Israel Matzav

Hevron eviction ended

The eviction of the Jews from Beit Shapira in Hevron has now ended. My earlier updates about it are here and here.

Both JPost and Arutz Sheva report that incoming Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter praised the security forces for their restraint. The JPost notes criticism of the police for not having more female officers on hand to evict girls. It also notes the role that the Hevron community leaders played in containing the level of violence, and quotes the police commander as saying that future levels of violence will depend upon the degree of the community's cooperation (that's funny, I thought that the police were the ones who were supposed to see to it that communities don't have violence - silly me!).

But from Arutz Sheva's post-mortem, we see that once again a large segment of society feels that it is excluded and has no means of influence - something that can only foment problems in the future:

MK Matan Vilnai (Labor) expressed the hope that today's eviction would be merely the first step in "the attempt to return law and order in Judea and Samaria."

Women in Green leader Nadia Matar said, "The fact that so many forces are needed to remove three families shows that Olmert won't be able to carry out his evil plan to destroy all of Judea and Samaria. We will bring people to every single house and shack the government tries to destroy."

The Shlissel family moved into the building after having been forced out of another house in Hevron a few months ago. Immediately after being thrown out today, Mrs. Tzippy Shlissel was quoted on Ynet as saying, "The State is controlled by a corrupt gang. It doesn't care about security or about nationalism... This army is a foreign army, just like we felt under the Turks and the British. But Am Yisrael Chai - the People of Israel lives!"

Her husband Rabbi Shlissel said earlier that his lack of confidence in the Supreme Court stems from the fact that "though we bought the property totally legally, the Court can be expected to rule against anything that has the aroma of Judaism or Zionism."

By the way, the YNet article linked above claims that in the end all three families who had signed leases in the building, with the exception of Mrs. Shlissel, left voluntarily.

Finally, there is this curious statement by Prime Minister Olmert at today's cabinet meeting:

“It should be clear that the eviction in Hevron does not reflect government policy.”

The prime minister explained that his government will maintain a hard-line policy against law-breakers in Judea and Samaria, adding, “We will not accept hooliganism and attempts to create facts on the ground using illegal means.”

Does this mean that the next time they will not even wait for the courts to go in and break heads? If so, that civil war is R"L likely to become a reality.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:30 PM