CPTnet
8 May 2006
HEBRON: Settlers removed from occupied building
On 8 May, the Israeli military and police finished evacuating Israeli
settlers from a three-story apartment building in Hebron's Old City.
Settlers first forced their way into the empty building on 6 April 2006,
claiming to have purchased it legally. After reviewing evidence proving the
claim was fraudulent, the Israeli High Court ordered on 4 May the eviction
of the settlers, stipulating they had to leave by 11:00 a.m. Saturday, 6
May. They refused to leave, and appealed for other Israelis to join them in
defiance.
The Israeli government mobilized one thousand soldiers and 700 police for
the evacuation. They surrounded the building on 6 May, declaring the area
a "closed military zone." Defiant settlers threw missiles, including glass
bottles filled with paint, from the roof of the building.
At 2:00 a.m. Sunday 7 May, Israeli soldiers and police started to clear
streets around the occupied three-story building close to the Avraham Avinu
settlement in Hebron's Old City. Troops and police in riot gear then
surrounded the building as the deadline expired. Settlers threw missiles,
glass bottles and flaming tires at them from the roof. Nineteen soldiers
and police suffered injuries and seventeen settlers were arrested. By 8:00
a.m. soldiers had reached the roof and cleared the ground floor. Settlers
were still visible at windows in the upper stories.
The apartment building is about 300 yards from the CPT apartment on the
settler road which Palestinian children have to cross to get to school from
the Old City. The CPT school patrol passes that way every morning. From
that street, and from the roof of the CPT apartment, CPT members watched the
action.
Palestinian schools near the Old City have been closed, and Palestinians are
not permitted to go out of the Old City to pray in the Ibrahimi Mosque.
Soldiers did not use tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets routinely
directed against Palestinian demonstrators, when they turned people back.
Many extra soldiers are still deployed in Hebron, in anticipation of
possible renewed violence.
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