Settlers enter 5 homes in heart of Palestinian neighborhood in Hebron, claiming legal purchase

Ultranationalist Israeli settlers entered several homes in the heart of a Palestinian neighborhood in the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron yesterday, in what the Peace Now settlement watchdog says amounts to the creation of another new settlement.

The settlers’ association Harchivi Mekom Ohalech claims that it purchased five houses from Palestinians in the Jabal Jalles neighborhood of Hebron, near the Tomb of the Patriarchs holy site.

The five houses located in a densely populated Palestinian neighborhood could accommodate dozens of families and hundreds of settlers. It will force the IDF to further expand its presence in the Palestinian neighborhood of the city to provide protection for the settlers, and will likely lead to additional curbs on Palestinian freedom of movement.

Hours before the settlers moved into the homes, the IDF carried out a large arrest operation in the same neighborhood, detaining dozens of Palestinians, in what suggests that the army was coordinating with the settlers ahead of their move in.

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“We are seeing here an alarming example of the consequences of the government’s new policy regarding land purchases in the West Bank. A handful of real estate-hungry settlers will in the future be able to determine many more such facts on the ground, with far-reaching political and security implications. This is what annexation looks like!” Peace Now says in a statement.

Land purchases in the West Bank are often dubious, with Palestinians claiming that settlers forge necessary documents to move them forward. While the army used to have authority over reviewing the necessary documents before purchases could be authorized, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich transferred that power to an official he appointed to serve as deputy head of the Civil Administration, seen as close to the settlement movement.

In addition, one of the measures approved by the security cabinet earlier this month scrapped the requirement for settlers to secure a transaction permit along with other documents previously needed to acquire property in the West Bank, further simplifying purchases like the alleged one in Hebron.

Peace Now clarifies that it hasn’t been able to confirm whether a transaction permit was granted in the claimed purchase of the five homes in Hebron’s Habal Jalles.

“In the past, there were cases in which settlers entered homes even without receiving a transaction permit, and they almost always did so before the registration process itself, before the Palestinian owners could express opposition to the purchase,” the left-wing group says in a statement.