Israel Matzav

The purchase of Shalom House in Hebron

In March of 2007, some three hundred revenants moved into Shalom House in Hebron, which is located on the road from Kiryat Arba to Hebron's Machpeila Cave. The building had been purchased from its former Arab owners for some $700,000 in cash. Almost immediately, Prime Minister Ehud K. Olmert's leftist government, then represented by defenseless 'defense minister' Comrade Peretz, tried to expel the Jews from the building that the community had purchased.

Our hopeless sap of a 'defense' minister, Amir Comrade Peretz has declared war against the Jews, giving the residents of the Shalom House on the border between Kiryat Arba and Hebron 24 hours to evacuate the building. Some three hundred revenants have been living in the Shalom House - which was purchased two years ago from its former Arab owners - for the last three weeks. Extreme leftist attorney general Manny Mazuz (who was Yossi Beilin's candidate for the position) has approved the expulsion order.

All that is standing between the government and a bloody confrontation with fellow Jews is whether other parties in the coalition are willing to perpetrate a coalition crisis over this. The Jerusalem Post is reporting that Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Eli Yishai is scheduled to visit Hebron today. Yishai is the Chairman of the Shas party, one of the two most likely parties to perpetrate a coalition crisis. Yishai said "If the house was purchased legally, it is inconceivable that they will be evacuated." Unlike the other ultra-Orthodox parties, many of Shas' voters are secular voters for whom the Likud had become too left-wing. I would bet that Shas will have to oppose this.

Shalom House has been tied up in a legal morass ever since, with the State ultimately agreeing with the Arab seller that the building had not been legally purchased from him. Since then, the Olmert-Barak-Livni junta has been waiting for the right time to expel the Jews from Shalom House. It just got a bit more difficult.

YNet reports that the 'settlers' revenants have obtained and are distributing a video - which I am going to show you so please stick with me - that shows the Arab counting the money he received for the building. The video was shot in the el-Azariyeh (a suburb of Jerusalem) home of the 'straw man' who made the purchase for the Hebron Jewish community. In the video you are about to see, the straw man is the one covered with the dot, and the Arab seller, Baiz Rajbi, is the man sitting all the way on the right who is out of view some of the time. The conversation is all in Arabic - which I don't speak - so if anyone does and can translate, please email it to me and I will add a transcript. YNet adds:

The video released by the settlers allegedly depicts the sale of the house by Baiz Rajbi, the house's owner and a Palestinian from Hebron, and his partner to a "straw man" representing the settlers.

In the video, Rajbi and his partner are discussing the transaction, which was finalized at the village of al-Azarya north of Jerusalem in 2004.

...

According to the State Prosecution, Rajbi is the legal owner of the house, and the documents presented by the settlers to prove their right to the property have been forged.

Watch the video. One thing is clear: Rajbi (assuming that is him) got an awful lot of cash for something:

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:13 AM