Palestinian officials condemn Ras Al Amoud compromise

A compromise was reached in the early hours of Wednesday by which Jewish settlers were to evacuate the Arab houses they took over in the Ras Al Amoud neighbourhood in East Jerusalem but at least ten students of Jewish religious schools, yeshivas, were to stay behind and look after the buildings. Palestinian officials condemned the compromise and said it was totally unacceptable. Yet, they preferred to give some time to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to see if an entire evacuation from the houses is to be done before they react.

Marwan Kanafani, special advisor to PNA President Yasser Arafat, said it would be better to wait until after action is taken on the ground to see what exactly the state of affairs will be. Yet, the compromise reached does not seem to have any chances of being accepted by the Arab owners of the houses or by the PNA. The case fits into a pattern seen in so many similar cases, mainly in Hebron, when houses were taken over by Jewish settlers but later evacuated for some time, during which period they were handled by the army. A few months later, the settlers were allowed back to the houses and their Arab owners had to remain out for good.

Netanyahu, who canceled his his Eastern Europe trip to deal with the problem, searched for a way to persuade the settlers to leave. Some of his cabinet ministers who met with the settlers at night told them the only one in the cabinet who objected the forceful eviction of settlers from the houses in Ras Al Amoud was Netanyahu himself and that all cabinet ministers were in favor of such an action. Israeli sources said Wednesday morning that apparently after the settlers heard of the new stand within the government, they agreed to leave, but not before they obtained an agreement in which ten yeshiva students are allowed to stay in those houses. The compromise was reached after Jewish American millionaire Irving Moskowitz, whom Palestinians now call the "godfather of Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem" expressed his readiness for a compromise with Netanyahu, provided it is a “reasonable” one.

Late at night, Police Chief Commissioner Assaf Hefetz issued guidelines to the Jerusalem Police to prevent the entrance of additional settlers into homes in Ras Al Amoud. The decision was taken following late night consultations at Netanyahu's office with key cabinet members, including police and defense ministers.

Meanwhile, the Arab tenants of the houses in Ras Al Amoud denied they ever received any money from Moskowitz or from any of his representatives. They denied earlier reports that the family lord had sought refuge in Ukraine after he received the reported amount of US $1.5 million in return for the house. Palestinian sources confirmed that the Hadiya family used to live in the house as tenants but not as owners. The real owner of the house, the Al Ghoul family, had rented it to a lawyer whose sister got married to someone of the Hadiya family, who is now being suspected of selling his rights as a protected tenant to the American Jewish tycoon.