BICOM

A seven-year dispute regarding the ownership of a property in Hebron in the West Bank has ended following a Supreme Court last month ruling that Jewish settlers were the lawful owners of the building. In light of the decision by the Court, on Sunday Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon approved habitation of the house saying that a limited number of families would be allowed to return to the house.

The building itself – which covers an area of over 3,000 square meters and is located between Hebron and the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba – is known by its supporters in Israel as Bet HaShalom, the House of Peace, while its opponents refer to it as Bet HaMeriva, the House of Contention. According to an article in Haaretz from 2007, the building was reportedly bought for $700,000 by a Jewish family in New York who were descendants of Jews who had lived in Hebron for centuries, before being massacred by Palestinian Arabs in 1929. Meanwhile, the Palestinian Rajabi family has for years said its four-storey building had been taken over fraudulently by Israeli settlers.

The city of Hebron is a heavily contested city between Israelis and Palestinians, with historical and religious significance to both peoples. Under the Protocol Concerning the Redeployment in Hebron, which was signed in 1997 in the aftermath of the Oslo Accords, the city is divided into two sections, with one area, approximately 80% of the city, under PA control (H1) and the other area (H2) includes 700 Jews who live under Israeli army protection.