(IsraelNN.com) Hundreds of people congregated in Peace House between Hevron and Kiryat Arba Monday afternoon, out of fear that security forces would expel its Jewish residents in the next few hours. The Homesh First organization reported that troops were on their way to the site.
Forty-eight Members of Knesset sent a letter to Attorney-General Menachem Mazuz on Sunday, asking him to hold a serious discussion on an eviction order issued last week. The order was issued before residents played an audio tape to the court in which the Arab who used to own the property said he had sold it to the Jews.
by Hillel Fendel Cheshvan 5, 5769 / November 3, '08 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/128210
(IsraelNN.com) Forces are said to be on their way to carry out a violent eviction of Jewish residents in Judea and Samaria - the second such action today.
Urgent text messages, emails and phone calls have been sent over the past hour, asking people to come to Hevron to help thwart a possible planned eviction from Beit HaShalom (Peace House) in the City of the Patriarchs.
Hundreds of people are already there - and the word in and around the building is that the expulsion will take place sometime during the night. Reports of suspicious military and police activity in the area were noted throughout the day, and "a feeling of eviction is in the air," in the words of one Hevron spokesman.
The large, four-story building was purchased by Jews from its original Arab owner several years ago, and nearly 20 Jewish families have been living there for a year and a half. However, Arabs have protested the sale, and the Jewish presence in the building has been frozen. The occupants are not permitted to install electricity, for instance.
Last week, the case come to two dramatic heads. First, a court ruled that because of a doubt as to whether the owner retained certain rights, the Jewish families had until noon the next day to leave on their own. Hours afterwards, the Jewish families presented a tape recording of the seller telling his friend, under no duress at all, that he had sold the building to Jews.
The tape was submitted to the Supreme Court as absolute evidence that, it was felt, would turn the case upside down and prove that the building had been sold as claimed.
To the disappointment of the Jewish side, the Supreme Court has not yet ruled on the new evidence.
Elements in the Jewish Community of Hevron fear that the police, having been tipped off that the Court may hand down an anti-Jewish ruling at any moment, have begun preparing for a forcible eviction.
David Wilder, English spokesman for the Hevron Jewish Community, told IsraelNationalNews from the site, "The building is ours, and any attempt to throw us out is immoral and illegal. It is the result of the wild incitement against the Jews of Judea and Samaria, especially as heard in the government's Cabinet meeting of yesterday, and in the media as well. But we will continue to buy property here whenever we have the chance, and, to put it simply: We will not give up!"
50 MKs urge Mazuz to reconsider eviction order for Hebron building
Fifty MKs, including 10 from the coalition, sent a letter to Attorney-General Menahem Mazuz on Sunday asking him to reconsider his decision to issue an eviction order against settlers living in a building in Hebron because of new evidence submitted to the High Court of Justice last week.
The new evidence, submitted Thursday, is a tape recording of a phone conversation between the Palestinian who claims to own the building, Faez Rajabi, and an unidentified Palestinian.
Rajabi told his interlocutor he had carried out renovations in the building at the request of the man he had sold the building to, Ayoub Jaber, a front man for the settlers.
According to attorney Nadav Ha'etzni, who represents petitioners asking the court to overrule the government's decision to implement the eviction order, the tape proves not only that Rajabi had sold the building, but that possession of it had been legally transferred to the settlers.
The state's position is that Rajabi was still in possession of the building when settlers allegedly illegally occupied it on March 19, 2007.
"We, MKs from different factions, ask you to seriously reconsider the matter of the eviction order against the inhabitants of Beit Hashalom [the settlers' name for the disputed building] because of the new evidence submitted to the state prosecution on Thursday," the lawmakers wrote in the letter to Mazuz.
The petitioners had strong proof that the building belonged to them on the day the settlers took it over, the legislators wrote, but the High Court cannot consider it because it does not deal with property disputes or hear testimony.
Unless the state agrees to reconsider the eviction order, the settlers will have to leave the building until the lower court - in this case the Jerusalem District Court - rules on the dispute, the MKs continued.
This could take years. "Such an outcome would constitute a terrible injustice," wrote the MKs.
Among those who signed were six Kadima MKs - Yoel Hasson, Shlomo Mula, Ze'ev Elkin, David Tal, Michael Nudelman and Othniel Schneller. Four members of the Gil Pensioners Party also signed the letter.
Meanwhile, the state rejected the petitioners' request to stop the proceedings in the High Court while it examines the new evidence.
According to the state's representatives, attorneys Osnat Mandel and Gilad Shirman, the petitioners were stalling.
They said that the petitioners had the tape months ago but only now submitted it to the court. Mandel and Shirman called on the court to hand down its verdict after the petitioners rejected the justice's suggestion to withdraw the petition and leave the disputed structure voluntarily until the ownership dispute was settled. Twenty families currently live in the four story structure located on Worshipers Way, halfway between Kiryat Arba and Hebron's Machpela Cave.
In his response to the prosecution's rejection of the evidence, Ha'etzni told the court, "This is an extremely grave position that ignores the facts, the law, judicial rulings and, even more serious, ignores the fundamental obligation to act fairly and justly. We are talking here about out-and-out oppression."
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