Last update - 00:00 01/10/2007
State tells Court it backs evacuation of settlers from Hebron market
By Yuval Yoaz, Haaretz Correspondent
The State Prosecution informed the High Court of Justice on Monday that it supports the evacuation of settlers who are squatting in Palestinian-owned stores in a market in the West Bank city of Hebron.
Prosecutors told the court they view a recent appeals committee decision to delay the evacuation, from a market near the Jewish Avraham Avinu neighborhood of city, as "extremely unreasonable and constitutes an infraction upon the rule of law."
The prosecution expressed support for Peace Now petition calling for the immediate removal of the settlers, urging the court to rule in favor of the petition.
The petition was submitted two weeks ago by Peace Now and the Palestinian owners of the stores, through attorney Michael Sefarad, after the appeals committee orderd the evacuation delayed until the ownership claims of the settlers are reviewed. The ruling was made despite the disapproval of the State Prosecution, which stated that "the activity in question is illegal, deliberate and premeditated, and violates the rule of law in Hebron."
According to the Peace Now petition, "the meaning of the [appeals committee] decision is that Jewish squatters can use any outrageous argument, in the name of the people and the nation, and succeed even if there is no legal basis for it."
In its statement, the State Prosecution sided with 'Peace Now.' According to State Prosecution attorney Gilad Sherman, "The Hebron Old City Rehabilitation Committee initiated the Jewish families' invasion of the stores, and this without any legal right. This committee's goal, it would seem, was to force the local authorities and the state to deliver stores and other property in Hebron into their hands."
Hebron Community Council spokeswoman Orit Struk said in response that, "This is another instance in which the State Prosecution and Military Prosecution collaborated with the radical left in order to expel Jews from their land, ignore the owners of the land and continue the work of the murderers in the Hebron Massacre of 1929."