IDF and Hebron settlers holding secret talks on evacuation of market area
High Court gives green light to Amona evacuation; court blasts Amona petitioners for urging violence at same time.
By Nadav Shragai, Amos Harel and Yuval Yoaz, Haaretz CorrespondentsWhile Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is warning settlers in the Hebron market that security forces may evacuate them by force, Haaretz has learned that the Israel Defense Forces and Hebron settlers have been holding secret talks aimed at reaching a compromise deal.
The talks are being held with the authorization of Olmert and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz.
The settlers have until Monday morning to respond to a compromise deal proffered by the IDF. Settler leaders were to convene Sunday night to discuss the offer.
Meanwhile, the IDF and Israel Police are preparing to evacuate settlers on Tuesday who illegally took over Palestinian shops in Hebron's wholesale market.
If no compromise is reached, a voluntary evacuation may be postponed until Wednesday.
The IDF and settlers have been holding the secrets talks, which were first reported in Haaretz, over the past two days.
According to a potential compromise agreement, the settlers would voluntarily evacuate the stores they commandeered. In exchange, the defense establishment would promise to cease leasing the market to the Hebron municipality in the future. This would allow the settlers to return to the market.
There are still a number of sticking points between the two sides. The Hebron settlers demand that the market's current residents would be those who would return to the apartments in the future. However, the state has thus far refused to accede to this demand and is only prepared to promise that Jews could live in the market in the future.
The IDF issued a warrant Sunday declaring the Jewish section of Hebron a closed military area, and Jews who are not residents of the area were not allowed entrance.
High Court: Green light to Amona evacuationThe High Court of Justice on Sunday afternoon rejected a petition filed by settlers against the demolition of nine structures in the illegal West Bank settlement of Amona.
Justice Mishael Cheshin harshly criticized members of the Amona cooperative on Sunday for petitioning against the demolition while simultaneously calling for a violent struggle at the outpost.
"I visited the Amona website, and it turns out that people are calling for violent resistance if the petition is rejected. So, they file a petition - if we win, great, if we lose we're already building at the site," Cheshin said.
"The court does not aid whoever judges himself. These calls are not against the British occupier, but against the elected authorities of the State of Israel. The court is not a grocery store and the petitioners must bow their heads and accept the verdict. To say that they will engage in a violent battle if the verdict goes against them constitutes contempt of court," Cheshin said.
Attorney Naphtali Wartzburger, who represents the settlers, said in response that, "I cannot hide the fact and I'd like to say openly that people are calling for a confrontation. The petitioners and their friends see the demolition of houses in Amona as a difficult and painful act that must be battled." Wartzburger added that the decision to demolish the houses just prior to the elections is political. He said demolition at this time would hurt democracy.
Earlier Sunday, police handed 21 settlers from across the West Bank restraining orders banning them from entering the illegal outpost of Amona and the Palestinian wholesale market in Hebron, both slated for evacuation on Tuesday.
The orders were signed by IDF GOC Central Command Major General Yair Naveh against far-right activists who are suspected of planning to harm security forces or Palestinians in a bid to thwart the evacuation.
Settlers in Yitzhar, a bastion of extreme-rightists, threw stones and put spikes on settlement roads to prevent security forces from handing out the orders, police spokesman Shlomi Sagi said.
Four settlers - three of them masked - were arrested, Sagi said.
Also on Sunday, security forces began preparing for the evacuation of Jewish families from the two illegal outposts.
The IDF and police must evacuate the Hebron market by February 15, a month after the settlers were served an eviction order. However, security forces plan to complete the evacuation by Tuesday, and therefore forces involved in the evacuation convened Sunday at an IDF base in the center of the country to prepare for the move. The forces evacuating Hebron will also be deployed in Amona, near Ofra.
The forces will be deployed in three rings: the first ring will be made up of 1,500 policemen trained to deal with violent protests and will also include mounted forces. The second rings will consist of several hundred Border Policemen and the third ring will be made up of four infantry regiments.
Policemen will be responsible for direct confrontation with the settlers, while the IDF will close off the area to incoming protesters.
Security forces predict violent resistance. Mofaz has declared that a policy of "zero tolerance" would be employed against settler violence, and IDF officers said that in this evacuation, they will "demonstrate only determination, without sensitivity."
Settlers are planning a major solidarity conference Tuesday against the evacuation. Politicians, rabbis and academics are among those expected to attend the gathering.
