Thousands marched Tuesday to a dismantled West bank settlement in demand that the government legalizes the yeshiva established there, as well as remove the security barricades meant to prevent access to the wildcat outpost.
Large forces secured the march, which was led by Shomron Regional Council head Yossi Dagan, and attended by MKs Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir of the far-right Religious Zionist Party, as well as Yamina MK Idit Silman, who recently resigned from the coalition. During the march to Homesh — a Jewish settlement evacuated by Israel in 2005 — clashes erupted between Israeli security forces and Palestinians in nearby villages.
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Shomron Regional Council head Yossi Dagan flanked by MKs Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir during the march to Homesh
(Photo: Shomron Regional Council)
The march was also attended by the dean of the outpost’s yeshiva, as well as the widow of yeshiva student Yehuda Dimantman, who was killed in a shooting attack outside the outpost late last year.
"I am proud to see all the people of Israel ascend to Homesh. We are called extremist settlers, but the Land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel,” said Dimantman's widow Ettya.
“Those who think this is not so, there are many other countries and they are welcome to move there. The Land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel. We are not settlers nor extremists, we are just coming home."
Since Dimentman’s murder, the yeshiva in Homesh has become a symbol of the settlers’ struggle in the West Bank, a fact noted by Ettya, who added, “[Wednesday] morning there will be a barricade here again.”
“This government is saying that this country does not belong to us, but to [the Palestinians]. This Passover, [Prime Minister Naftali Bennett] has to choose which side he is on — the side of Israel and the people of Israel, or return to Egypt,” she said, referring to the Biblical story of the Israelites' Exodus from Egypt.
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Clashes between security forces and Palestinians following the march to Homesh
(Photo: AFP)
Smotrich, for his part, lambasted the coalition, adding that he and his party “cannot have a dialogue with those who lament the steps taken by the heroes of Homesh.”
Silman said: “It’s exciting to be here. I arrived at the invitation of Ettya, who wrote me that whoever lives by the teachings of the Torah, must not give up their truth. I want to tell all teachers and rabbis and parents; there is something greater, and our faith lies with the Lord.”