They came down to an intersection just off Route 1, the main highway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, burned tires and demonstrated against the demolition of six homes in Ma’ale Rehavam.
Ma’ale Rehav’am is an Israeli settlement south of Bethlehem and northeast of Hebron. It was founded in 2001, after the assassination of Minister Rehavam Zeevi who was a champion of settling Gaza, Judea and Samaria.
Ma’ale Rehav’am is an ecovillage, mired in olive and almond groves, a muscat grape vineyard, and an orchard of thirty-five different fruit species.
On Wednesday, large forces of army and police destroyed six homes in Ma’ale Rehavam. Four families were evicted from their homes, then the army blocked access to the area.
The government maintains that the six razed homes were built outside the ecovillage’s boundaries. But can you really put boundaries on an ecovillage?
So they got in their cars and pickups and drove over to Hertzle Boulevard in Jerusalem, just off the main highway, with signs that addressed mostly the Jewish Home politicians, who are currently engaged in foreplay with the next Likud government. They wanted to know if the folks they voted into the Knesset in such unprecedented numbers (in the last decade or so) could do something – not in the future, but right now.
Police forces jumped on them, over at the Jerusalem intersection, arresting three. In the confrontation someone punctured a police car’s tires.
Anyway, in the scuffle one of the cops grabbed this guy’s yarmulke. Didn’t look good.