Last update - 00:00 17/04/2007
Police probe firm for links with settlers in sale of disputed Hebron house
By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent
The company that facilitated the purchase of the disputed house in Hebron occupied by settlers is currently the subject of a police probe. Police suspect the company of forgery and fraud in purchases performed before the transaction of the contested house.
Police are investigating two purchases after which settlers moved into houses in the West Bank city owned by Palestinians.
The company is suspected of forging documents on the two purchases as well as fraud. The purchase of the house occupied since March 19 by settlers in Hebron is not currently being investigated by the police because no evidence suggesting criminal activity has been presented.
The company, Tal Construction & Investments LTD, is suspected of producing false documents on April 1, 2005, to the Israeli Civil Administration. The documents were presented to the Civil Administration by a representative of a group of settlers who had invaded a home in Hebron near the neighborhood of Tel-Rumeida.
The documents allegedly proved that a group of settlers had purchased a house in Hebron from a a person representing the owners, a Palestinian named Zakaria al-Bakri. Al-Bakri, however, denied ever selling or leasing the house to the settlers, against whom he had filed a police complaint.
Public Security Minister Avi Dichter recently informed MK Yossi Beilin (Meretz) on the investigation after Beilin requested a briefing.
"Following the criminal complaint by al-Bakri we initiated a criminal investigation into the actions of the company. We collected statements and seized evidence in the form of documents that have been examined by police. Forensics tests revealed some of the documents had been forged," Dichter replied.
The settlers occupying the house have not been evicted because this would be dependent on a court order.
On April 6, 2006, a group of settlers invaded another house in Hebron, this time near the neighborhood of al-Nizar (or Beit Shapira), near the neighborhood of Avraham Avinu. They presented documents attesting to the purchase of the house by Tal Construction & Investments.
Dichter informed Beilin that following the police investigation into that incident, the intruders had been evicted. "The documents concerning the affair were transferred to the Jerusalem District Attorney," Dichter wrote.
Attorney Haim Cohen, who represented the Association for the Renewal of the Jewish Community in Hebron on both transactions, told Haaretz that to the best of his knowledge, the investigations concerning the purchases revealed no criminal activity.
"The procurers would have no interest in forging documents regarding the transaction. It would be against their interest, since they invested considerable sums of money in the purchase. Why would they jeopardize their money if the transaction can be annulled later on?" he said.
According to Cohen, police would do better to investigate the seller in any suspicions of forgery.