State announces evacuation of Hebron's Beit Ezra

After weeks of negotiations with the justice system, the state announced on Monday that it will evacuate two settler families who live in the Beit Ezra building in Hebron. The families took over the building about a decade ago and have lived there ever since. Until 1948, the property belonged to Jews who abandoned it, and beginning in the 1960s it was leased to Palestinians by the Israeli Custodian of Absentee Property. The area in which Beit Ezra is located once served as Hebron's wholesale market but has been deserted since it was evacuated in the 1990s. However, its proximity to the Jewish quarter of Hebron has made it an appealing location for the Jewish families that live there.

A few years ago, the families were given orders to evict the building. The families appealed against the eviction orders to a military appeals committee which determined that even though the families seized the property, Jews are allowed to live there due to its history of Jewish ownership.

In 2010, the Peace Now organization petitioned the High Court against the decision. The Netanyahu government has since been deliberating on whether to allow the families to stay there.

On Monday, the state reached a decision and announced that the families would be evacuated after a heated debated between Likud ministers and the attorney-general. The ministers wanted the attorney-general to commit that, despite forcing the current Jewish residents to leave, he will allow other Jews to live in the building in the future. However, the attorney-general said that there was no link between the current evacuation of Beit Ezra and what would be done with the property later.

The right-wing government has already decided to evacuate three outposts as a result of three petitions submitted to the High Court: Ulpana Hill, Migron, and now also Beit Ezra.