Monday, April 02, 2012

From Temple Mount to Hebron - Who's In Charge?

The news from Hebron is

Residents of the newly populated Machpela House in Hevron received official IDF orders Monday to leave the premises "out of concern for public safety."
"The eviction orders we received this hour speak for themselves," the residents said, "and make it clear that there is no problem with the purchase of the house. The sale is completely 'kosher' and the only thing that bothers [Defense Minister] Ehud Barak is the fact that Jews live in Hevron.


Well, my first reaction is that those amongst our national/religious camp who were hesitant about lobbying on behalf of Jewish rights on the Temple Mount due to issues of sanctity of the location, ignoring the larger matter of what the State of Israel is supposed to be serving - where the courts accepted the State's appeal based on an 'exceptional case' definition made up to solve a delicate concern, in other words, entrance and prayer would cause public disorder if Jews exercised their legal rights (blame the Jews attitude) - are now faced with the result: instead of using the Machpela option (that Jews & Muslims can share the same building and therefore Jews & Muslims could and should share an open-air precinct), - they now face the negative side, if Arabs attack Jews in Hebron at that house, it's the Jews' fault. As for other issues, note:
Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar on Monday condemned the order of evacuation facing settlers in the "Beit Hamachpela" (House of the Patriarchs) apartment building, calling it underhanded and unjustified. Earlier Monday, the IDF ordered the West Bank Hebron settlers to leave an apartment building in their city, called "Beit Hamachpela" (House of the Patriarchs) by 3 p.m. on Tuesday, giving the settlers 24 hours to evacuate the home. "This decision was made even without a hearing demanded by the Prime Minister [Binyamin Netanyahu]," he said. "If the house was purchased legally, there is no justification for evacuating the residents."
So, who is in charge here? P.S. Talking about property, remember that Barak received millions for his penthouse. ^

1 comment:

NormanF said...

Yup.

If the governments wanted the house, it can use eminent domain proceedings.

Israel has instituted a unique innovation unheard of eve in totalitarian states. Contravene the law for political reasons, if Jews stand to benefit.

Ah but we always hear the Israeli Left lecture Jews on obeying the law. It seems the only people in the country on whom the social contract is not binding is the government.

And people are not obligated to obey it and respect its authority when it flouts the most basic norms of decency and lawful government. Israel is a country with neither the law nor justice.