Israel ends lease with Hebron for wholesale market

The Defense Ministry has terminated the lease with the Hebron municipality that enabled the Palestinian merchants to work in the city's wholesale market.

This means that the merchants from the wholesale market will not be able to return to their shops even if the Israel Defense Forces does evict the settlers squatting there.

Yossi Segal, the Defense Ministry official in charge of government property in the West Bank and the shops in Hebron, sent a letter on Tuesday to the Hebron municipality, advising it of the contract's termination. Haaretz has obtained a copy of the letter.

In the letter, Segal tells municipal attorney Mazen Kopti that he intends to end the rent-controlled lease between the city and the Defense Ministry for the wholesale market. The letter calls on anyone harmed by the lease's termination to file a complaint with the IDF's Civil Administration within 21 days.

The IDF had confiscated Hebron's wholesale market and leased it out under a rent-controlled agreement to the city municipality. The city in turn leased the shops out to merchants.

After the Baruch Goldstein massacre in 1994, the IDF closed the market and did not let the merchants enter their shops. During the intifada, the Hebron settlers gradually took over several shops and began living there.

Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz made a commitment to the High Court of Justice to evacuate the settlers from the market by February 15 this year. However, it now appears that the Defense Ministry has no intention of returning the shops and stalls to Hebron's municipality and the merchants.

Legal debate

It is not clear whether the lease may be legally terminated, and it is possible that doing so will open a prolonged legal debate that could last years.

On Tuesday large police and military forces tried to post eviction notices on the shops, as a prelude to ousting the people squatting there. The settlers have been asked to move out in 10 days. But the posting attempt led to violent clashes between the police and settlers, who pelted the policemen with eggs and acid as well as heavy objects, injuring four.

"The announcement was given the Hebron municipality in keeping with the state's reaction to the petition to the High Court of Justice," commented the Civil Administration.

The settlers in Hebron did not reject the possibility of evacuating the squatters from the wholesale market if other Jewish settlers, who rent the shops and buildings legally, take their place.

However, the settlers are demanding that the new families move in as soon as the old ones leave, to make sure the shops are inhabited at all times.

Noam Arnon, the spokesman for the Hebron settlers, said there are families both in and out of Hebron who are ready to take the squatters' place. He said the suggestion has been discussed, but that the settlers have not received a written compromise proposal to this effect.