Israel drafted hundreds of police reinforcements to the West Bank town of Hebron on Monday in a bid to quell what the press is calling a Jewish Intifada, sparked by plans to evacuate settlers.
The build-up of border police, regular police and soldiers followed two consecutive days of clashes between hundreds of hardline settlers and Israeli security forces ahead of the enforcement of eviction orders to Jewish families.
Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz has reiterated his determination to remove nine Jewish families squatting illegally in a fruit and vegetable market in the town, vowing that the authorities will not be intimidated by violence.
“Mr Mofaz calls on the Jewish community of Hebron to calm emotions before it becomes too late… Police and army numbers in Hebron have been reinforced and have been ordered to act firmly,” said a ministry statement.
The nine families — around 50 people — have taken over some of the stalls and neighbouring buildings of the closed Palestinian market.
“Mr Mofaz has decided to evacuate them from the wholesalers’ market in Hebron and will not be intimidated by outlaws,” the ministry spokesperson said.
Israeli police spokesperson Mickey Rosenfeld said 250 extra officers had been drafted into the area to confront ongoing violence in the flashpoint town.
On Sunday, hundreds of hardline settlers hurled eggs and stones at Israeli security forces for the second day running.
Police commander Shlomo Ephrati said the area could be declared a partial military zone.
“We will not tolerate acts of anti-Palestinian vandalism perpetrated by masked young Jewish settlers,” he told public radio.
Twenty-two “outlaws” had been arrested in the area on Sunday, he said, adding that a definite date for the eviction would be determined by a court.
The defence ministry has ordered an investigation to assess the cost of the damage incurred by Palestinian shopkeepers in Hebron during acts of vandalism carried out by Jewish settlers with a view to compensating them.
The unrest is one of the first major challenges facing Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert with the headline on the frontpage of the main Yediot Aharonot daily proclaiming “Jewish Intifada in Hebron,” in reference to the five-year Palestinian uprising.
“This is not just another escalation in disturbing public peace… There are several thousand people for whom not only the law is irrelevant, but the state of Israel is irrelevant,” said Yediot.
“This is a Jewish intifada. The army realises that the moment of truth is approaching: if the deterioration is not curbed now… this new reality will only exacerbate and lead to depths that no one wants to reach,” it added.
On Sunday, Olmert told the weekly Cabinet meeting that the authorities would display zero tolerance towards those who protested violently.
Israel shut the Palestinian market 11 years ago, citing security worries. Settlers moved in after Palestinian gunmen killed a baby girl in 2001, arguing that Jews had the property before the creation of Israel in 1948.
In 2003, Israel’s Supreme Court backed an appeal by Palestinian traders and ordered that the Jewish settlers be evicted from the market which should then be reopened — neither of which has yet happened.
Under a 1997 accord with the Palestinian Authority, Israeli troops withdrew from 80% of the city but continue to protect the settler enclaves around the Cave of the Patriarchs, a shrine holy to both Jews and Muslims.
‘”We don’t have a conflict of interest with Iran’
Meanwhile, Israel will not allow “a totalitarian” Iran which exports international terrorism to have a nuclear capability, Israeli President Moshe Katsav said in an interview published on Monday.
“It would be the first step for atomic bombs to fall into the hands of terrorists of the [Shi’ite fundamentalist movement] Hezbollah, the [Islamist] Hamas or al-Qaeda for example,” said Katsav who was born in Iran in 1945.
“We don’t have a conflict of interest with Iran, we don’t have a common border but we cannot allow a totalitarian country which exports international terrorism to have a nuclear capability,” he told the conservative ABC newspaper.
Iran is a threat for Israel and for the rest of the world, he added.
The interview was published as Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, a former European Union envoy to the Middle East, began a three-day visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories, 20 years after the two countries established diplomatic relations.
Moratinos last year criticised Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s call for the destruction of Israel, saying such rhetoric had “no place” in a civilised world. – AFP