Netanyahu offers assurances on Hebron homes, but no authorization

The Hebron Jewish community purchased two stone apartment buildings located near the Cave of the Patriarchs from the Palestinian owners.

By TOVAH LAZAROFF
Updated: FEBRUARY 2, 2016 00:42
PM Benjamin Netanyahu (photo credit: JPOST STAFF,REUTERS)
PM Benjamin Netanyahu
(photo credit: JPOST STAFF,REUTERS)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offers politicians in his parties assurances on the issue of legalizing two contested Hebron homes, but the Defense Ministry has yet to issue any permits.
“He promised the issue would be dealt with soon,” MK Miki Zohar (Likud) said, explaining that the matter had come up at the Likud’s weekly faction meeting on Monday.
“We’re still waiting for positive answers,” he added.
Prior to the meeting, 31 local Likud politicians, led by Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan, sent a letter to Netanyahu in which they urged the prime minister to allow some 20 Jewish families to move into the buildings located in an area of the West Bank city that is under Israeli military and civilian control.
Likud politicians who signed include city mayors, council heads and party branch heads.
The Hebron Jewish community purchased two stone apartment buildings located near the Cave of the Patriarchs from the Palestinian owners. The buyers have offered the Civil Administration documentation to prove their purchase, a particularly sensitive matter since the Palestinian Authority imposes a death sentence on those who sell land to Jews.
The Civil Administration is now checking the legality of the sale documents. But rightwing politicians and the families want Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon to authorize the sale and allow them to move in prior to investigating the purchase.
Such an investigation is often lengthy.
In their letter, the politicians said, “Hebron residents are the pillar of fire in front of the camp, they are the spearhead of the settlement movement.”
Legalizing the homes “is the decent and Zionist” thing to do, they said in their letter and added that it would raise up the nation’s spirit during this difficult time.
The families moved into the structures without the necessary permits on January 21; the IDF forcibly pulled them out the next morning.


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