[IMRA: After the media and others devoted the last days to leaving the
impression that enforcement of the law required handing over Jewish property
in the Hebron market to Arabs, the true legal situation: that legal
authorities recognize that Jews have the right to live in the Jewish
property. To an outsider the proposal that the Jews now in the property
leave and that others move in "in a few months" may sound reasonable. But
anyone following the Israeli scene knows that the moment there are no Jews
in the buildings security officials can decide that "for security reasons it
is not possible for Jews to move into the empty buildings at this time".
And it will be impossible to effectively challenge such a move in the courts
as the courts (with the exception of rulings on the separation fence)
consistently take the position that security considerations take precedent
over Israeli property and other rights.]

Hebron settlers refusing IDF compromise deal
By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent 18 January 2006
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/671841.html

Israel Defense Forces officials are telling Jewish leaders in the West Bank
city of Hebron that if they evacuate the wholesale market where eight Jewish
families have been squatting for the past four years, the settlers will be
able to return to the area and live there legally within a few months. The
settlers have so far rejected the compromise proposal.

In the midst of a week in which hundreds of settlers rioted in Hebron to
protest the evacuation and police cracked down on the Jewish neighborhoods
in the West Bank city, the army has been conducting covert negotiations with
leaders of the Jewish community there in an effort to prevent the settlers'
forcible evacuation.

Over the past few days, the commander of the Judea brigade, responsible for
the Hebron area, Colonel Motti Baruch and other officers in the brigade have
received threatening SMS messages to their cell phones following the clashes
with the settlers. One of the messages said: "Long live the fourth Reich,
Heil Sharon."

Colonel Baruch in planning to file a police complaint about the messages.
The person who sent the SMS message did not conceal the phone number from
which he was calling. The IDF Spokesman said in response that "the IDF
condemns these actions."

The area in which the market is located had been in Jewish hands from the
beginning of the 19th century until after the massacre of Hebron Jews in
1929 and Jordan's 1948 capture of the city. The land was then transferred to
the Jordanian official responsible for absentee property and then to the
Hebron Municipality, which built the market.

The settlers described the Jewish claim to the area in petitions to the High
Court of Justice against the evacuation.

The state prosecution told the High Court that the settlers' argument
appears to be correct, but that they must first leave the stores in which
they have been squatting illegally. Only after the settlers leave the area
on their own, the prosecution said, will it be possible to examine the
possibility of returning the market area to the Jews, who would then be able
to live there legally.

But in talks with the settlers, the IDF went one step further.

"Evacuate the market," the army said, "and we will make a commitment to you
that, within a few months, the stores will return to your hands." GOC
Central Command Yair Naveh made the offer with the knowledge of Defense
Minister Shaul Mofaz and IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz.

Naveh is proposing that the state expropriate the right to protected
accommodation in the property and transfer it to the Israeli custodian
responsible for absentee property, who will lease the property to the Jewish
community. Until now, the settlers have rejected the proposal, apparently
for two reasons: a desire not to appear as though they are capitulating and
concern that the state prosecution will ultimately fail to approve the deal.

A senior security official said he felt remorse over the settlers' position.

"Their agreement could have saved a great deal of disorder and violence," he
said. "They're also damaging their own interests."

Compromise talks have continued in the last few days, although negotiators
are maintaining a low profile. Some senior officers think that they should
no longer try to work with the settlers, since they have refused to leave
the area by February 15, the date by which the evacuation orders must be
implemented, and have acted violently. But sources familiar with the
situation have not ruled out the possibility that a compromise may yet be
reached.