Defense Minister Ehud Barak gave the go-ahead to evacuate the House of Contention in Hebron when he was armed with a "certificate of kashrut" from the High Court of Justice issued 18 days ago. Barak has not always been thrilled by the High Court's involvement in defense matters, but he placed the supremacy of the court's authority and the duty to uphold Supreme Court rulings at the top of his agenda.
The High Court ruling regarding the House of Contention is a song of praise of the principal of law enforcement by the authorized branch of government, as well as the principal of forbidding self-interpretation of the law. The settlers will have to internalize this message, today more than ever.
Those in Jewish Hebron are the ones who appealed to the High Court via "Tal Building and Investments, Karnei Shomron" against the state's decision to evacuate them from the house they squatted before the acquisition rights to the property could be determined. The High Court left it to the District Court's jurisdiction to make a final determination as to who owns the rights to the house "in this complex affair." Nonetheless, it determined that the state had accumulated sufficient evidence "to implement the use of force" to evict the squatters, and to aid whoever owned the building to restore the rightful property rights "which were taken illegally."
It is worth remembering that it was not the High Court that ruled on the evacuation. It is the state which made the decision to act in evicting the trespassers. The High Court strictly resolved not to intervene in this decision so long as it was legal and reasonable. It did not obligate the state to evacuate the house. It only allowed it to do so.
This green light afforded the state is rooted in a time-honored principle: Nobody can create a law for himself. The method of unilaterally grasping onto every post in Judea and Samaria when the law is set directly against it perhaps took another step closer to ending yesterday. Better late than never.
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