Families Agree to Leave Chevron Building While Ownership Verified

By Hamodia Staff

YERUSHALAYIM – A potentially explosive situation in Chevron was defused on Monday after an agreement was reached toward settling a dispute with Palestinians over ownership of a building in the city, The Jerusalem Post reported on Monday.

Hundreds of supporters of 15 families who faced eviction from the building called Beit Tekuma had barricaded themselves inside on Sunday.

The Jewish group Harchevi said that the families moved in “on Thursday when it was clear to us that, upon learning that Jews had bought the building, Arabs [Palestinians] planned to break into it and hold it, even though we had legally purchased it.”

The owner of the building, Mohammed Eid Ja’bari, denied selling it to the Jewish community, a move that the Palestinian Authority holds to be a criminal act punishable by imprisonment.

“This was my house for 32 years. I received many requests and offers to sell it. I refused to sell or even rent,” Ja’bari said.

But on Monday, the families agreed to leave while the Civil Administration signs off on the purchase agreement between the Jewish residents and the former Palestinian owner. In the meantime, IDF soldiers will be posted to guard it against trespassers.

“This is what the building looks like when it’s free of Jews,” Religious Zionism MK Orit Struck wrote on Twitter. The left-wing NGO Peace Now charged that the government had allowed the right wing to dictate the country’s policies and it was time that it stopped “bowing to criminals.”

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