As for the legal status of Hill 26 in Kiryat Arba, David Wilder, spokesperson for the Jewish community of Hevron explained, "The Supreme Court did not order that Hill 26 be evacuated. The Supreme Court did not order that all structures be destroyed. The Supreme Court did not order that the Ozeri family be evicted. The Supreme Court only ordered that the residents 'avoid placing permanent structures on the site or engaging in construction of such.'"
The stone-roofed building on the hill constituted such a "permanent structure" and Nati Ozeri had agreed, in accordance with the army's legal interpretation of the court order, to have it removed. Arab terrorists murdered him in front of his family before he could carry out the order. After the murder, his wife decided not to destroy the roof.
At that point, Wilder pointed out, the military could have elected to enforce the court order in a variety of ways: "They could have settled for removing the stone roof from the structure," the Hevron spokesperson suggested, "in accordance with the legal opinion that they themselves had arrived at. They could have avoided destroying the two containers at the site, which surely did not meet the definition of 'permanent structures.' They could have brought caravans to the site and moved the Ozeri family and all their belongings out of the condemned house and into the caravans,
without banishing the family and without totally destroying the Hill."
The decision makers chose to destroy all the structures on Hill 26 and to expel the Ozeri family.
The stone-roofed building on the hill constituted such a "permanent structure" and Nati Ozeri had agreed, in accordance with the army's legal interpretation of the court order, to have it removed. Arab terrorists murdered him in front of his family before he could carry out the order. After the murder, his wife decided not to destroy the roof.
At that point, Wilder pointed out, the military could have elected to enforce the court order in a variety of ways: "They could have settled for removing the stone roof from the structure," the Hevron spokesperson suggested, "in accordance with the legal opinion that they themselves had arrived at. They could have avoided destroying the two containers at the site, which surely did not meet the definition of 'permanent structures.' They could have brought caravans to the site and moved the Ozeri family and all their belongings out of the condemned house and into the caravans,
without banishing the family and without totally destroying the Hill."
The decision makers chose to destroy all the structures on Hill 26 and to expel the Ozeri family.