50 MKs urge Mazuz to reconsider eviction order for Hebron building

New evidence which contains a recorded phone call conversation with Palestinian who claims to own building convince MKs to fight for appeal.

By DAN IZENBERG
hebron settler woman 224 88 (photo credit: Tovah Lazaroff)
hebron settler woman 224 88
(photo credit: Tovah Lazaroff)
Fifty MKs, including 10 from the coalition, sent a letter to Attorney-General Menahem Mazuz on Sunday asking him to reconsider his decision to issue an eviction order against settlers living in a building in Hebron because of new evidence submitted to the High Court of Justice last week. The new evidence, submitted Thursday, is a tape recording of a phone conversation between the Palestinian who claims to own the building, Faez Rajabi, and an unidentified Palestinian. Rajabi told his interlocutor he had carried out renovations in the building at the request of the man he had sold the building to, Ayoub Jaber, a front man for the settlers. According to attorney Nadav Ha'etzni, who represents petitioners asking the court to overrule the government's decision to implement the eviction order, the tape proves not only that Rajabi had sold the building, but that possession of it had been legally transferred to the settlers. The state's position is that Rajabi was still in possession of the building when settlers allegedly illegally occupied it on March 19, 2007. "We, MKs from different factions, ask you to seriously reconsider the matter of the eviction order against the inhabitants of Beit Hashalom [the settlers' name for the disputed building] because of the new evidence submitted to the state prosecution on Thursday," the lawmakers wrote in the letter to Mazuz. The petitioners had strong proof that the building belonged to them on the day the settlers took it over, the legislators wrote, but the High Court cannot consider it because it does not deal with property disputes or hear testimony. Unless the state agrees to reconsider the eviction order, the settlers will have to leave the building until the lower court - in this case the Jerusalem District Court - rules on the dispute, the MKs continued. This could take years. "Such an outcome would constitute a terrible injustice," wrote the MKs. Among those who signed were six Kadima MKs - Yoel Hasson, Shlomo Mula, Ze'ev Elkin, David Tal, Michael Nudelman and Othniel Schneller. Four members of the Gil Pensioners Party also signed the letter. Meanwhile, the state rejected the petitioners' request to stop the proceedings in the High Court while it examines the new evidence. According to the state's representatives, attorneys Osnat Mandel and Gilad Shirman, the petitioners were stalling. They said that the petitioners had the tape months ago but only now submitted it to the court. Mandel and Shirman called on the court to hand down its verdict after the petitioners rejected the justice's suggestion to withdraw the petition and leave the disputed structure voluntarily until the ownership dispute was settled. Twenty families currently live in the four story structure located on Worshipers Way, halfway between Kiryat Arba and Hebron's Machpela Cave. In his response to the prosecution's rejection of the evidence, Ha'etzni told the court, "This is an extremely grave position that ignores the facts, the law, judicial rulings and, even more serious, ignores the fundamental obligation to act fairly and justly. We are talking here about out-and-out oppression."