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Hebron house defenders forego Yesha Council By Nadav Shragai and Amos Harel The group fighting the eviction of Jewish settlers from a contested house in Hebron has decided to refrain from cooperating with the Council of Jewish Settlements of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza District, or Yesha Council - the umbrella group representing the interests of the settler movement - because of its perceived complicity in the evacuation of Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, Haaretz has learned. "The Yesha Council remained in contact with the government during the struggle to prevent the crime of the eviction of the people of Gush Katif," said Daniela Weiss, one of the leaders of the group. "The former police chief even admitted that the expulsion would not have succeeded if it were not for the Yesha Council's cooperation." Advertisement However, the occupants residing in the so-called House of Contention do update the Yesha Council on their actions. The High Court of Justice gave the settlers until noon last Wednesday to leave the house, but they insist that they are not budging. Settlers first moved into the house last year, saying they bought the property legally from a Palestinian. The Palestinian denies the claim and Israeli authorities have not recognized the sale as legal. Hundreds of rightists have already arrived in Hebron to impede the evacuation. A group of teenagers who came to the house to prevent its evacuation yesterday were involved in violent skirmishes with Border Police officers outside the city's police station. The police officers who scuffled with the settlers were leaving for a patrol of the city when they were set upon by the youths, who had come to the station after one of their friends was arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police officer. One of the teens was arrested and taken for questioning. Security forces sent reinforcements to Hebron over the weekend as some 20,000 Jews arrived for an annual pilgrimage commemorating the death of the Matriarch Sarah, whom the Bible says was buried in Hebron. Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai called on settlers to rein in violent members of their community involved in attacking, as he defined it, Israeli police and security forces in the West Bank. "The law is the law. These instances will not be tolerated - not against IDF soldiers, the police or Palestinian civilians," Vilnai said. "It's true that we are speaking about a handful of lawbreakers who are blemishing the entire settler community, but the leadership also has responsibilities. This is a dangerous situation facing security forces." Leaders of Hebron's Jewish settlement over the weekend warned the activists to refrain from any violent encounters with security forces, and ordered some of them to leave the premises. Defense Minister Ehud Barak has not yet decided when the house will be evacuated, but senior defense officials are unhappy with the prospect of doing so anytime soon. "The justices could have thought more deeply about the evacuation's timing," complained one, noting that the middle of an election campaign is a particularly volatile time. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Trailblazer Haula Abu-Bakar named first Arab female professor in Israel. Hills of hostility A stranger coming to Hebron Saturday would be confused.

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