 |
 |
 |
|
|
Peretz: kiss Hebron Peace House goodbye?
|
|
|
|
|
|
| By israelinsider staff April 6, 2007 |
|
| |
 Bookmark to del.icio.us |
| |
 |
| Hebron Peace House on the evening it was entered (Hebron Community) |
| |
Thousands of police and soldiers would be required to throw Jews out of their newly-purchased "Peace House" in Hebron if a deal is not struck to voluntarily evacuate the building, security establishment officials said on Friday morning, Army Radio reported. Defense Minister Amir Peretz announced Thursday night that within two weeks he would remove the settlers who on March 19 moved into the four-story building on the road linking the Judean city of Kiryat Arba with the Cave of the Patriarchs. But sources in the ruling Kadima party suggested that an expulsion order was unlikely to be executed.
MK Effi Eitam (NRP-NU) said that Peretz had made the decision out of political considerations. "It is plain to see that the defense minister is not acting against the house in Hebron but against the house he is sitting in -- the government and the coalition," Eitam told Army Radio on Friday morning. He noted that the house had been bought legally -- a fact not contested by the Defense Minister -- and said that the objections were "a real provocation."
Peretz's announcement surprised the settlers in the apartment building, called the Hebron Peace House. They had assumed that their presence in the 3,500-square meter stone structure was permissible, because, they said, they had legally purchased the structure for $700,000. (The seller reportedly faces a death threat.) However, existing regulations reportedly gives the Defense Minister the right to prevent entry into the building, and no one had asked his permission, although the IDF protected the new residents as they entered.
A source in the Defense Ministry said that while the sale appeared to be legal, they had not entered the building according to the proper procedure. Peretz, the source said, took a "principled decision to evacuate those who had invaded the home." He did so after consulting with Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, legal advisers and other security officials, said the source, according to a report in the Jerusalem Post. Authorities are now looking for the proper legal tools to evacuate the settlers, the Defense Ministry source said.
Around the time the settlers moved in, the Temporary International Presence in Hebron, an observer group, said in a press release that the IDF had informed it that the settlers had entered the building. The army, according to TIPH, said, "The settlers bought the building from the Palestinian owner, and had a document to prove ownership."
However, Peretz said government policy should not be determined by the settlers' purchasing a building, but rather that "it is the government's policy that should determine the purchasing."
Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh said Friday that settlers occupying a vacant Palestinian building in Hebron will be removed from the structure by April 19, one month after they entered the site. In an interview with Army Radio, Sneh said that the authorization of the defense establishment was required to enter the site, regardless of the issue of ownership of the building.
Sneh added that the settlers' action was in essence an expansion of the Jewish settlement in Hebron -- an action requiring cabinet approval, he claimed.
"The selection of this building was not incidental," said Sneh. "This building is not next to other settler homes in Hebron. It is part of these people's strategic attempt to change the internal situation in Hebron."
Hebron's Jewish community fiercely protested Peretz's decision. "We know the defense minister has been looking for an excuse to expel us. We know that the sale was legal. We think that any attempt made to subvert the law and to expel us for any technical excuse is racist and anti-Semitic," said community spokesman David Wilder.
He said the site had been visited by parliamentarians, including MK Otniel Schneller of Kadima, and that over the last two days some 50,000 visitors had come to Hebron to celebrate Pessah. Indeed, a report in Israel National News indicates that Schneller and other Kadima MKs would oppose Peretz's edict.
Schneller said Friday morning in an interview on Voice of Israel government radio that most Kadima legislators, including Prime Minister Ehud Olmert "will have a different opinion" than Peretz on the matter. "Everything was done according to the law, he said, "and if Prime Minister Olmert is convinced that the building was legally purchased, the government will not support the Defense Minister."
Schneller told The Jerusalem Post that the Jews' presence in the building helped secure the access road to the Cave and conformed to government policy. He added that in light of the probable court proceedings, Peretz was unlikely to be in office long enough to implement his decision to evacuate the structure.
Wilder echoed that statement, saying that Peretz's chief concern these days should be his own political career, in light of the expected findings of the Winograd Committee investigating his actions during the Second Lebanon War and the May 28 primary for leadership of the Labor Party.
"It is obvious that soon he will not be defense minister. He should not make decisions that might have long-term effects while his job is in jeopardy," said Wilder.
He added that the community would appeal the decision to the High Court of Justice. |
|
 
|
|
|
|
Click on the blue headline to read a Talkback comment and respond to it. Click on the  icon to send a private email to the talkback writer. The icon appears only if the writer has decided to be contacted. If no popup window appears, please make sure your popup blocker allows israelinsider.com.
|
|
| |
|
|
