Abstract
The Old City of Hebron has a compact urban fabric mainly composed of open courthouses. Before deterioration, extended families inhabited these residential quarters. The rehabilitation process since 1996 by Hebron Rehabilitation Committee (HRC) has brought new residents to fill these empty courthouses after their restoration. The selection of these residents has been based on a special policy where both the original owners and HRC have participated in this process. The purpose of this research is to analyze the new social structure resulted from this policy, through examination the family kinship level of the newly selected residents. This research has found that the policy has preserved a close-knit community character on family kinship level but with a difference between the residents selected by HRC and those selected by property owners. Although few owners moved back, these owners and their relatives are now occupying more than one third of the rehabilitated units. In addition, there is a good level of family kinship among the newly selected residents on both levels; the courthouse units and the general neighborhood.
