Likud MKs rally against destruction of settlement houses

Hotovely: We will not be able to support a government that releases terrorists and destroys Jewish homes.

By LAHAV HARKOV
Schalit arrives in Mitzpe Hila 311 (photo credit: channel 10)
Schalit arrives in Mitzpe Hila 311
(photo credit: channel 10)
Likud MKs and hundreds of activists rallied at the c outpost on Tuesday to protest the destruction of settlement homes.
Speaking in front of homes that were razed in September, Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein, Minister without portfolio Yossi Peled, MKs Danny Danon, Tzipi Hotovely and Yariv Levin, as well as Deputy Minister for Pensioner Affairs Leah Ness and Deputy Regional Development Minister Ayoub Kara explained that, despite Gilad Schalit’s release from captivity taking place on the same day, they found it important to attend this event, which was planned weeks in advance.
“We can’t ignore the fact that the Israeli public’s heart is in [Schalit’s hometown] Mitzpe Hila today,” Hotovely told nearly 400 demonstrators.
“Every Succot we gather here to support settlement, and this year our demonstration’s theme is, ‘And the children should return to their borders,’” she explained, quoting the Book of Jeremiah.
“If the government legalizes outposts here in Migron and other hilltops, then we really will have returned to our borders,” Hotovely said.
Levin took the stage to speak out against the deal in which Schalit was released.
“I hope Gilad Schalit is healthy,” Levin said, “but at the same time, hundreds of victims of terror are screaming from their graves, and the never-ending pain of those victims’ families has gotten worse.”
The release of 1,027 terrorists from prison in exchange for Schalit shows that “there is no justice here,” Levin said.
“There should at least be fairness, and Jews in prison [for settlement-related offenses] should be released as well,” he said. “In the meantime, there is only selective justice.”
Hotovely told The Jerusalem Post that she and her allies in the Likud will not be able to support a government that releases terrorists from prison and destroys Jewish homes in the West Bank.
However, she explained, “my goal isn’t to vote against the government. It’s to change policies,” which Hotovely said she and other Likud MKs plan to do by promoting bills in the coming months to annex settlements.
Danon, as chairman of the World Likud, brought busloads of supporters from abroad on a tour of local sites and businesses, before continuing with them to Migron.
Acknowledging that the rally was a victim of “poor timing,” he said it was still essential for “thousands of Likud members to encourage the prime minister not to follow [Defense Minister Ehud] Barak’s policies of demolishing outposts.
“We can prevent the demolition,” Danon said. “The fact that Netanyahu appointed a committee to investigate the possibility of legalizing outposts is a sign of progress.”
Danon said that he and others in the Likud hope to encourage the prime minister to appoint Justice Minister Ya’acov Ne’eman to the committee, as well as “others who think like us, that we should allow people to live where they live.”


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