Jewish settlers in Hebron spray-painted insults to the Prophet Muhammad on a mosque and defaced Muslim gravestones with the Star of David yesterday as they defied a court order to leave a disputed building.

The graffiti was the most recent in a spate of attacks by the town’s settlers, considered the most hardline in the West Bank, as they prepared for potential clashes with security forces. Israel is nervously waiting an all-out battle similar to the eviction of settlers from the Gaza Strip three years ago.

“We will not leave. We cannot leave. If we give up this house, it will next be Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, our whole country they ask us to leave,” said Ruth Hizmi, 50, a mother of seven, who moved her family into the building two years ago.

Earlier yesterday a soldier was lightly injured when a chemical substance was sprayed at him near the building, the army said. Government officials have described a “drastic rise” in incidents of vandalism while dozens of Palestinians have filed complaints of verbal and physical harassment in recent months. There was a semblance of normality in the building; mothers with young children on their hips and fathers pushing strollers calmly made their way inside carrying supplies to set up a new home. “We are not here for days or weeks. We are not here until the Government kicks us out. This is our home,” said one young woman stacking soda bottles into a cabinet.

In the cozy family units, two sisters crouched on rugs and separated laundry into piles while a young mother prepared her children’s supper. Balloons and banners with biblical quotations were strung along the halls.

Such homely touches could not dispel the tension that encircled the building. Windows were chained shut and doors welded together. The unfinished concrete staircase was strewn with the belongings of dozens of teenage settlers who scurried along the hallways, impatiently moving from rooftop to street level and casting distrusting eyes on strangers in the corridors. Self-appointed guards were taking turns on plastic chairs outside.

This week the Supreme Court told the settlers that they had 72 hours to evacuate the House of Peace – renamed the House of Contention by the Israeli public - an apartment block that they claim to have bought legally from a Palestinian. That deadline has passed unheeded while even more settlers have quietly moved in.

The Palestinian in question denies selling and says the settlers’ deed to the property is a forgery. Ehud Barak, the Defence Minister, has pledged to evict the settlers within 30 days if they do not leave voluntarily, but there seems little chance of that happening.

David Wilder, a spokesman for the Hebron settlers, said: “We purchased this building legally and now the Government is trying to get us to move for their own political reasons. We are not thinking of any kind of compromise. We hope to live peacefully in the House of Peace.”

Nearly 300 settlers live in the building, but newcomers are only granted entrance by Mr Wilder as official spokesman or by Nissim Ze’ev, the MP from the religious Shas party, who has moved into the building to express solidarity. The teenagers were complaining that some visitors might be spies, and there were rumours that activists from the Israeli antisettlement Peace Now group were trying to enter the house. “The army has been known to plant people around here, to pose as settlers and do things as part of their disinformation campaign to get the public against us,” said Mr Wilder.

He conceded that there had been a number of violent incidents against Palestinians recently, but attributed them to a small group and said that many had been staged.

There was little doubt that a handful of teens from the building were responsible for vandalising the mosque and cemetery, which border the House of Peace. By noon, soldiers had mostly removed the graffiti.

The building has been described as an excellent fortress. There are two winding, narrow roads running past it - one for the 170,000 Palestinians who live in the sprawling mountain city, and the other for the settlers.

“We didn’t want the House of Peace to become the scene of a battle,” Dan, a young settler, said. “We wanted to live here with our families. But we will not leave quietly. We will not allow the army to remove us.”

Divisive holy places

— The Cave of Patriarchs is the most contested holy site in Hebron

— Sacred for both Jews and Muslims as it is said to be a tomb for Abraham and his family

— Home to the tombs of Jesse and Ruth, ancestors of King David

— Local Jews say the tombs were desecrated by Muslims in 2007

— The Oak of Abraham marks the place where he pitched his tent, according to Christians

Source: Times archive

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