Israel Matzav

Here we go again....

Once again, revenants have been ordered to leave a building in Hebron, this time no later than May 15. I'm not sure, but I believe it might be the building at left in the picture (if anyone familiar with the buildings could confirm, that would be helpful).

The house in question belongs to Zechariah Bakri, a Palestinian man, and is adjacent to a Jewish settlement in the Hebron neighborhood Tel Rumeida. It was deserted in 2001, when the IDF restricted the movement of Palestinians in the area.

The settlers took possession of the house in 2005, claiming that the construction company Tal Lebniya, owned by Moshe Zar, had lawfully purchased the property.

In 2009, Bakri petitioned the court for a declarative ruling that he is the rightful owner of the house. Tal Lebniya claimed that Bakri had given a man by the name of Nadji Albatash power of attorney to negotiate the sale of the house on his behalf, but failed to provide any documents indicating a sale took place.

Other documents the company presented to the court, which allegedly indicated that other family members had transferred ownership of the property and which were allegedly signed by the mayor of Hebron, were exposed as forgeries by a police expert.

In his court testimony, Zar said that he was not involved in the purchase, but merely let the real buyers use his company to complete the purchase.

The middle man the settlers claimed had conducted the purchase told the court that he had never met the settlers and has not been in Hebron, where he is a wanted man, since 1999. He did concede that he allowed his name to be used for NIS 5,000.

Somehow, I suspect that this story is not as cut and dried as Haaretz makes it appear. But thus far, an email to the Hebron Jewish community's website has gone unanswered. Stay tuned.

Labels: Arab land sales to Jews, death sentence, Hebron

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:48 PM