced which contributed to the formation of different social and cultural structure. Historical, demographic, educational and economical information was gathered to analyze the role of the city in creating a civilized reference for its countryside. In order to accomplish this task, the ongoing role of the leadership in both cities has been analyzed especially in the political sphere as well as the religious characteristics - as in Hebron - and the tolerance in Bethlehem. The research concludes that there is a continuity of leaderships from notable families that had great influence since the 19th century as the case in Hebron, and so finds an impact of the family structure on all of the daily life; community institutions and administrative, together with their limited role and freedom of women in public sphere is apparent in Hebron more than in Bethlehem, where the latter - represented by the city center and its elite - improved the values of urban and civil linked to the lives of the city more than Hebron, this is confirmed by selective of demographic, educational and economic characteristics, derived from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.

Keywords: City, Civil, Elite, Family