Israeli court orders colonists to end takeover of Hebron house

Israel's High Court on Sunday gave Jewish settlers three days to evacuate a house in the Occupied West Bank town of Hebron whose ownership is contested.

The ruling, which was slammed by settler leaders, follows a series of violent clashes between Israeli security forces and hard-line Jews seeking to erect unauthorized outposts in the Occupied West Bank.

All Israeli presence in the Occupied West Bank is illegal under international and stands in violation of numerous UN Security Council resolutions.

The court rejected an appeal by two right-wing organizations against an order issued by the state to evacuate the Hebron house, which the settlers claim they had purchased from a Palestinian, who denies selling the house.

The house was occupied by dozens of hard-line Jewish settlers in March 2007. They have remained in the four-story building, which they dubbed "the house of peace" despite the evacuation order.

The court ruling said that the colonists "should turn to the appropriate legal bodies to prove their ownership over the house and refrain from taking the law into their own hands by occupying the property against the will of its owner."

It ordered the settlers to leave the house within three days. If they are not out by then, the ruling said, they can be subject to forceful evacuation by police.

The settler representatives claimed the house had been bought for $700,000, but Palestinian Faez Rajabi said he had documents proving he was the legal owner and that the deal had never been completed.

While the ruling said there were "contradictions and queries" in Rajabi's claims, it also said that documents presented by the settlers in a bid to show ownership of the house "were found by police investigators to be forged."

A spokesman for the Yesha Council, the main colonist organization, called on outgoing Premier Ehud Olmert to meet them and urged him to allow the settlers to stay in the house.

"The settlers have proved beyond any doubt that they bought the house, but still the government, the state prosecution and the High Court collude to remove them from the house," Yishai Hollander said.