Diplomacy and Politics/JPost..
11 October '12..
Jewish families can return to a four-story Hebron apartment building — known as Beit HaShalom — that the IDF forcibly evacuated in December 2008.
On Thursday evening Defense Minister Ehud Barak authorized the settlers' purchase of the building from its Palestinian owners for NIS 700,000 over seven years ago.
In addition, he decreed that Jewish families could live in the structure located in an otherwise Palestinian neighborhood in a section of the West Bank city under Israeli control.
Barak's approval comes one month after the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court ruled that Tal Investments and the Association for Renewing the Jewish Community in Hebron had legally purchased the structure through transactions that occurred in 2004 and 2005.
The court ordered the state to return the property to the settlers, but in addition Hebron's Jewish families needed Barak’s approval to actually return to the building.
Jewish community spokesman David Wilder said, “We are very pleased that the Israeli government has finally recognized the legitimacy of Jews purchasing property in Hebron.
Peace Now executive director Yariv Oppenheimer attacked the move, calling it “outrageous” and “totally absurd.”
“Just as Barak talks about the need for a two-state solution, he is doing his best to destroy that solution,” he said.
But Wilder said he hoped that this approval was just the first of a number of awaited authorizations.
“We expect to see a continuation of this recognition with other properties,” he said. He added that he hoped the government would also approve Jewish habitation of two other contested properties in Hebron, Beit HaMachpela and Beit Ezra.
Hebron families plan to wait until completion of renewed legal proceedings with regard to Beit HaShalom before moving back in, Wilder said.
He said that the Palestinians have filed an appeal to the Magistrate’s court to prevent Jewish habitation of the structure.
Wilder said he believed that the court would reject the appeal, particularly now that Barak had approved their habitation of the building.
“But just as in any judicial case, we have to wait for the outcome,” he said. The building also needs to undergo renovations to fix the damage that occurred during the December 2008 evacuation, he said.”
Link: http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=287507
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