A number of senior religious- Zionist rabbis gathered in the settlement outpost
of Migron on Monday to denounce the destruction of three homes carried out two
weeks ago in a joint army and police operation.
The rabbinical conference
was organized by Derech Emunah, a grouping of religious- Zionist rabbis
“supporting the settlement of the land of Israel.”
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“What has happened
here is an incredible injustice,” said Rabbi Haim Druckman, head of the Bnei
Akiva Youth Movement and rosh yeshiva of Ohr Etzion Yeshiva. “The government
established this place, no land was taken from the Arabs here. Before Migron was
built there was nothing here at all and even if that was not the case,
compensation could be paid to anyone with a just case.
Why is the
government rushing to destroy what has been built here, there is no reason for
it.”
Rabbi Dov Lior, the chief rabbi of Hebron and Kiryat Arba and a
senior figure in the religious- Zionist world, also spoke at the event along
with Rabbi Zalman Baruch Melamed, head of the Beit El yeshiva.
“The land
of Israel belongs to the people of Israel,” Lior said.
“There are
villainous groups in this country who want to abandon parts of the land,” he
continued, thanking God that the Palestinian leadership has refused to negotiate
with the government.
“These destructions are temporary setbacks,” said
Melamed. “In the end they will lead to an even greater building
effort.”
Rabbi Druckman also addressed the “price-tag” phenomenon,
calling it “extremely negative.”
“It brings only damage, it is not
ethical and it is not Jewish,” he said.
These comments come in the wake
of Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein’s criticism of settler violence in a Shabbat
pamphlet published in Alon Shvut this week.
Lior added that the recent diplomatic crises and events in
Turkey and
Egypt are directly related to the destruction of three homes in the illegal West Bank outpost of Migron.
He
added, "We all saw how the destruction of buildings [in Migron] here
caused the expulsion of diplomats in Turkey, and then in Egypt, and
afterward in Jordan."
The Kiryat Arba chief rabbi slammed left-wing Israelis for seeking
to give away "land belonging to Israel" to the Arabs, and said he
"thanked God that the Holy One, Blessed be He, hardened the rears of the
camel jockeys [Palestinians] and caused them to refuse to meet with
government officials."
Lior continued his speech, criticizing what he called the "illusion of peace," which he said was an "opiate for the masses."
According
to Lior, the Arabs - whom he called "wicked" and "savages" - are the
"enemies of peace," and that peace is "against their nature."
Lior
also said that that it was "beneficial" the the West had experienced
"some terrorism," because it had allowed Israel to "deploy its tanks."
Druckman would not discuss
the possibility of religious soldiers or policemen refusing orders if commanded
to evacuate the settlement, saying only that political and legal action was
necessary to prevent any further destruction in Migron and other
settlements.
“We condemn the so-called ‘price-tag’ actions against the
army, against mosques and against Arabs innocent of any crime,” said the
influential head of the Har Etzion Yeshiva in Alon Shvut along with co- Rosh
Yeshiva Yaakov Medan.
“These acts are completely forbidden from both an
ethical and national point of view and endanger the general settlement
movement.”
At the conclusion of the conference, Rabbi Yosef Artziel of
the Derech Emunah organization read out a declaration criticizing the Supreme
Court for “ordering the evacuation of the three homes without allowing the
residents to prove that the land on which they were built is private land” and
called on the Justice Minister to try anyone who circumvented the appropriate
procedures of the state.