Legal Background on Hill 26: Hill 26 Belongs to Kiryat Arba
Nadia Matar, Co-Chairperson, Women in Green
An Arab who lives next to the hill claims that it is his land.Over
the past years he went through several rounds of judicial
proceedings,
and always lost. One of the discoveries made by Attorney Nadav
Haetzni, who is representing the hill, is that the Arab's documents
were forged. The Arab appealed to the High Court of Justice about a
year ago. The Court issued an interim order that says that since
there is a disagreement regarding the hill, then in the meantime no
permanent structures are to be built there.
The entire time that Nati, HY"D, lived on the hill, there was no
permanent
structure there.
Following the funeral of Eleazar Leibowitz, HY"D[ who was murdered
by Arab terrorists], Nati was exiled from the hill for five months.
His wife Livnat, the children, and the young people remained on the
hill. As winter approached, the young people on the hill decided to
reinforce the house. They added stones to it, thereby, according to
the High Court of Justice, turning the house into a "permanent
house."
The Arab's lawyer filed a complaint. When Nati returned to the hill
after five months, the representatives of the Civil Administration
(who had had good relations with Nati) came and explained to him
that the situation must be corrected. The Civil Administration
representatives advised Nati to remove the roof, and everything
would be alright. On 12 Shevat (January 14, 2003), Nati agreed to
the request of the Civil Administration. On 15 Shevat (Friday night
January 17) he was murdered, before he had time to remove the roof
and replace it with a "nonpermanent" roof.
After the murder, the widow decided that "nothing is to be
destroyed now." They murdered her husband, removing the roof was
inconceivable. Sunday night, 20 Adar II (the night between March
23-24, 2003) the army came and razed the house, all the structures
and the entire farm. Everything was crushed.
Whoever hides behind the ruling of the High Court of Justice, as if
it were the High Court of Justice that ordered the destruction of
the hill, is lying!
According to the order by the High Court of Justice, it was not
necessary to evacuate and raze the entire hill. All that the High
Court of Justice ordered was that there be no permanent structure
on the hill until the final decision by the Court.
We ask:
Why did the army receive the order to destroy the entire hill, and
with such brutality? Is this a trial balloon by Sharon for the
evacuation of the meahazim (outpost settlements)? How is it that
the same army that reached an agreement with Nati that it was not
necessary to demolish the house, how is it that this same army
could not just remove the roof, and put an end to the story? Why
destroy everything? These were the same ones who reached an
agreement with Nati, three days before his murder, that it was
possible to honor the order of the High Court of Justice by
removing the roof? What happened?
We have learned that responsible people who are in contact with the
authorities asked and pleaded that if they already insisted upon
destroying the house or part of it, then the army should bring
mobile housing units (karavanim) to the hill (that was permitted in
accordance
with the High Court of Justice order), where all of Livnat's
belongings would be brought, and only then demolish part of the
house.
But the army destroyed everything - crushed, broke, trampled down,
and we cry out against the wickedness, the brutality, and the
terrible injustice, and we ask: why?
On the Hebron Internet site: www.hebron.org.il you will see horrifying
pictures of the destruction of the hill.
I asked the IDF Spokesman to receive the army's response to
everything that was described above. I was told by the spokeswoman
of the Minister of Defense that "because I plan on reading this
story on Arutz 7 radio- we got clear instructions from the Attorney
General not to have any contact with an illegal media outlet.
Therfor we cannot relate to the questions you raise in your
article". Nice way of avoiding to answer our questions!
Links:
http://www.womeningreen.org/ozeri.htm
http://www.hebron.org.il/news/givah26.htm
An Appeal to Help The Ozeri Family
http://www.israelnn.org/news.php3?id=41579
http://www.israelnn.org/news.php3?id=41166
http://www.israelnn.org/news.php3?id=40917
http://www.israelnn.org/news.php3?id=40911
Remnants Of The Ozeri Family Being Eradicated
11:50 Apr-29-03, 27 Nisan 5763
(IsraelNN.com) The remnants of the personal effects of the Ozeri family are being eradicated from Kiryat Arba's 'Hill 26' by an IDF bulldozer operating at that location at this time.
Livnat Ozeri, the widow of Nati and the mother of five, commented this morning that it was most painful and unfortunate that on a day when the nation of Israel remembers the Holocaust, the IDF is busy removing the last trace of her family's presence on the hill.
