IDF Attempts to Destroy Homes in Gush Etzion 'Settlement Bloc'

www.arutzsheva.net ^ | 12:54 Jan 11, '06 / 11 Tevet 5766 | Ezra HaLevi

[Esther Ruth]

IDF Attempts to Destroy Homes in Gush Etzion 'Settlement Bloc' 12:54 Jan 11, '06 / 11 Tevet 5766 By Ezra HaLevi

Without warning, a small community in the consensus region of Gush Etzion has become the center of the government's demolition efforts. Demolition forces face unexpected opposition.

Residents of the community of Sde Boaz, twenty minutes south of Jerusalem, received less that 24 hours' notice that the Civil Administration, on orders from the government, planned to destroy a newly built house, the foundations of a large home and a large stable that were built over the summer.

Border police, accompanied by a bulldozer and Civil Administration officials arrived at the small community of Sde Boaz early Wednesday morning, but were met by friends of the residents and Land of Israel activists, who stopped them in their tracks.

The forces succeeded in bulldozing a large stable, which Sde Boaz residents had built over the summer for their horses and donkeys. When the border and civil forces tried to bulldoze the home, protesters surrounded the building and declared that they would not budge. Civil Administration officials, who had claimed that the home was not populated and could therefore be destroyed without approval from a senior officer, entered the home to find a comfortable bachelor's "pad," replete with breakfast lying on the kitchen table.

They then turned their attention to the foundations of a home, built by a recently married resident of the community who serves as a company commander in the IDF reserves. Hundreds of local residents who had flocked to the community through fields and vineyards (police blocked the main access road) stood atop the foundations and refused to move, locking arms. Police responded with severe violence, but were soon ordered to stand down after commanders noticed the large number of press photographers on the scene.

Sde Boaz is a unique community. It is an environmentally friendly, agricultural community established by religious and non-observant Jews who sought to create an example of what the State of Israel can aspire to be – a home where Jews from diverse backgrounds and outlooks can come together to build and assist one another.

The community is also unique in that it is built entirely through Avoda Ivrit, Jewish Labor. The residents not only refuse to exploit local Palestinian workers for cheap, and often shoddy, building, but believe that the reconnection of the Jewish people with their land after a 2,000 year estrangement necessitates getting one's hands dirty with its soil. Though the place is populated by professionals – a medical student, a doctor of physics, a dentist, a veterinarian, a security guard, three teachers, an auto mechanic, an organic farmer and two journalists – most of the residents engage in agricultural projects on the side. Fields of wheat, chickpeas, clover (for the animals), peas, chard and beets, as well as olive and fruit orchards surround the community.

Even before its establishment, over three years ago, the founders would trek to the future site and work the state lands situated there, keeping them from being claimed by Arab squatters, who receive stipends from the Palestinian Authority to plant far and wide. Agricultural activity is a way of acquiring land under Ottoman and British Mandate law, which are still applied in Judea and Samaria.

Sde Boaz is located less than a mile north of Neve Daniel and Efrat, the heart of the Gush Etzion settlement bloc. According to the Sharon regime, US President George W. Bush guaranteed Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that Gush Etzion would remain in Jewish hands, in return for the destruction of Jewish towns in Gaza. The community sits on a high point between the Efrat/Neve Daniel bloc and the city of Betar Illit, with a view of the entire region. After residents move in, the IDF situated an advanced surveillance camera there which can see clear to Tel Aviv and the coastal plain, even at night.

Residents were divided on the extent of active opposition to the destruction, but outside activists soon flooded the small community, rendering their preference for organized opposition moot as crowds blocked the bulldozers, singing and dancing in the rain and hail, with guitars and hot tea.

"This isn't just one person's little home and this isn't just our community's small building – this is a Jewish home, built completely by Jews on land that was paid for before the State was even founded, by Jews around the world who donated money to purchase land in Israel through the Jewish National Fund," a Sde Boaz spokesperson told the media. "Such a thing cannot be destroyed due to an arbitrary piece of paper declaring it 'illegal.' "

"The Jewish people must wake up to the fact that they have been lied to. The so-called settlement blocs were talked about merely in order to ease us in to the fact that we are being forced to retreat by non-democratic forces, no matter how many times we reject them at the ballot box."

Another resident, a reporter for the weekly Makor Rishon, said that the local Palestinians have been building terraces and digging wells under the nose of the Civil Administration for years. He added that there has been a steep increase in illegal building activity in recent months, funded by the Palestinian Authority and Saudi Arabia, in hopes of slicing Gush Etzion in half and inducing the Supreme Court to influence the route of the Partition Wall.

Published: 12:13 January 11, 2006 Last Update: 12:54 January 11, 2006

[Esther Ruth]

"The Jewish people must wake up to the fact that they have been lied to. The so-called settlement blocs were talked about merely in order to ease us in to the fact that we are being forced to retreat by non-democratic forces, no matter how many times we reject them at the ballot box."

He added that there has been a steep increase in illegal building activity in recent months, funded by the Palestinian Authority and Saudi Arabia, in hopes of slicing Gush Etzion in half and inducing the Supreme Court to influence the route of the Partition Wall.