The family of Gershon Bar-Kochba has won a year-long battle to remain in its Hevron home after police forced it out of the residence more than eight months ago.
Lawyers for the family appealed to the courts after repeated evictions by police who had been ordered by Attorney General Menachem Mazuz to remove the residents from their home.
The court said in its decision this week that Israeli law prohibits a family from being evicted if it has lived in a structure more than 30 days. The judge also scolded the police for trying to arrest Bar-Kochba.
The Bar-Kochbas and two other families moved into the Beit Shapira building in Hevron after it was purchased from its Arab owner. The Hevron Jewish Community emphasizes that the entire contested neighborhood - known as the shuk near the Avraham Avinu synagogue - is Jewish-owned. The land was purchased many decades ago by the Sephardic "Magen Avot" kollel, which legally transferred the property to today's Jews of Hevron.
The courts and military authorities met with the families and reached an agreement that called for them to leave their homes voluntarily until the government prepared a property contract.
The families moved out, but instead of receiving their new contract, they were soon served with an eviction notice, breaching the government’s agreement.
Attorney General Mazuz ruled that the purchase agreement was invalid and instead issued an order to force the families out.
The Bar-Kochbas later secretly moved back into their home, but were again forced to leave when a policeman discovered them.
After a similar experience several days later, the family returned to the home a third time - and managed to remain there for three months before being discovered again.
Earlier this year, two Israeli newspapers apologized and compensated the three families for falsely reporting the story. The Arab sellers of Beit Shapira had suddenly claimed that the papers had been forged, and demanded the eviction of the Jewish occupants. The matter was taken to the Supreme Court, which ruled that the families must be removed pending an investigation into the matter.
The newspapers, however, reported that the Court had ruled against the Jews of Hevron and that the purchase papers were in fact forged. For this, they were ordered to pay between 13,000 and 15,000 shekels each to the families, and to publish a public apology.