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Despite an Israeli High Court order to vacate extremist settlers from this house in Hebron, which they have occupied for more than a year, the Israeli military and police have not acted to remove them.

In addition, the settlers spray painted “Mohammed the pig” on a mosque, desecrated a Muslim graveyard and damaged an Israeli police car. None of the settlers were arrested. 

For some time now, there has been a lot of tension regarding a disputed house in Hebron.

Hebron has around 250,000 Palestinian inhabitants and a few hundred settlers.

The property in question is a four-story house, located near the main route connecting the settlement of Kiryat Arba to the Tomb of the Patriarchs. 

Ahmad Jaradat of the Alternative Information Center stated that since 2007, the Palestinian inhabitants in Hebron have suffered from aggressive settler activities and that the settlers are constantly being protected by the Israeli soldiers. Ahmad also stressed that this incident is due to problems with Palestinians, but largely a clash between the settlers and Israeli security forces.

In March 2007, around 20 Jewish families moved into the Hebron house, claiming that they bought it from a Palestinian owner and that they had no intention of leaving.  The Palestinian denied the sale occured and have maintained that the house was illegally seized.

In July 2007, the Palestinian owner filed a petition against the settlers, where he claimed that the settlers were illegally in his house. The settlers showed a document they claimed proved they bought the land from the owner. But the state prosecution indicated to the Israeli High Court that the document from the settlers was a forgery.

This Sunday, 16 November, the Court ordered the settlers to be evacuated because the settlers forged ownership of the house. The settler families (around 50 – 60 people) residing in the house, got three days (until noon, Wednesday, 19 November) to voluntarily leave the house.

The Court ordered that until the question of ownership is solved, the house will be in the custody of the state.

The Court determined that if the settlers do not leave of their own accord, a squatters eviction notice would be issued against the settlers and the Israeli police and military would be authorized to remove them by force. The High Court also denied a petition filed by the Jewish community in Hebron, which attempted to overturn the state’s decision to vacate the residents.

Tuesday night, 8 November, around 1,000 settler supporters attended a meeting regarding the evacuation order and vowed to resist. Following the conclusion of the meeting, four new settler families moved into the house.

Eyewitnesses then saw around 100 settlers arriving at the house in support.

On  Wednesday evening, the High Court’s deadline expired and the settlers were still in the house. Tensions grew stronger and the settlers began to become violent.

Yet despite the expiration of the deadline, the police and Israeli military did not evacuate the settlers.

Israeli authorities argued that because it was known that the settlers took over the house more than one year ago, it’s occupation could not defined as “new,” and, thus, the state is not required to enforce the law dealing with recently discovered squatters, which necessitates that it be vacated within a month's time. .

The Israeli military stated on Wednesday that it did not evacuate the house, due to fear of extreme violence from the settlers. According to the military officials, the decision to postpone the evacuation was also due to festivities planned for the weekend in the Jewish section of the city, and concern that right-wing activist would barricade themselves in the building.