The Knesset members who had occupied an apartment in the Hebron Arab marketplace since last week vacated the flat today under orders by the Israeli military authorities. The lawmakers agreed to leave only after Gen. Armon Shahak, the chief of the central command in the area, showed up in person at the apartment and ordered the MKs to leave.
The MKs said they complied because they wanted to avoid a clash with Israel Defense Force soldiers but stressed that their leaving did not indicate they regarded their stay there as illegal. The MKs — three of Tehiya, three of Likud and one of Morasha — said they would appeal to the Supreme Court the army’s order for them to vacate the apartment. After the MKs left, the army sealed off the entrance to the flat and prevented anyone from approaching the site.
The MKs, who moved into the apartment after a group of nearby Kiryat Arba settlers had taken it over and were ousted twice by the army, said today that they intend raising the issue of Jewish settlement in Hebron with Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin. They and the Kiryat Arba squatters claimed that the apartment had been legally purchased from an Arab, and were therefore entitled to be occupants.
Israel TV reported last night that at least 40 flats have been purchased from Arabs in recent years in central Hebron, and are now owned by Jews. However, the report added, none of the apartments were legally registered with Israeli government authorities. Furthermore, the previous Likud government stipulated that the Defense Ministry had to approve all real estate purchases in the occupied territories.
Tehiya MK Geula Cohen, who headed the apartment takeover, said today that despite the evacuation, their action and that of the Kiryat Arba settlers would have a positive effect on settlement efforts in the West Bank. She recalled that after previous evacuation of Jews by the Israeli authorities, there had been an intensification of the settlement drive. Aharon Demb, a Kiryat Arba resident and one of the leaders of the Jewish community in Hebron, said settlement activities would continue until there are thousands of Jews in Hebron. (By Gil Sedan)
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