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Uprooting Jews

Police evict Jews from Jewish-owned Hebron home


By Stan Goodenough
December 04, 2008

Israeli police forced their way into a Jewish-owned home in the ancient Jewish city of Hebron Thursday and forcefully evicted the Jews living there, as applauding Palestinian Arabs looked on.

The police were reportedly carrying out the instruction of Israel's law courts, who ruled last month that Jews should vacate the house whose ownership is being disputed by Arabs in Hebron.

Hebron's Arabs hate the Jews and reject totally the right of any Israelis to live in the city. Massively outnumbered, Zionist Jews have risked, and some have paid with, their lives to slowly re-establish a Jewish presence in the place where Israel's founding father's lie buried.

According to the Jewish residents of the "Peace House," as they named it, the court had made its decision completely disregarding the proof of purchase presented by them and by the American Jew who personally paid for the property.

As such, the ruling had been biased in favor of the Arab side, and was being protested by the Jews.

Tens of thousands of Israelis came to Hebron from around the country two weeks ago to show their support for the house residents and to voice their rejection of the court decision.

After they left, the Jewish families and a smaller group of their friends vowed to stay and fight the eviction.

Today they failed, but they have vowed to return and keep on returning no matter how many times they are thrown out.

The eviction took place less than three hours after Defense Minister, Labor Party leader and aspiring prime minister Ehud Barak met with the Council of Jewish Settlements in Judea, Samaria and Gaza (Yesha) and reportedly deceived them into believing that he was willing to negotiate an end to the standoff.

The eviction, described by Jews in the area as "violent," but which Barak insisted was carried out with "minimum force" was denounced by Israeli political leaders including Deputy Prime Minister and Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Eli Yishai.

Yishai, who leads the Ultra-Orthodox Shas Party, suggested that Barak had launched the operation in an effort to boost his party's performance in the opinion polls.

"It's a shame that for rating purposes, the defense minister chose to halt the dialogue process, act in complete disregard of the law and throw people out of their home. Making political use of defense issues will not make the Labor Party more relevant and reinvent something that is outdated."

According to a statement released by the Yesha Council, Barak "acted in a deceitful manner today when he presented a false pretense as if he was working to prevent a violent evacuation, while he in fact gave his approval. A practical possibility for solving the issue without using violence was made possible, but Barak took a shameful one-sided move.

"It's regretful to see that the head of the defense establishment decided to abandon the road of responsibility and reasoning, and chose the road of aggression instead."

Right Wing MK Aryeh Eldad called the eviction "an act of violent madness," and warned that it would end in bloodshed.

Israel's sworn enemies were unabashedly delighted by the sight of Jews battling Jews in order to give them, the Arabs, the benefit of the doubt.

A Channel Two reporter said, "It's impossible to ignore the Palestinians [sic] standing around and applauding as they watch these scenes."

Two hours after they had driven out their countrymen, and as they were welding shut the entrances to the house, Israeli policemen came under fire from Palestinian Arabs.

No injuries were reported.

Not only Arabs, but many others in the international community will have approved the Israeli action.

"As far as the rest of the world is concerned," the BBC's Tim Franks said, speaking from Jerusalem Thursday evening, "all Jewish settlements on the West Bank [sic] are illegal under international law."

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