Right-wing politicians and National-Religious rabbis have decried the demolition Friday of three modular structures on the West Bank hilltop of Homesh before Shabbat.
“It is a sad and low moment when Jews are destructive to other Jews minutes before Shabbat at a moment when everyone is busy preparing for the day of rest,” Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan said.
“This government should be ashamed,” he said. The structures had housed three families, his office added.
The three structures were more like tents than homes, the Civil Administration of Judea and Samaria said, noting that they had been illegally erected earlier in the day and were taken down within hours.
Religious Zionist Party MK Orit Struck accused MKs from the two right-wing parties in the coalition, Yamina and New Hope, of being “in the pocket” of Defense Minister Benny Gantz (Blue and White).
She urged them to lean on Gantz politically by refusing to vote for his legislative initiatives unless he authorizes the two Jewish communities on the Judea and Samaria hilltops of Homesh and Evyatar.
Right-wing politicians have pushed the government to authorize the Homesh yeshiva, which has been illegally situated on the Homesh hilltop top for more than 15 years.
In the wake of the December terrorist attack in which Palestinian terrorists killed yeshiva student Yehuda Dimentman, the Right has been braced for Gantz to raze the yeshiva. He has left it intact but has sent the Civil Administration and the Border Police multiple times to the site to take down illegal modular structures.
Separately last Wednesday, the police arrested eight suspects at Homesh for questioning on suspicion of attacking soldiers and Palestinians.
On Sunday, Rabbi Haim Druckman, a leading National-Religious figure, visited the yeshiva and blessed the faith of its students.
The government destroyed the settlement of Homesh in 2005 after the pullout from the Gaza Strip. The High Court of Justice has since upheld the rights of Palestinian farmers to access their private land on that hilltop.