A Hevron resident has been banned from his home for three months, four teenagers were arrested while protesting, Rabbi Levinger meets with Defense Minister Barak - and all are related to tensions surrounding Beit HaShalom in Hevron.
Police have apparently been instructed to take a tough stance on all fronts vis-à-vis Land of Israel protestors, according to sources in the Shomron Regional Council.
Two teenagers from Kfar Tapuach were arrested on Wednesday night while demonstrating against the planned Peace House eviction, and another two were arrested in similar circumstances the night before. "None of them were doing anything particularly criminal other than standing there demonstrating," a Shomron Council official told IsraelNationalNews, "but it was evident that the police were extra tense and seemed to be under orders to take an extra-firm hand."
The first pair were handed orders, signed by the local police chief, banning them from Judea and Samaria for the next 15 days - but these were canceled at the intervention of Shomron Regional Council chief Gershon Mesika. The second two were brought before a judge on Thursday morning; no decision has yet been issued.
In addition, Mati Shvo - father of six and a teacher in Hevron - was served with a military administrative order last night, distancing him from the area for the next three months. Orders of this type are given under emergency regulations exempting the army from justifying it them, and this was the seventh such order issued over the past several months. It was signed by OC Central Command Gen. Gad Shamni.
After the inconclusive meeting between settlement leaders of Judea and Samaria and Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Thursday morning regarding the future of the controversial building in Hevron, it was reported that Barak met afterwards with the ailing Hevron Jewish Community founder Rabbi Moshe Levinger on the same matter.
Non-Stop Support for Beit HaShalom
Among the visitors who arrived at Beit HaShalom on Wednesday to show support were Kiryat Arba/Hevron Chief Rabbi Dov Lior, Tzfat Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, and Yeshivat Nir head Rabbi Eliezer Waldman. The rabbis called on the public to continue to arrive en-masse in order to save the building from being forcibly evacuated.
Constantly looming in the background are the memories of the Amona destruction nearly three years ago, when hundreds of youths and policemen were injured, several of them seriously.
Given the past three days of simmering violence in Hevron - between Jews, Arabs and police, in various combinations – the fear that the violence could spiral out of control altogether if a forced eviction is attempted is palpable and concrete.
Wednesday’s visitors also included MK Nissim Ze’ev of Shas, who has set up an office there, Rabbi Sukkot of Breslov, Rabbi Wolpe of Chabad, and rabbis and students from Sderot, Beit El, Maaleh Adumim, Shilo and elsewhere. MK Uri Ariel and former MK Geulah Cohen also arrived.
The Kiryat Arba municipality, under newly-elected Mayor Malachi Levinger, held its opening session in Beit HaShalom.
Eldad Warns of Bloodshed
MK Aryeh Eldad demands that the youths at Beit HaShalom – and the GSS provocateurs – be brought under control, and threatens not to come to the building to help stop an eviction unless this occurs.
Speaking on Arutz-7, Eldad said that the intention to evict the building’s residents is nothing more than a political trick by Barak as the elections draw near, but warns that it could result in bloodshed: “It could be a sadistically-inclined Yassam policeman who throws a boy off a roof, like in Amona, or it could be from a pipe thrown by a mixed-up hilltop youth on a roof onto the head of a policeman or soldier.” He said that rabbis and leaders who called on hundreds of youths to arrive at the site must also take control over them and their actions.
