Post by Salem6 on Dec 4, 2008 16:40:29 GMT
Israeli forces have evicted about 200 Jewish settlers from a disputed building in the mainly Palestinian West Bank city of Hebron.
Israeli television footage showed police dragging settlers out of the building. Hundreds of officers were involved in the operation.
The settlers had refused to leave the house, in defiance of an Israeli Supreme Court order.
Earlier the Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak met the group.
The operation was over in about 20 minutes, said Israeli army spokeswoman Major Avital Leibovitz.
Soldiers and police formed a barrier around the building to prevent settlers from moving back in.
The operation follows days of days of stone-throwing clashes between the settlers and Palestinians.
Hundreds of their supporters and activists flocked to the area to show their solidarity with the building's occupiers.
Israeli defence officials have expressed fears the Hebron tensions will spill to other areas of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Legal wrangle
Ownership of the building, known by the settlers as the "house of peace", is in dispute.
The settlers say that they bought the house in question in a legal transaction from its Palestinian owner for nearly $1m (£660,000), but he says he pulled out of the deal.
It took several soldiers to remove each settler from the house
The Israeli supreme court ordered the building to be cleared of its occupiers until another court could decide who owned it.
Mr Barak said the building would be handed over to the guardianship of the Israeli military until the dispute was resolved.
Settlers denounced the military action.
"This could have been done peacefully and legally. Instead Barak chose violence," said Danny Dayan, leader of the Yesha settler council.
"This surprised us completely. He threw a match in a pile of gun powder."
But legislator Avshalom Vilan, a member of the Meretz-Yahad party, defended the evictions as a victory for justice.
"This was a test for the rule of law and it shows there is one law for everybody for people in Hebron, Tel Aviv and everywhere," he said.
The house is in a strategically important position between Hebron's Jewish settlements and an important religious site sacred to both Jews and Muslims, says the BBC's James Stephenson in Jerusalem.
About 600 Jewish settlers live in the city, with several thousand more in surrounding settlements.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7764984.stm
Israeli television footage showed police dragging settlers out of the building. Hundreds of officers were involved in the operation.
The settlers had refused to leave the house, in defiance of an Israeli Supreme Court order.
Earlier the Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak met the group.
The operation was over in about 20 minutes, said Israeli army spokeswoman Major Avital Leibovitz.
Soldiers and police formed a barrier around the building to prevent settlers from moving back in.
The operation follows days of days of stone-throwing clashes between the settlers and Palestinians.
Hundreds of their supporters and activists flocked to the area to show their solidarity with the building's occupiers.
Israeli defence officials have expressed fears the Hebron tensions will spill to other areas of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Legal wrangle
Ownership of the building, known by the settlers as the "house of peace", is in dispute.
The settlers say that they bought the house in question in a legal transaction from its Palestinian owner for nearly $1m (£660,000), but he says he pulled out of the deal.
It took several soldiers to remove each settler from the house
The Israeli supreme court ordered the building to be cleared of its occupiers until another court could decide who owned it.
Mr Barak said the building would be handed over to the guardianship of the Israeli military until the dispute was resolved.
Settlers denounced the military action.
"This could have been done peacefully and legally. Instead Barak chose violence," said Danny Dayan, leader of the Yesha settler council.
"This surprised us completely. He threw a match in a pile of gun powder."
But legislator Avshalom Vilan, a member of the Meretz-Yahad party, defended the evictions as a victory for justice.
"This was a test for the rule of law and it shows there is one law for everybody for people in Hebron, Tel Aviv and everywhere," he said.
The house is in a strategically important position between Hebron's Jewish settlements and an important religious site sacred to both Jews and Muslims, says the BBC's James Stephenson in Jerusalem.
About 600 Jewish settlers live in the city, with several thousand more in surrounding settlements.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7764984.stm