Settlers call on gov't to return to Homesh

Festive Passover event planned amid ruins of demolished West Bank settlement.

By TOVAH LAZAROFF
HOMESH hilltop settlement 370 (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
HOMESH hilltop settlement 370
(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
Calling on the government to rebuild the demolished Homesh settlement, the Samaria Regional Council and the Samaria Citizen’s Council have planned a festive Passover event amid its ruins on Tuesday.
Israel demolished Homesh in 2005, along with three other Samaria settlements – Sa-Nur, Ganim and Kadim – at the same time that it razed 21 Gaza settlements.
Although Israel relinquished control of Gaza to the Palestinians, it maintained military control of the area where the four Samaria settlements were located.
Settlers have since made numerous calls for the government to rebuild the four hilltop communities, but they have focused specifically on Homesh. Many festive events have been held there.
“Passover is an opportunity for thousands of Jews, who are connected to the land of Israel, to demand that we return to Homesh,” said Benny Katzover, chairman of the Samaria Citizen’s Council.
Rocket attacks in the South only prove the “stupidity” and “thoughtlessness” that went into the 2005 disengagement, Katzover said.
Samaria Regional Council head Gershon Mesika said, “Our primary mission is to bring decision makers and the Israeli public to visit Samaria and to see it with their own eyes.
“We expect [Prime Minister Binyamin] Netanyahu’s government to be faithful to the platform on which the nation of Israel voted it into office, and to right the wrongs of the previous governments, the first and foremost of which was the unjust expulsion [of settlements in 2005],” Mesika said.
The event will include children’s activities, musical entertainment and speeches by rabbinical figures such as Haim Druckman and Elyakim Levanon. The Samaria Regional Council said that it expects thousands to attend the event.