HEBRON, West Bank: Israel's State Prosecutor's Office has filed a suit against Jewish residents of Hebron in the West Bank to pay for the cost of evicting them from a disputed house, signalling a strategic shift in the relationship between the Israeli government and Jewish settlers in the city. The suit, filed in the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court, demands that the Jewish community of Hebron pay about $80,000, the price tag the state said it cost for a large contingent of police and other security forces to break into the building and remove the settlers in late 2008. A spokesperson for the Israel Justice Ministry said the new policy reflected a decision to “put an end to the disregard of the law enforcement authorities by hooligans… and to return to the public coffers the sums of money needed to enforce court orders.” The spokesperson told The Media Line that the new policy was being applied in both Arab and Jewish areas, noting that in the past year some 10 suits have been filed in order to cover the cost of court-ordered house demolitions and evictions. These included action in the Israeli Arab city of Umm el Phaham as well as an eviction in the Jewish community of Yizhar, located in areas acquired by Israel in 1967. The move shows a willingness by the state of Israel to extend criminal liability in some cases to actually bearing the cost of enforcing the law. Applying such a policy to house evictions appears to show that the government has chosen to differentiate between regular criminals and those who knowingly cause the state to carryout costly operations. In 2005, Israel evicted some 7,000 Jewish residents of the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank in a major relocation operation which has been estimated to have cost over $1 billion. Although thousands resisted, none of the residents were held liable for the expense. The current lawsuit was filed against the Tal Construction and Investment Company and the Association of Rebuilders of the Jewish Community in Hebron . They were held responsible for holding on to a Hebron building which Israel 's High Court of Justice ordered evacuated in November 2008 after its Arab owner claimed it had been taken from him. According to the court documents, copies of which were obtained by The Media Line, the Jewish squatters were ordered to evacuate the disputed house within three days or bear the cost of their eviction. The residents ignored the ruling. Two weeks later, a large contingent of Israeli security forces descended on the property and, after being met with violence, forcibly expelled the settlers amid rioting in the town. “The State Attorney's Office intends to submit such claims whenever necessary,” the Justice Ministry spokesman said. “These claims, as well as others promoted by the prosecution, are part of a strategy whereby the state intends to use civilian tools to preserve the rule of law and public expenditures.” “In other words, it perfectly describes the state's conduct,” said David Wilder, a spokesperson for the Jewish community of Hebron, rejecting the move as “unfair, ugly, political, discriminatory and lopsided.” Wilder maintained that the building had been purchased from its Arab owner by a family from New York for over a million dollars, and that Jewish families had lived there for two years before the court eviction orders were issued. At the time of the eviction, members of Hebron's Jewish leadership were in consultations with the Israeli defence establishment in an effort to come to an arrangement. Wilder told The Media Line that the suit was a “gross violation of the principle of equality before the law”, arguing that similar lawsuits were not being filed against thieves, robbers and traffic criminals. “Certainly such measures cannot be used against right-wing demonstrators only,” he said. “The state can only sue itself for the costs of this unnecessary expulsion.” The Justice Ministry said that the defendants had not yet submitted their rebuttal.
