Israel Matzav: Magistrate Court rules Hebron's Shalom House belongs to Jews, but will Barak let them live there?

Friday, September 14, 2012

Magistrate Court rules Hebron's Shalom House belongs to Jews, but will Barak let them live there?

Some of you may recall Hebron's Shalom House, which was legally purchased by Jews from Arabs in 2007, and from which the Jews were expelled by then-Defense Minister... Ehud Barak in December 2008 until the courts could 'decide on ownership.'

On Thursday, the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court decided that the 'Palestinian' who sold the building and then claimed that he didn't had so many holes in his story that he must be lying. The Court gave the State 30 days to turn the house over to its rightful Jewish owners, the Jewish community of Hebron.

This would be cause for rejoicing but for the fact that in order to live there, the Jews need the approval of the Defense Ministry, which is still headed by... Ehud Barak.

In March 2007, 150 settlers moved into the building, claiming that the two companies, Tal Investments and the Association for Renewing the Jewish Community in Hebron, had purchased it, in transactions that occurred in 2004 and 2005, from its Palestinian owners for NIS 700,000.

But the Palestinian owners denied the claim and asked the police to help evict the building’s new Jewish residents. They petitioned the High Court of Justice against the residents, and the state in its submission to the court said that the residents must leave.

It based its decision in part on police claims that documents relating to the sale were forged.

The High Court of Justice ordered the families to leave but said that the property should remain idle until the purchase claim was adjudicated.

Settlers then turned to the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court, which on Thursday ruled that the settlers had indeed purchased the property and that they were not the ones who had forged the documents.

Jewish ownership of the structure expands the community’s property holding in the city. The structure is located on the outskirts of Hebron, near the Kiryat Arab settlement. It overlooks the road, which is leads to the Cave of the Patriarchs and provides a strategic overview of the area.

It is also abuts a Muslim graveyard and a mosque, as well as Palestinian homes and shops.

Hagit Ofran of Peace Now called on the Defense Ministry not to authorize Jewish presence in the home. “There is no need to expand the Jewish community in Hebron,” Ofran said.

She added that their presence in the home prior to its evacuation had been a provocation. In the days that lead to the evacuation Jewish activists had vandalized the mosque, the cemetery and a number of Palestinian homes in the area.

But Likud Ministers Yuli Edelstein, Gideon Sa’ar and Yisrael Katz said Barak now had an obligation to correct the injustice, which had occurred and to allow the Jewish families to return to the home.

Kiryat Arba Council head Melachi Levinger, whose father Moshe, was among the founders of the Hebron Jewish community, said that the court’s ruling, “proves our contention throughout all these years that we have the right to buy property and settle anywhere in the land of Israel.”

He called on Barak to allow Jewish families to return both to the Beit HaShalom building and to another structure which the community claims to have purchased this year, Beit HaMachpela, located near the Cave of the Patriarchs.

Israel Radio reported that the court concluded that the 'Palestinian' seller was lying because he feared for his life in the event that it came out that he had sold land to a Jew.

But something tells me that the Defense Ministry is never, ever going to sign off on this.

Labels: Arab land sales to Jews, Ehud Barak, Hebron