Rage Greets Ministers’ Suggestion to Remove the Settlers from Hebron

A sizable number of Israeli Cabinet ministers favor the forcible dismantling of the Jewish settlements inside the West Bank city of Hebron.

They favor the measure because of fears there will be further violence in Hebron following the Feb. 25 murders of at least 40 Palestinians at the Tomb of the Patriarchs.

Israeli settlers and their political supporters reacted with rage at reports suggesting that seven out of nine ministers who spoke at the weekly Cabinet meeting Sunday are in favor of removing the approximately 400 settlers currently living among 70,000 Palestinians in Hebron.

A spokesman for the Hebron settlers, Noam Arnon, said a decision to dismantle the settlements was “inconceivable.”

Rehavam Ze’evi, leader of the right-wing Moledet party, said it would spell “the end of Zionism.”

West Bank settlement leaders said there would be a widescale campaign of civil disobedience if the government made any attempt to evict the Hebron settlers.

Environment Minister Yossi Sarid of the left-wing Meretz party said it was possible the decision would be taken at the Cabinet meeting next Sunday.

There are 42 Jewish families living in three closely guarded sites inside Hebron: Beit Hadassah, Tel Romeida and the Avraham Avinu Synagogue complex. And about 150 youngsters study at a yeshiva in the city.

Some of the residents are affiliated with the staunchly anti-Arab Kach and Kahane Chair movements, both of which were inspired by the late Rabbi Meir Kahane.

Residents are guarded by Israel Defense Force troops night and day.

One of the two ministers who opposed the eviction of the Hebron settlers, Agriculture Minister Yakov Tsur, said that he, like the majority of the ministers, was opposed in principle to any Jewish settlements in the heart of Hebron.

But, he said, ordering the evictions now would send “the wrong message, a message of caving in” to the Palestinians.

The other minister at the weekly meeting who opposed the move, Economic Minister Shimon Sheetrit, said that evicting the settlers would fly in the face of the self-rule accord, which specifically put off the issue of settlements to a later time.

Several Cabinet ministers, especially those with dovish leanings, called for sterner action against anti-Arab extremists.

The army has issued five administrative detention orders against leaders of extremist movements. Two of them have been apprehended.

Over the weekend, the army announced that an unspecified number of anti-Arab extremist would no longer be called for reserve duty, adding that their army- issued weapons would soon be impounded.