In late April, the Commander of the IDF Central Command, Major General Yehuda Fox, announced he would retire from military life in August. But that has not slowed down his vicious campaign against the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria, in open defiance of the authority of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich who also serves as an adjunct minister in the defense ministry in charge of the Coordinator of the Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT).
On Tuesday around 5 AM, some 300 police officers accompanied by civil administration inspectors and heavy machinery raided in a synchronized operation the outposts of Sdeh Yonatan and Or Meir in Binyamin, causing extensive destruction.
Large forces were deployed at all the intersections in the area to prevent activists from arriving at the two attacked settlements.
In both outposts, the forces completely destroyed the homes, as well as the sheep pens. Arab workers, some of them masked, were brought to the two settlements to help with the demolition and worked together with the forces to dismantle the structures and confiscate construction equipment.
The police confiscated firefighting equipment from the residents, despite the recent wave of Arab arson attacks on their fields and farms.
Upon their arrival in Or Meir, the police corralled all the residents and prevented them from guarding their herd of sheep that was frightened by the destruction of its pen and ran away. The residents asked Jews from nearby settlements for help and they eventually found the herd wandering unsupervised near Route 60, which could have ended in traffic accidents.
Tuesday morning’s destruction followed three other irregular demolition campaigns that recently took place in Or Meir. Residents point to a drastic increase in acts of destruction, blaming General Fox who, according to them, is trying to establish facts on the ground before the end of his tenure. But residents also blame Minister Smotrich, who continues to be ineffective in controlling COGAT.
“Any reasonable person knows today that without the new hilltop outposts that block the takeover of the open areas by Arabs and create a contiguous Jewish territory, there will be no future for settlement,” said the local residents, who added that “The destruction this morning is a disgrace to Smotrich and the right-wing government, which calls into question their loyalty to the Zionist values for which they were elected.”
ממשיכים בהקמת המדינה הפלסטינית: מאות שוטרים בהרס בגבעות שדה יונתן ואור מאיר בבנימין.
כ300 שוטרים מלווים בפקחי המנהל האזרחי וכלים כבדים, פשטו סמוך לשעה 5 לפנות בוקר במבצע מקביל על הגבעות שדה יונתן ואור מאיר בבנימין, וביצעו הרס נרחב במקום.
בשתי הגבעות הרסו הכוחות כליל את בתי… pic.twitter.com/NPMIriIUWI
— אלישע ירד (@ElishaYered) May 28, 2024