The Chabad Movement, at an annual conference for Chabad emissaries in Zichron Ya'akov on Saturday, also decided to embark on an "uncompromising struggle to prevent the expulsion of the Jews of Hebron." Chabad representatives will pay a solidarity visit to Hebron Sunday.
Representatives of five parties - Eli Yishai (Shas), Zevulun Orlev (NRP), Avigdor Lieberman (Yisrael Beiteinu), Zvi Hendel (National Union), and Meir Porush (Agudath Israel) - sent a letter to Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert over the weekend urging him to postpone the evacuation of Amona and Hebron until after the elections, in line with the general principle that major, non-urgent decisions should not be made prior to an election.
The only head of a rightist party who refused to sign the letter, the five said, was Likud head Benjamin Netanyahu.
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Border Police officers training on Sunday for the evacuation of settlers from the Amona outpost and the Hebron market. (Limor Edrey) |
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EVACUATE OLMERT (HEBRON IS FOR JEWS ONLY) Send him home to BUSH, where he belongs. Take Mofaz with you, maybe they will let you guard Palestinian consulate in New York. HEBRON IS FOR JEWS ONLY IT?S NOT ISLAMABAD
Israel as a settler state could not dare to do any thing right to protect the rights of Palestinians. Jewish settlers are always right, when they steal, when they kill, when they talk over property and land. They are above all laws. There is no reason to hide the abvious, Jews have rights, Arabs don't.
I agree with your sentiments, Shalom. Unfortunately, the IDF usually reacts to anti-Arab settler violence by punishing the Arabs. It's the nature of Jewish supremacism, which is the dark heart of zionism.
Typical. The Israeli army of occupation offers a deal with violent Jewish settlers to take an Arab market away from its Arab owners and give it to the settlers. Jewish supremacism in action.
So far being apart of the world community has not stopped one single Islamic terrorist from exploding himself expecially if he or she can take a Jew or American with him. After Islam is put back in it's dreadful hole we can all sit around the campfire and sing "everyone is beautiful, in his own way", until then this growing menace of Islam will not be content. Where have you been the past couple of decades?
Nr. 10, I'm a christian too. What I expierenced visiting Hebron it's a nightmare. The way, the muslim inhabitants are treatened by the jewish settlers, I had never believed possible. Sending their youngsters on shabbat throwing stones and eggs at muslim children on their way home from school(hoping they stop going to school) Throwing garbish and worse into the gardens of their non-jewish neighbours.Shooting into watertanks - and so on....They consider themselves as religeous people. It's blasphemie. Thank's G'd, the IDF is reacting....I deeply hope they are strong enough to end this nightmare. In any civilised country in the world those settlers are called criminals.
The problem that we are all overlooking is that regardless of what our respective religious texts instruct us to believe, we are human beings. We bleed blood, breathe air, cry tears. It hurts when we lose loved ones, it is wonderful to celebrate the birth of a new, it makes us proud to see our children grow. To think that one people is fighting a war for a super natural being, one that is embodied in spirit and not in any physical sense is rediculous, it is ignorant, it is destroying our world. We must learn to live together because past the religions, colors, races, sexes, we are human beings, at least for the time being. Fairly soon we wont have to worry about cities being over crowded, we will have to worry about finding a place to bury our children.
It's hilarious to here from someone who is posting from the Beverly Hills, CA "finally! someone who realizes what a living nightmare it is to live among violent extremist Muslims." its just hilarious! It must be rough living with violent muslims in Beverly Hills! HA! You crack me up! :)
finally! someone who realizes what a living nightmare it is to live among violent extremist Muslims.
Woodruff and Vogt just returned from the West Bank where they were reporting on the Hamas election victory with ABCs usual anti-Israel slant. --- Woodruff just reports what he witnesses. If ever Israel changes its warmongering tactics I'm sure journalists will report that too. As a frequent witness to the brutality of Israel's occupation I can attest to the fact it's not easy to find anything that would put Israel in a good light. Occupation is terrorism. Free Palestine.
ABC's World News Tonight co-anchor Bob Woodruff and his cameraman Doug Vogt were seriously injured in Iraq. Both sustained serious head injuries. Woodruff and Vogt just returned from the West Bank where they were reporting on the Hamas election victory with ABCs usual anti-Israel slant.
Personally I think a people should retin there land, as a Mexican_American I do whatever humanly possible to regain the south west, Aztlan to the Mexican people...so should the Jews, in time we too will regain it! we're winning this battle! PEACE!
