See photos and video below.

(UPDATE: Afternoon Mincha prayers will take place today (Sunday) at 19:00
at the site of the destroyed synagogogue, followed by several
speakers, evening prayers. Following evening prayers, those present
will begin to rebuild the synagogue.)

Last week I blogged in asking if the Chazon David Synagogue would merit another prayer service. That night the synagogue was slated to be destroyed again. It's already been razed over 30 times.

That night there were too many people present; the security forces postponed the
The hangman had arrived, bringing not a rope, rather an IDF-supplied tractor.
execution. But not for too long. After all, in honor of our 60th independence day we must give a worthy present to the visiting president next week.

Last night, or rather early this morning, just before 3:30, the phone rang and the beeper buzzed. The hangman had arrived, bringing not a rope, rather an IDF-supplied tractor. The road was closed, declared a 'closed military zone' until the sentence was fully carried out. By the time I could get through the synagogue was a place of the past. However, the forces remained behind to make sure we didn't get too close, in order to start reconstruction immediately.

A group from Hebron and Kiryat Arba played cat-and-mouse with the police and as soon as daylight approached, an early morning service took place in the street, opposite the ruins of the shul.

Some of the forces were uncomfortable being photographed; after all, the Hebron Arab Shech Ja'abri had saved the site from destruction just over a half a year ago, and last week we marked Holocaust Remembrance Day. Photos of destroyed synagogues were fresh in everyone's memory.

The original synagogue was built over seven years ago and destroyed well over 30 times. However the present structure stood for about three years. Why now? Simply Olmert has to have a gift-wrapped present for Bush to sacrifice on the alter of piece (and another piece and another piece) and it seems that again, we are the victim to be done away with. A synagogue, a place of prayer, in memory of two men killed at and adjacent to this very site.

There are no words: except that the synagogue will be rebuilt and rebuilt and rebuilt until it is recognized as a permanent structure, to stand forever.

People who participated in and cooperated with the destruction:
What will they tell their parents, their wives, their children?

Why not flirt a little at the site of a destroyed synagogue?

Police holding hands at site of destruction

Morning Prayer

Rabbi Shimon Ben-Tzion being carried out of area

Yehudit Katzover being carried out of area

Yehudit Katzover and Nadia Matar

Police sitting on synagogue furniture

Garbage left on the street

Kiryat Arba Mayor Tzvi Katzover

Synagogue activist Yaakov Eichenstein

Nothing like a bite to eat

Go Away! You're not wanted here!

Prayer and ruins