Gideon Levy, Haaretz, August 12:
The Yahalom and Bar Kochba families must be returned without delay to their homes in the wholesale marketplace from which they were expelled. The Israel Defense Forces must immediately reconnect their electricity and water and ensure their safety, day and night, as it does for all the settlers in the city. In return the Yahaloms and Bar Kochbas will serve the soldiers coffee and cookies, and kugel for Shabbat, as they always do.
We must also apologize to the families for expelling them: They should not have been discriminated against in comparison with the city’s other settlers. There is no difference between their act of robbery and the other acts of robbery in the city. Bar Kochba and Yahalom stole property that was stolen long ago; the store owners on whose property they squatted have not seen their shops for years and will not get them back now, so there is no reason to complain about the squatters’ behavior. That’s what everyone does in Hebron.