Between the talk about peace of the Israeli government in front the world and inside the closed rooms in Annapolis and the real facts on the ground in the occupied territories, there is the same distance as between heaven and earth. The Israeli Prime Minster Ehud Olmert, who lectured about peace in Annapolis is a war criminal who has converted Gaza into an extermination camp, and the occupied territories of the West Bank into closed and isolated ghettos and concentration camps.

On March 19, 2007, the Israeli Military Commander in Hebron, Yehuda Fuch, and the Israeli Police Chief, Col. Eli Zamir, helped and protected over 200 Illegal Jewish colonists from Kiryat Arba, led by the American criminal Moshe Levinger from “Kach” terror organization, to invade and ultimately steal a Palestinian building belong to Mr. Fayez Al-Jabari from Hebron. The building was under construction and consists of four floors and stands in the middle of a Palestinian housing area in Hebron.

The colonists claimed that they had bought the house from his owner for US$ 700.000, a claim which they tried to base on falsified and fraudulent documents. The owner denied these allegations and sees the occupation of the building which belongs to his family as a clear case of ethnical cleansing supported by the Israeli military and police commanders of Hebron, and he appealed through the Hebron Committee for Rehabilitation to the Israeli Supreme Court to stop this illegal theft.

The Al-Jabari House in Hebron

Colonel Fuchs gave his full support to this theft perpetrated by the illegal colonists, and he established a military watchtower at the entrance of the road to the Palestinian housing area where the building of Mr. Al-Jabari is located, what constitutes an initial step of ethnical cleansing of the area, and his soldiers and the colonists are converting the daily life of the Palestinians who live in that neighborhood into hell. The usual steps followed by the Israeli military to ethnically cleanse an area is to fence it off with walls and checkpoints, impede all traffic into and through the area for Palestinians, install sharpshooters and a massive military presence in the area, mistreat the Palestinians and assist the illegal colonists in continued acts of violence and terrorism against Palestinians.

On Tuesday, March 20, 2007, MK Otniel Schneller from the extremist party Kadima, a close associate of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his liaison to the colonist movement, visited the occupied Palestinian house in Hebron. MK Schneller said that the takeover of the Palestinian house was consistent with Kadima’s policy, and that the party viewed a Hebron settlement bloc as part of any future peace agreement.

MK Otniel Schneller with Kach terrorists Moshe Levinger and Orit Struk

On November 18, 2007, the Supreme Court of Israel rejected the occupation of the Palestinian house by the colonists as illegal, and stated that the documents which the colonists had presented to the court to substantiate their claim that they had bought the house, were falsified and fraudulent. Because of this, the court rejected a further petition by the colonists and the military and decided that the colonists should be ejected from the Palestinian house, and that the Israeli Defense Ministry, the Chief of the Staff, the military commander of Hebron, and the Israeli police should evacuate the colonist and give back the house to his real owner, Mr. Al-Jabari. The court did neither open a criminal investigation nor take other steps to punish or jail the colonists who falsified these official documents.

Two weeks have passed since the Supreme Court decision, and the Palestinian house is still occupied by the illegal colonists. This is a violation of the decision of the Israeli Supreme court and the law by Colonel Yehuda Fuchs, the Police Chief Col. Eli Zamir, the Israeli Chief of the Staff Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, and the Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and it is an obstacle in the way of the peace process.

The intervention of MK Schneller in this issue as well as his presence in the stolen building is clear proof that ethnical cleansing and genocide are the official policy of the Government of Israel. That the Israeli military and police intervened in an attempt to legitimize a clear act of ethnical cleansing initiated by the illegal Jewish colonists in Hebron is a clear sign that Israel is NOT a state of law and that Israel does NOT comply with its obligations under international treaties, as this shows that institutions of the Israeli government, the Knesset, the religious authorities disregard laws enacted in Israel without fear of just punishment.

The activities of the colonists, the Israeli army and police in the West Bank and in Gaza constitute genocide, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing and crimes of war according various international statutes and in the laws of many countries. The “policy” of the extremist party Kadima is a legitimization of genocide on the ground of racial and religious extremism. These and many other facts show that the government of Israel is not willing or is not capable to impose just laws in all the territories under its control.

According to international laws and precepts of law, ethnic cleansing, war crimes and genocide can not be part of the legitimate policies of any government or party. So far the letter and the spirit of the many international treaties and laws about crimes against humanity, which derive from these international treaties, including, for example, Israel’s very own Law for Prevention and Punishment of Genocide of 1950.

Update:
* Some pictures of the occupation and theft of Mr. Al-Jabari’s house can be seen here.
* Some documents related to the theft of the colonists are here.