Channels

Kfir Brigade soldiers protest
Photo: Asaf Fried

Bnei Akiva teens join troops' anti-evacuation protests

Teens hold up sign saying 'Netzach Tribe does not evict Homesh' during movement convention

Teens belonging to the Bnei Akiva youth movement joined soldiers protesting the evacuation of Jews from illegal settlements Saturday by holding a sign saying, "Netzach tribe does not evict Homesh" at a movement convention in Hashmonaim.

 

Around 2,000 people were present at the event, which was held in honor of Bnei Akiva Month. The protest by the 18-19-year-olds elicited a positive response from onlookers.

 

One of the teens who organized the protest, 18-year old Elad, told Ynet he was scheduled to enlist in an IDF combat unit within the next few months.

 

"We were thinking, these soldiers went with their truth," he said, referring to soldiers from the Kfir Brigade who made protests to the same effect recently, and received jail time for what the army deemed disobedience.

 

"They said, we went to protect our country, we enlisted in the army, but eviction of Jews goes against everything we enlisted for. They justifiably decided to disobey an order."

 

The teen added that the army's policy in the West Bank went against the values on which he had been educated. "The army has become a political tool for harming Jews," he said.

 

Bnei Akiva teens. Sing reads: Netzach does not expel Homesh

 

"There are orders that must not be carried out; any order that tells you to uproot your brother, a Jew, who settled in order to protect the country under difficult conditions, is an order that should raise alarm."

 

Bnei Akiva's secretary-general, Rabbi Benny Nechtailer, said the movement educates young men and women to settle throughout the Land of Israel.

 

"As those faithful to the values of the movement, Bnei Akiva youths are always at the forefront of the battle of the defense of the state in all the years of its existence," he said. "The youths who held up the sign were making a personal statement."

 

Last month soldiers belonging to the Shimshon Battalion of the Kfir Brigade, who were attending a swearing-in ceremony at the Western Wall, held up signs saying, "Shimshon do not expel Homesh", referring to a West Bank settlement.

 

A few days later other soldiers from the brigade followed suit by holding up signs to the same effect, following the evacuation and dismantlement of two structures in a settlement.

 


פרסום ראשון: 11.22.09, 12:40
 new comment
Warning:
This will delete your current comment