The Sovereignty Movement expressed outrage Thursday in response to an announcement the government plans to demolish the Homesh Yeshiva and transfer it to Eviatar, saying the Land of Israel “is not a chessboard.”
This week security forces demolished three yeshiva dormitories in an early-morning raid on the hilltop, site site of a former Jewish community whose residents were expelled in the 2005 Disengagement from Gaza.
The Homesh Yeshiva, established in 2002, relocated to the site following the Disengagement and has remained despite ongoing attempts to end the Jewish presence at the site.
Israel Dismantles Homesh Yeshivah Dorms, Evacuates Jewish Encampment in Negev
Students living in the dormitories were forced to evacuate their beds, but remained on the hilltop and will continue to study in the yeshivah as usual, a spokesperson for the communities in Judea and Samaria reported.
IDF soldiers and Border Guard Police also removed two bathrooms and four tents at the site, which has seen repeated attempts by Jews to resettle the northern Samaria town since its destruction.
Last December, 25-year-old Yehuda Dimentman, a student at Homesh Yeshiva, was murdered in a terrorist attack near the site that left two other students injured as well.
This month the state told the High Court of Justice in a statement that the government has approved demolition of the yeshiva, but left the final decision up to Defense Minister Benny Gantz. No date was set for the demolition.
Gantz is currently reviewing a proposal to shut down the Homesh Yeshiva and instead open a yeshiva in the Jewish community of Eviatar, near Shechem, according to Israel’s KAN News public broadcaster.
The Sovereignty Movement, however, is having none of it.
“The Land of Israel is not a chessboard where soldiers are moved from square to square and where you give up an officer to save a rook,” Movement founders Yehudit Katsover and Nadia Matar said in a joint statement.
“The Land of Israel is one essential value unit and is not subject to deals; we do not surrender one part in exchange for another. Homesh and Eviatar are ours,” they said.
The two Movement leaders called those who are willing to live in Homesh and revive the site “strong and courageous heroes, the pioneers of our generation.”
They found no fault with Eviatar, “which symbolizes, in addition to being a shining point of settlement on the map of Israel, the level of loyalty for the Israeli government,” they said.
At present, Eviatar — a community whose residents peacefully evacuated the site last June under an agreement reached with the government — is a closed military zone where soldiers live. The houses and roads in the community are untouched.
A survey carried out by Israel later determined that in fact the land on which Eviatar is built was not owned by Palestinian Authority citizens. The finding paves the way for families to return and establish a yeshiva at the site.
Objections can still be filed — and are likely to be — during a grace period allowing for appeals.
Within the government, the leftist Meretz and Labor parties are vehemently opposed to retroactive authorization of the community and warn the move could threaten the coalition.
For their part, Katsover and Matar warn, “A government that does not keep its promises is a weak government, internally as well as externally.
“The Land of Israel is not a political game piece. We must apply our sovereignty over it, to preserve it and the dedicated people who are willing to sacrifice a comfortable life for the cause, to live and be pioneers at the front of the camp.
“Do not touch the Land of Israel and her emissaries and the majority of the Jewish People, who support them!” Katsover and Matar urged.