Not in Gush Katif, and not elsewhere. Cheshin is hardly a judge, and that kangaroo court is no court. They are disgraces to the nation of Israel.
the israeli public is fickle, but not to the degree that Hebron will be evacuated of it's Jews. we must choose, Jewish identity vs. Israeli secular identity. it is becoming harder and harder to reconcile the two. Choose.
Then none of this would have happened. The only "settlers" are the arab occupiers of Israel - the vagrants that settled here 200 years ago knowing it wasnt thier land, when the Ottoman Empire and the Religion of Piece swept over the ME. Olmert wont be in charge for ever - theres an election comming up and houses can always be rebuilt. I wouldnt hire Olmert as rat catcher but it seems some Israelis are as dumb as the Pals - the Pals vote in Hamas, and the Israelis may vote in Olmert.
The worlds second dumbest Supreme Court - the US's court is #1, hands out a lesson to all those who try to keep the country in the hands of the Jews. Kiss Ehud Fudds arab loving feet or we will take your homes! Seems that when they want to remove Jews from anywhere they magically have the troops - but when kassams fly, or theres a suicide bombing the IDF is no where to be found. The ADF should be ashamed of itself. Even Benjamin Franklin said - sometimes a revolution is needed!
Tim, maybe if something had been done about the settlers earlier then there wouldn't be a hostile state forming on Israel's borders.
TO MUSLIMS FROM A CRISTAN John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. Yeshua declared that the adversary comes to steal, kill and destroy. Islam is a religion spread by the sword. Mohammed was a covenant breaker, liar and thief. Muslims come into a village and murder the men, rape the women and take the children captive into slavery. Any peace plan with a Muslim entity is a farce. It will only last until the Muslim force becomes powerful enough to destroy the other party. They have no ethics or conscience because they believe that the end (world domination), justifies the means (lying, cheating, treaty breaking).
Do you think the Israeli Gov't should co-ordinate the operation with the PA?
If Ehud Olmert dismantles even a single Jewish outpost without a mandate of the people of Israel by the people of Israel in the popular vote, he represents a grate danger to the future of the Jewish state and its security. In this case he must be removed from power, even if he will be elected as a PM on March 28. Hamas is not going away, and already stated that Israel have nothing to give us, forcing Hamas in to adapting conditions will not work, just like forcing Iran. We will not be safe surrounded by the wall, this wall must be as far east as possible for the purpose of the security only, and the regular army must patrol using armor and troops in Gaza, so there is no Kasam fire, and Judea and Samaria on regular basis, so there is no homicide fire. PEACE true force only. PEACE in Israel, not only in Gaza. It is too early for Israelis to drink Champaign in Tel-Aviv. If Olmert removes the outpost, Bibi will take his post.
Perhaps the settlers from Yitzhar should contact Islamic Jihad and get a better price for their masks by buying together?
Ho Ho.Tough looking soldiers. Closing of the Guest House in Hebron to guests. Fighting Jewish children. Riding German riot horses against Jewish people who want to live in the land of their fathers, the Holy Land, the Promised land.
104. And We said thereafter to the Children of Israel, "Dwell securely in the land (of promise)": but when the second of the warnings came to pass, We gathered you together in a mingled crowd. 105. We sent down the (Qur`an) in Truth, and in Truth has it descended: and We sent thee but to give Glad Tidings and to warn (sinners). 106. (It is) a Qur`an which We have divided (into parts from time to time), in order that thou mightest recite it to men at intervals: We have revealed it by stages. 107. Say: "Whether ye believe in it or not, it is true that those who were given knowledge beforehand, when it is recited to them, fall down on their faces in humble prostration, 108. "And they say: `Glory to our Lord! Truly has the promise of our Lord been fulfilled!`" 109. They fall down on their faces in tears, and it increases their (earnest) humility.
Where is the zero tolerance policy for terror and kassam rockets, Mr. Olmert?
The IDF will implement the directives of their democratically elected leaders, as painful as these actions may be for their population and as thankless and unimpressed their enemies may be with these heart-wrenching sacrifices. Until Israel reaches their limit, and it's approaching soon! Then Israel's enemies will have to lie and toss and turn in the bed they've made for themselves, a cramped place not of rest but of self-inflicted torment.
Its ok these 'settlers" can stay where they are, just issue them a new passport "Palestinian".
What? You have a terrorist state forming under your noses, and the best thing you can find to do is fight each-other?