Hebron settlers wage war against return of Arab shopkeepers

Hebron's Jewish Community Council is working to prevent the return of Arab shopkeepers to the "triple market" area near the Avraham Avinu quarter in the city. It is also demanding the state take control of the property in this area, which it says is part of property belonging to a religious group called Kollelot Sephardim Magen Avot. The council has power of attorney from the group over its property, which was originally abandoned after the Arab riots of 1929.

The so-called triple market is located near the former wholesale vegetable market, whose property is also owned by Magen Avot. Jews first came to live in the area about four years ago, following the murder by an Arab sniper of 10-month-old resident Shalhevet Pas. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz has recently ordered the evacuation by the end of the year of the Jewish families from the triple market, which was closed down in 2000, together with other areas, following a series of attacks on Jews.

The Arab merchants responded to the closure of their shops with a petition to the High Court of Justice. The state answered that it could return merchants to 25 of the shops that had been closed, leaving a few dozen meters between the market and the Avraham Avinu neighborhood as a buffer zone.

Meanwhile, the Jewish Community Council of Hebron, which has learned that the state is to implement the promise it made to court in the coming weeks, claims that the shops in the triple market were not rented to the merchants by the Custodian General, and therefore they were held illegally. It has called for a "return of the land to its legal owners and to allow the Jewish community to build and renovate houses there."

	A woman passing through a checkpoint in Hebron yesterday.(Reuters)