Several thousand people marched towards the “E-1” area of Maaleh Adumim east of Jerusalem Thursday night to demand that the government deliver on promises dating back several years to build in the area.
E-1 has become a symbol of both Israel and for the Palestinian Authority. The area is part of the city of Maaleh Adumim, and no Arabs or Jews lived there until Israeli plans were drawn up to build homes for Jews. The Palestinian Authority, with help from the European Union, has brought in Bedouin and Arabs to pitch tent in E-1 to stake a claim.
The United States has consistently pressured Israel not to build in E-1, which the Palestinian Authority argues would prevent it from having a continuous Arab presence in a future PA state.
Nationalist rabbis and Knesset Members attending the rally sounded like those of yesteryear, when they organized rally once a week and twice on Sunday to protest the Oslo Accords and the “peace process” under a reign of terror, and in 2005 when they held countless and useless protests in an effort to stop the bulldozers of the Sharon administration from expelling 9,000 Jews from Gaza and northern Samaria and destroying their homes.
They announced during the protest march on Thursday that “The Land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people” and assured their followers that “Israel will not surrender.”