The Ozeri farmhouse was located on 'Hill 26'. On 17 January, Nati Ozeri was murdered in his home during a Sabbath meal by terrorist gunfire. On 24 March, the IDF evacuated Livnat and her children, then bulldozing the home without permitting her to remove the personal contents. Today, it appears the army is intent on removing any last trace of the Ozeri family's presence on the hilltop.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=42588
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Don't hide behind the Supreme Court!
Deep into the night of March 23, 2003, an atrocity was committedon Hill 26 outside the Kiryat Arba neighborhood of Givat HaCharsina:
The security forces of the State of Israel were sent to banish a widow andorphans, victims of Arab terror, from their home, and to destroy that home the same home in which the father of the family, Netanel Ozeri, may G-davenge his blood, had been murdered just two months previous. All thisoccurred at the height of a cruel wave of terror running rampant in theHebron area.
Deep into the night, the children were removed from their bedsand were sent without socks or shoes, without coats or warm clothing faraway from their homes. The Government had rented an apartment for them inAriel in Samaria. Exile.
Deep into the night, heavy bulldozers attacked all thestructures on Hill 26. The houses were destroyed with all their contents precious little was saved. Amongst the ruins could be seen: furniture, anoven, children's clothing, toys, family portraits. Destruction.
At daybreak, the Arabs of Hebron could conclude withsatisfaction that murdering Jews in their homes is a crime that pays. Beforethe Arabs' eyes, the terrorists had murdered, and the army had completed thework. Terror was rewarded.
Who was sent to carry out this mission?
* A regiment of Nahal soldiers called back from a furlough and told thatthey were going out on a special security operation.
* The Army's Shock Horse Unit, a special unit whose purpose is: evacuatingoutposts. (The unit was established during Prime Minister Sharon's lasttenure, while Uzi Landau was Minister of Police, and it continues to existunder Tzahi HaNegbi).
The general public was informed, via the Army's Spokesman, thatthe evacuation was being carried out due to a Supreme Court order.
In this letter we would like to set the record straight:
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 permanentstructures on the site or engaging in construction of such.
On Wednesday, January 15, three days before he was murdered, Nati Ozeriagreed to remove the stone roof that had been placed upon his home (the roofwas built while Nati was being distanced from the Hill for about fivemonths, in the framework of a Judea/Samaria Police policy of distancingactivists from their homes [??? David, I added a number of words here]. Thisagreement was worked out on the basis of a legal opinion arrived at in theArmy, according to which removing the stone room was essential to avoidingcontempt of court.
On Friday night, January 18, Nati Ozeri was murdered in hishome, before the eyes of his wife and children. In the wake of the murder,the family went back on its intent to destroy the roof.
The Israeli Government and the Army had a variety of ways to fulfill theCourt's ruling so as to avoid contempt of court:
1. They could have petitioned the Supreme Court and demanded that theinterim order be nullified due to the grave security ramifications liable toresult from evacuating the Hill. The Arabs would surely take such anevacuation as proof that murdering Jews pays (reminder: Army Chief-of-StaffYa'alon explained at length in an interview with Haaretz on 30.8.02: Anywithdrawal from settlements facing terror and violence will only strengthenthat terror and violence. It will endanger us.).
2. They could have informed the Court that with the grave security situationin the Hebron area they could not earmark appropriate forces for evacuatingthe outpost, and that there was no justification for pulling combat forcesout of the battle against terror for missions such as these.
3. They could have settled for removing the stone roof from the structure,in accordance with the legal opinion that they themselves had arrived at.
4. They could have avoided destroying the two containers at the site, whichsurely did not meet the definition of permanent structures.
5. They could have brought caravans to the site and moved the Ozeri familyand all their belongings out of the condemned house and into the caravans,without banishing the family and without totally destroying the Hill.
All of these possibilities were patently obvious to the decision makers, whochose all the same to destroy the Hill and to exile the family.
We demand to know:
Who are the people responsible for the atrocity carried out atHill 26? Who made the decision and why? Who was responsible for theshameful, cruel way that the atrocity was committed against a bereavingfamily?
Following such an unjust deed, following such cruel treatment ofa widow and orphans, we cannot remain silent!
We likewise demand:
1. To investigate who made the decision to evacuate Hill 26 and to exile thefamily, and why, and to apprise them of their error.
2. To investigate who made the decision to establish a special Police unitfor Evacuating Outposts, and why, and to apprise them of their error.
3. To know whether there is any truth to the report in Haaretz that thedecision to evacuate Hill 26 marks the army's return to a policy ofevacuating outposts.
4. That all the decision makers should be pressed to correct the injusticeand to ensure that Hill 26 is immediately resettled.
Sincerely,
The Jewish Community of Hebron
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