Activists hoping to keep the Peace House in Hevron under Jewish ownership have rejected offers of help from the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea and Samaria (Yesha), according to organizer Daniella Weiss. The decision to reject the council's help was made by the forum managing the Peace House and was accepted by all of the relevant nationalist groups, she said.

Among the groups that rejected the Yesha Council's attempts to participate were the Land of Israel Faithful, Youth for the Land of Israel, Women in Green, Homesh First, the Jewish Heart (HaLev HaYehudi), and Youth for the Complete Land of Israel, Weiss said.

Yesha Council members have pushed the activists to include the council in efforts to resist the forcible eviction of Jews from the Peace House, she said, but the activists' decision is final. The council even offered to give financial assistance, she said.

"They cooperated with the government when we fought the horrible crime of the expulsion from Gush Katif; they are cooperating with the destruction of outposts and the plan to evacuate Migron,” Weiss said of the Yesha Council. Former Police Commissioner Moshe Karadi has admitted that the expulsion of Jews from Gush Katif would have been unsuccessful without the Yesha Council's help, she said.

"The Yesha Council's mission ended with the failure in Gush Katif. It has no more place in any position whatsoever, in any matter. It's mission is over, and it must step down,” Weiss concluded.

'They're fighting us with slander and libel'

Weiss vehemently denied reports that activists had attacked soldiers. “No such thing happened, it's a lie. It reminds me of the story about acid attacks in Kfar Darom [during the expulsion from Gush Katif—ed.]. There was no acid, there was no turpentine, there were no attacks on soldiers,” she said.

Earlier in the day IDF officials said a soldier had been very lightly wounded when activists threw turpentine on his face. Commanders also accused nationalists of throwing rocks and firecrackers at an Arab house, and then attacking and cursing soldiers who came to stop the attack.

The government is slandering nationalist Jews because it failed to defeat them in court, Weiss said. “They failed in their legal battle against us, because now it's clear that the Peace House was legally purchased by Jews, so they are trying to fight us with slander and libel.”

The government is also upset by the obvious Jewish pride in Hevron, she said. “We're acting as Jews should, as the rightful owners of this place,” she said. “Apparently the sight of Jews walking freely in the City of the Patriarchs, carefree and secure, is 'thorns in the eyes' of the Arabs and Olmert's leftist government and for that reason their method is to slander,” she said.

'Dichter, Barak maliciously misleading the public'

The Jewish Council of Hevron slammed Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Public Security Minister Avi Dichter on Thursday night, saying both men were “maliciously misleading the public.” The ministers both said Jews would be evicted from the Peace House due to a High Court ruling, but there was no such ruling, the council said.

"The High Court did not order the emptying of Peace House but deferred to the State and the decision is in the State's hands,” council members explained. “They are lighting the flames of a conflagration and recklessly leading to a provocation, out of political motives,” they said.