The Supreme Court issued an order against Defense Minister Moshe Dayan giving him 30 days to show cause why he should not evacuate a building which a Hebron resident claims belongs to him and which, he says, was illegally taken over by the Military Governor of Judea and Samaria.
The appellant, Hassan Abu Zeina, said in his petition that he is trustee for an estate which includes a building once leased by the Intra Bank of Beirut. The bank collapsed before the Six-Day War. After the war, the Israeli Commissioner of Banks bought up the assets of all banks in Judea and Samaria, including those of Intra Bank. The Military Governor and the Commissioner then seized the building which the appellant had rented to the bank although it was not part of the bank’s assets, Abu Zeina asserted.
In 1971 the Israeli authorities paid him 1,000 Jordanian dinars and had him sign some papers in Hebrew, the content of which was unclear to him, he declared. Since then the authorities have refused his repeated demands to give him back the building, causing him great financial damage, he claimed.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
