Weiss hopes to draw at least 1,000 participants to camp out over the Sabbath in an area near Ma'aleh Adumim.
By TOVAH LAZAROFFDaniella Weiss 370(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
Former Kedumim mayor Daniella Weiss is organizing 1,000 people to camp out next month for Shabbat on E1, an unbuilt area of the Ma’aleh Adumim settlement.Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu promised to advance plans to build 3,500 homes there to protest the UN General Assembly decision last November to upgrade the Palestinian status to that of a non-member state.But Palestinians have threatened to attempt to sue Israel at the International Criminal Court if it moves forward with the E1 plans.According to Ma’aleh Adu- mim Mayor Benny Kashriel, E1 building plans remain frozen.Weiss, a veteran settler activist, told The Jerusalem Post that she is looking to re-spark the debate over E1 and generate grassroots support to ensure that the project moves forward.“Within a month or so, we will bring 1,000 people for Shabbat, just for 24 hours,” she said.“We’ll tell the government beforehand so it won’t be a secret,” she said. “It’s part of a general effort to rouse public opinion and public support for E1.”Weiss spoke with the Post by telephone on her way up to Safed to solicit support for the 1,000-person Shabbat from right-wing activists there.Weiss has also put together a core group of 20 families who have signed up to be the first families to live there.She is weighing the possibility of attempting to create an outpost there, even in advance of authorizations for construction.
“I know it will be difficult,” she said.This government, which is a right-wing one, should allow the people to redeem the land by settling it, she said.She noted that five years ago, settlers built an outpost on Ma’aleh Adumim that was removed by security forces.Kashriel has in the past also temporarily placed a caravan on E1, to protest the government failure to build there in spite of promising to do so for almost two decades.In the past half-year Palestinians have also twice tried to build outposts there, which security forces removed.Palestinians have claimed that Jewish building on E1 would harm contiguous development of the land in that area and make it impossible to have a viable state.Israel has rejected that claim.Kashriel has argued that development of E1 is necessary for the future growth of his city.
