Israeli Troops Drag Jewish Settlers from Hebron Building

Sebastian Scheiner/Associated Press

An Israeli police officer dragged two Jewish settlers during the evacuation of a disputed house in the West Bank city of Hebron on Thursday.

By ETHAN BRONNER
Published: December 4, 2008

HEBRON, West Bank — Israeli troops forcibly evicted about 200 hard-line Jewish settlers from a contested building in this volatile biblical city on Thursday, the first serious clash in what seems to be a spiraling confrontation between the government and defiant settlers.

The operation, carried out by 600 soldiers and policemen with stealth and efficiency, took half an hour with just two dozen relatively light injuries. But events did not end there. Young settlers then rampaged through Palestinian fields and neighborhoods, setting olive trees ablaze and trashing houses.

Maj. Avital Leibovich, an Israeli army spokeswoman, said the southern part of the

West Bank, known in Israel as Judea, was now designated as a closed military area — meaning only those who live here may enter, an effort to prevent outside settlers from causing further trouble. Within an hour of the order, huge car lines were backed up at at new military roadblocks.

The contested building, which occupants had dubbed “The House of Peace,” is on the road to the Cave of the Patriarchs, where Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their wives are said to be buried, a site Muslims and Jews have coveted and fought over for centuries.

As the sun descended, the area around the building looked like a war zone. Evacuees were still being dragged about, four police per person, rocks were strewn on the road ways, plumes of black smoke were rising from the olive groves, and hundreds of helmeted troops in riot gear confronted a crowd of infuriated settlers.

The men in the crowd wore beards and sidecurls, women had long skirts and covered heads, members of the religiously observant Jewish population in and around Hebron, several thousand among hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. As Palestinians watched from rooftops and windows, some settlers shouted at the troops, calling them Nazis. A few had sewn yellow stars on their shirts, like Jews had been obliged to under Hitler. On a wall near the confrontation, Hebrew graffiti declared: “There will be a war over the House of Peace.”

Much is at stake for both sides in this confrontation since the Israeli government says it wants to facilitate the building of a Palestinian state in most of the West Bank, whereas the settlers and their backers say they will do all in their power to prevent such a state. They are focusing partly on increasing their numbers in Hebron, second only to Jerusalem in its historic and religious significance to them.

The four-story building in question was built and owned by a Palestinian who agreed to sell it. He said he had beenunaware the buyers were Jews and that he had been tricked, and that he had backed out of the deal. The settlers say he knew very well what he was doing but threats against him had made him claim otherwise.

The Israeli government ordered the settlers out. They challenged the order. Three weeks ago, the Supreme Court took the government’s side in a 3-0 ruling and gave it 30 days to make good on the order. In the past week or two, settlers had grown more rebellious, throwing rocks at soldiers and defacing Palestinian buildings and graves. It was clearly only a matter of time before the army would step in.

The official who made the call for the evacuation Thursday was Ehud Barak, the defense minister and head of the Labor party, who said at a news conference later that “what was tested today was the ability of the state to enforce its laws and its essence upon its citizens.”

Mr. Barak had met with settler leaders on Thursday morning to find a way out of the confrontation. The settlers emerged from the meeting believing there was still negotiation to be done but Mr. Barak clearly thought otherwise.

Since elections are scheduled for February and Mr. Barak is his party leader, opponents of the evacuation accused him of seeking political advantage through his decision.

“Barak sent the army and police as part of the left wing’s election campaign and the blood of the casualties is on his hands,” declared Arieh Eldad of the National Religious Party.

Settler leaders were indignant, saying Mr. Barak had tricked them after talking soothingly to them in the morning. They said there was nothing more scandalous in the land of Israel than for Jews to evict Jews from their homes.

In a separate development, the Israeli government agreed for the first time in four weeks on Thursday to allow journalists and foreign aid workers to enter Gaza. The area, ruled by the militant Hamas group, is under a closure led by Israel that severely limits goods and people from going in and out. But only recently did the closure include foreign journalists who had appealed to the government and Supreme Court for renewed permission to enter.
More Articles in World »