The Jewish Community of Hebron
January 27, 2008
A week ago the Supreme Court ruled that the Jewish residents at Beit HaShalom could continue to live at least until April.
In view of this ruling, attorney Nadav HaEtzni, representing the building's residents, appealed for a second time to the Defense Minister requesting to allow the families living in the building to prepare for the upcoming winter storms. The request was necessary due to an injunction issued nine months ago by a military appeals panel, which on the one hand forbade expulsion of the building's residents from the site, but on the other hand, forbade any changes in the building, including any and all renovations. As a result of this injunction, the families live in extremely difficult conditions:
These include:
No windows
No full connection to electricity. One electric line running into the building does not supply enough electricity to heat the building.
The roof is leaky and cannot be sealed. Rain leaks into the family's apartments.
Attorney HaEtzni gave four reasons for his requests:
1. The upcoming extreme cold wave will be very hard on the families.
2. The families include many children and newborn infants. (One baby was born three months ago and another born last week!)
3. The Supreme Court ruling permits the families to remain in the building at least through April.
4. Oral agreements from local military commanders who view the requests as 'strictly humanitarian' and agree that they should be answered positively.
Despite the fact that the IDF accepts the requests as 'humanitarian,' the Defense minister thinks otherwise. In a letter issued which refuses the Hebron community's requests, he writes, 'the petitioners are not obligated to live in the building or to study Torah there during the 'cold wave.' To the contrary, their continued presence … is against the law because they live there without a permit.
The community will now have to wait for the decision of the military appeals panel, which will have to decide between the community request and the Defense Minister's position.
A Hebron spokesman issued the following statement: Windows, electricity and a sealed roof – these are too much for Ehud Barak to permit to Jews in Hebron. The entire world is up-in-arms when the State of Israel threatens to cut off electricity to murderers in Gaza who continue to shoot rockets into Israel. But nobody particularly cares if twenty families are forced to live in subhuman conditions in a building legally purchased in Hebron.
There are two types of corruption plaguing the present administration: criminal and moral. Ehud Barak's willingness to take pity on terrorists but refusing to show any sympathy for Hebron's Jewish men, women and children is about as morally corrupt as a politician can get. Our sages said, "he who has mercy on the cruel will finally be cruel to the merciful. Barak is fulfilling this saying to the utmost. However, Hebron's Jews will not be defeated by the wind, the rain, the snow or the cruelty of Ehud Barak and his cronies. We will continue to live in Beit HaShalom and this building will eventually be transformed into beautiful Jewish apartments in Hebron.
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The Jewish Community of Hebron
POB 105 , Kiryat Arba-Hebron 90100 hebron@hebron.org.il
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The Jewish Community of Hebron
P.O. Box 105, Kiryat Arba 90100 Israel
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