Israelis’ Eviction From Old City Hospice Upheld : Mideast: Supreme Court rules that 150 settlers must leave complex owned by Greek Orthodox Church in Jerusalem’s Christian quarter.

Israel’s Supreme Court today upheld an eviction order against 150 Jewish settlers who occupied a complex owned by the Greek Orthodox Church in the Christian quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City.

The settlers, who moved into St. John’s Hospice on April 11, must leave the 72-room complex near the Church of the Holy Sepulcher by Tuesday, said Chief Justice Meir Shamgar, reading the ruling by a three-judge panel.

The judges said the Panama-based company, SBC, that subleased St. John’s Hospice to the settlers could keep up to 20 guards and maintenance employees there until the tenancy dispute is settled by a lower court.

The Jewish settlement provoked deep anger among clerics and Palestinians, both Christian and Muslim. The State Department called the settlement, which came during Easter Week, “an insensitive and provocative act.”

Adding to the anger was the admission by the government, after repeated denials, that it had provided $1.8 million of the money for the settlement. The admission brought protests from American pro-Israeli and Jewish groups.

During arguments today, the Justice Ministry contended that the continued presence of the settlers would inflame Arabs and provoke violence.

“Every event in the area has influence on the fabric of relations, problematic these days, between members of different religions and faiths,” argued the ministry’s representative, Nili Arad.

She told the three-justice panel that the settlement site “is a very sensitive place . . . both sides recognize there has been a disturbance of the peace.”

Avraham Socholovsky, an attorney for the Greek Orthodox Church, which owns the compound, accused the settlers of provocative behavior. The group had entered the building with weapons, he said. “It was like an occupation. Is this what they call subletting?”

Also today, Israeli soldiers shot and killed two Palestinians and wounded about 120 today in the worst violence in the intifada uprising in nearly a year, hospital officials and Arab witnesses said.

The clash began as thousands of Muslim worshipers were passing an army base in the Gaza Strip en route to a cemetery for a religious holiday to honor the dead, witnesses said.

An army spokesman said some of the Palestinians started to throw rocks and bottles at the soldiers. The soldiers, concerned about the potential danger to their lives, responded with tear gas and later various types of ammunition, the spokesman said.