IDF said to keep Likud lawmaker from visiting contested Hebron home

31 July 2017, 2:42 pm

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The Defense Ministry is preventing Likud’s MK David Bitan from visiting the Machpela House in Hebron, a building that has seen years of legal wrangling over claims of ownership by a group of 15 Jewish families who say they bought the site, and Palestinians who say the purchase was fraudulent.

The families entered the house against the IDF’s orders last week and have squatted inside it ever since.

Bitan reportedly is seeking to visit the building, near the Tomb of the Patriarchs holy site, to offer his support for the residents, but the IDF informed the Knesset’s security chief that it would not allow the lawmaker to make the visit.

Bitan calls the IDF decision a “scandal.”

“It’s my right to visit Hebron,” he insists.