Not satisfied with the legal appeals process of the IDF, the far-left Peace Now organization petitioned the High Court of Justice to order the army to eject two Jewish families from the Avraham Avinu neighborhood of Hevron. In an unusual step, the state responded Monday by supporting Peace Now's demand to evict the families. 
An IDF appeals board instructed the army to stand down on the eviction.
In a decision from about one month ago, an IDF appeals board instructed the army to stand down on the eviction of the Avraham Avinu residents until the matter was adjudicated by a military appeals court. However, seeing an opportunity to eject the two families immediately, the Peace Now organization filed a petition with the High Court asking it to lift the injunction and order the evictions.
On Monday, the state offered its reply to the Peace Now petition. The State Attorney's Office told the court that, contrary to its traditional response of objecting to High Court intervention in such cases, it supports the Peace Now position and calls for lifting the injunction against evicting the two Hevron families. In its statement, the State Attorney's Office said that an immediate eviction would serve to end an ongoing violation of the rule of law.
Responding to the petition and the surprising position taken by the state, spokesmen for Hevron's Jewish community said that the call to evict the families from the Avraham Avinu neighborhood completely ignores the Jewish owners of the property. Those legal owners, the Hevron spokesmen say, were forced out by Arab violence and British colonial policies in the 1920s and 1930s. However, according to the Hevron residents, documentation of the purchase of the lands of the Avraham Avinu neighborhood was preserved by the Jewish owners until today and should now be considered as obligating the State of Israel.
While the state has not returned the lands in question, it has declared itself as the general administrator of the property.
Hevron community representatives argue that the state has failed to carry out its duties as administrator, as well. While an administrator is obligated to fulfill the wishes of the owners of the property as much as possible, in Hevron, the state has ignored those wishes.
The property under review by the military appeals court was owned by the Ezra family, the last Jewish family to be forced out of Hevron early last century. 10 years ago, a three-story Jewish residence building was built on that property. The residences were built over existing Arab shops lining the street, so as not to disrupt their businesses. In 2000, as a result of the Palestinian Authority terror offensive that commenced that year, the marketplace was closed and the businesses moved to elsewhere in Hevron.