While thousands of illegal Arab structures, including whole villages, are allowed to remain intact in Area C in Judea and Samaria, General Yoav Gallant’s Defense Ministry decided it was essential to Israel’s security to destroy a memorial to Rina Shnerb, a Jewish teen who was murdered by PA terrorists.
הצלחה נוספת לממשלת הימין על מלא: פירקו גם את הנדנדה במצפה לזכר רינה שנרב הי”ד. pic.twitter.com/BGMDN0NUo9
— אלישע ירד (@ElishaYered) September 4, 2023
150 police officers and civil administration inspectors accompanied by heavy machinery raided the settlement of Yitzhar around 5 AM Monday and began the demolition of an observation area that was erected in memory of Rina Shnerb Hy’d.
On August 23, 2019, 17-year-old Rina Shnerb was killed by a roadside bomb while hiking near the spring of Ein Bubin near Dolev in Binyamin with her father, Rabbi Eitan Shnerb, and brother, who were both wounded.
During the destruction of the observatory, the forces also destroyed swings that had been placed there for visiting children.
Can’t have that.
Arab workers were brought in to carry out the demolition and took down the Star of David that was placed at the top of the observation deck, which caused great anger among the local settlers who watched them helplessly.
כוחות של המנהל האזרחי הגיעו הבוקר ליצהר, חלק מהם מכתרים כעת לקראת הריסה מצפה תיירותי שהוקם לזכרה של רנה שנרב הי”ד למרגלות שכונת מצפה יצהר בישוב. pic.twitter.com/XrGJt896qO
— שיראל ללום נהיר?? (@shirellaloom) September 4, 2023
Meanwhile, according to the Jewish residents, other forces surrounded a new settlement point that had been established at the foot of Yitzhar, on the northern side, and destroyed the residential structure that had been erected there.
Elkana Picard, a resident of Yitzhar, was livid. He told News 14: “At a time when the Palestinian Authority is advancing unimpeded its plans to destroy the Joshua altar on Mount Eival and replace it with an Arab neighborhood, the government chooses to destroy a tourist observation area in the settlement.”
“Every MK and minister during whose tenure this policy of destruction continues is a complete accomplice in the crime,” Picard said, presumably referring especially to Religious Zionism Chairman Bezalel Smotrich, who serves as an adjunct minister in the Defense Ministry and is, on paper, in charge of the Civil Administration in the Territories.
“We elected the right to get a right-wing policy, but nothing changes on the ground,” Picard said. “I cannot understand how the right-wing elected officials dare to show their faces in public after repeated campaigns of destruction like this.”
