Beit Hamachpela Declared Closed Military Zone

The Hebron building known as Beit Hamachpela was declared a closed military zone Wednesday morning after more than 100 people entered the three-storey complex late Tuesday afternoon in what they said was a response to the massacre of three members of the Salomon family in Neve Tzuf last Friday.

Dozens of people tried to join the fifteen families in the building, but were blocked by security forces on the spot.

Hebron residents say they purchased the building from private Palestinian owners in 2009. However in 2015 the Civil Administration rejected their ownership of the building, saying they had not “proven purchase of the property, nor the possession of it” as they had not provided sufficient documentation.

But now, settler leaders told Tazpit Press Service (TPS) that the Civil Administration’s higher appeals committee had confirmed at a hearing in June that all the relevant documentation had been received and that the process of registration of ownership could continue.

Shlomo Levinger, one of the settlers inside the building and the brother of Kiryat Arba Mayor Malachi Levinger, said that he believed the approval process was now a formality. Levinger said he did not believe they would be asked to leave the building for a third time after having been twice evicted, in 2009 and 2015.

“We intend to stay here and not to leave. After UNESCO [the United Nations World Heritage Committee registered Hebron’s Old City and the Tomb of the Patriarchs as World Heritage sites earlier this month] and Neve Tzuf, now is the time for brave decisions,” Levinger said.

Malachi Levinger, mayor of Kiryat Arba, the Jewish community adjacent to Hebron, added that the settlers would go “all the way this time.”

“We want to to realize the prime minister’s promise that every Jew has a right to purchase a home in Israel and to settle there,” he said.

Peace Now said that allowing the settlers to remain in Beit Hamachpela would severely hinder Palestinian freedom of movement and add to the rising tensions in the area.

“We demand that the government order the immediate evacuation of the settlers who invaded Beit Hamachpela. After their claims of ownership had been denied, the settlers have decided to take the law into their own hands and establish an illegal settlement that might ignite the region. We call upon the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defense to follow the law and the Israeli interest and evacuate the trespassers without delay,” the group said.