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Eviction of Hebron settlers poses political threat to government legislation
On the orders of Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon, settlers were evicted on Friday from two buildings in the West Bank city of Hebron, which they say had been purchased from local Palestinians. The eviction sparked threats from a handful of Jewish Home and Likud MKs to disrupt the passage of government-sponsored legislation.
Families moved in to the two Hebron buildings, near the Tomb of the Patriarchs, which is holy to both Jews and Muslims, towards the end of last week. Although the families say that the buildings were purchased legally, their entry triggered clashes between local Palestinians and Israeli forces. On Friday, Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon withheld his required approval for the buildings to be inhabited and ordered that the settlers be removed, as they had failed to secure the necessary security permission.
Following the eviction, Jewish Home MK Bezalel Smotrich and Likud MKs Oren Hazan and Ayoub Kara threatened to withhold their support for government-sponsored bills, in protest at the families’ removal. The government has just a single-seat parliamentary majority. Coalition Chairman Tzachi Hanegbi MK condemned the suggestion, saying, “Threatening to topple the coalition cannot be accepted within the rules of the game.” Legislation set for a Knesset vote today includes a first reading of a controversial bill which would mandate that NGOs receiving more than half of their funding from foreign governments note this in official publications.
Meanwhile, Likud’s Tourism Minister Yariv Levin strongly criticised Ya’alon, saying “just as a person who purchases a house in Tel Aviv can enter it without a superfluous bureaucratic procedure, so it should be also in Hebron.” Ya’alon hit back, saying that he has “no common language” with such criticism.
At the cabinet meeting yesterday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the process of checking the Hebron property purchases is being carried out “as quickly as possible.” He said that if the purchase was authorised, “we will allow the population of the two houses in Hebron.”