Free Republic

As residents of Beit El and supporters of the community rallied Sunday night, demanding that the government follow through on its plan to ensure that the Draynoff Houses in the community are left standing, the High Court yet again sought to put a halt to plans to prevent the demolition of the homes. The court issued an injunction against any construction work that would result from the removal of objections to the project by a planning council. Supporters had hoped that the change could lead to a new legal status for the buildings. Previously, the High Court had ordered the...

Residents of Beit El in the Binyamin region demonstrated Thursday against the continued rock terrorism against them by Arabs from the adjacent village. Last week, a woman from the community was injured when an Arab boy stood near the perimeter fence and threw rocks into the community. "We really don't understand where the sovereign power is," a resident said. "Enough with this disgrace. We are being discriminated against in order to please Obama." A week does not go by without an attack against Beit El by Arab terrorists. "This is terror and every incident it must be treated like the...

Tzipi Livni, who is running for Knesset at the head of an independent party, blamed Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett for the violence at the Oz Tzion outpost near Beit El Friday. "Bennett and the extremist rabbis led people to that hilltop on purpose, in order to create friction with IDF soldiers and a situation in which they would refuse orders," Livni wrote on her Facebook page. "These extremists led the people there on Sabbath eve in the knowledge that our children, the IDF soldiers, would have to evict them," she explained. "Netanyahu, who continues to wink toward the extremist...

There is growing rage in Beit El, where residents feel that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu knowingly misled them when he promised to build 300 homes instead of the 30 homes to be destroyed in Givat HaUlpana. Residents are said to be preparing for "a harsh struggle" over the homes. Tensions are running high in the community north of Jerusalem. A Defense Ministry team that came to Beit El to gauge the feasibility of moving the homes from Givat HaUlpana by a technique that has become known as "sawing" fled after being pelted with rocks and paint. No one was hurt....

Caravans that were to be brought to Beit El will be transferred to the Lachish region, Government Secretary Tzvika Hauser said Friday morning, speaking to MKs Zevulun Orlev and Zeev Elkin. The transfer of the caravans had led to fear that the government was preparing to demolish homes in the Binyamin-area town despite promises to find a way to save the homes. Hauser’s announcement followed overnight meetings aimed at stopping preparations for demolition. The coalition had agreed not to carry out any preparations until after voting on the Regulation Law, a bill that would legalize the threatened Beit El homes...

The government is preparing to free the murders of the Dickstein couple – and also may level their eldest son’s home in Beit El. The house is located in Ulpana neighborhood the community and is under threat of demolition. Yosef Yaakov Dickstein, 44, and his wife Hana, 42, and their son Shmuel, age 10, were murdered by Arab terrorists in the nearby community of Psagot, along with Sergeant Elazar Leibowitz, 21, of Hevron. Public Diplomacy Minister Yuli Edelstein, who voted with the majority of the Cabinet to approve release more than 1,000 terrorists for the return of kidnapped soldier Gilad...

Olmert hints at pullout of Shilo, Beit El, Ofra, Kedumim Amir Mizroch, THE JERUSALEM POST Jun. 22, 2006 Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Thursday hinted that the settlements of Shilo, Beit El, Ofra and Kedumim would be evacuated under his unilateral withdrawal plan, and said that many other settlements in the West Bank would be also be evacuated. "Shilo, Beit El, Ofra and Kedumim were always part of the historical Land of Israel, and they always emotionally will be," Olmert said in a conversation with Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel at the Petra Nobel Laureates Conference in Jordan. "We, Israelis, Jews,...