Slain rabbi’s family calls to turn Har Bracha settlement into city

“This will prevent further bloodshed and make Itamar the last person to be killed.”

By TOVAH LAZAROFF
Relatives and friends carry the body of Itamar Ben Gal during his funeral in the Jewish settlement of Har Bracha in the West Bank, February 6, 2018. (photo credit: REUTERS/JIM HOLLANDER/POOL)
Relatives and friends carry the body of Itamar Ben Gal during his funeral in the Jewish settlement of Har Bracha in the West Bank, February 6, 2018.
(photo credit: REUTERS/JIM HOLLANDER/POOL)
Support the transformation of the Har Bracha settlement into a city, the family of terrorism victim Rabbi Itamar Ben-Gal pleaded when the spoke with President Reuven Rivlin on Thursday.
“This is what will strengthen us. This is what Itamar wanted,” Ben-Gal’s sister Yiska told the president during his shiva visit to Har Bracha, near Nablus.
The 29-year-old teacher had lived in the hilltop settlement, located some 23 kilometers over the pre-1967 armistice line, with his wife, Miriam, and their four children. He was stabbed to death by an Israeli-Arab as he stood outside the Ariel settlement on Monday, waiting for a bus on his way to a nephew’s brit.
“Mr. President, I beg you to do everything you can to ensure expansion and construction of Har Bracha” so that “Har Bracha will become a city,” Miriam said.
She added that this was particularly true in light of what they had sacrificed.
Miriam’s father, Rabbi Shlomi Badash, said that such a move would send a strong signal to the terrorists and anyone who thinks of harming Jews.
“This will prevent further bloodshed and make Itamar the last person to be killed,” Badash said.
Samara Regional Council head Yossi Dagan urged Rivlin to support the immediate authorization of 800 new homes in Har Bracha.
On Wednesday night, Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely visited the Ben-Gal family and told them she would speak with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the 800 homes.