Chairman Gershon Mesika continued to be critical Friday morning over last week's removal of the last security checkpoint between Shechem and Tulkarm, the area that includes Einav, the scene of the Thursday terror attack that took the life of 40-year-old Rabbi Meir Avshalom Chai of Shavei Shomron. Mesika said, "The murder was inevitable. We cried out to the prime minister and defense minister in the last few months that removal of roadblocks and diversion of the Israel Defense Forces from fighting terror to fighting [Jewish] residents would lead to attacks and murder."
Rabbi Chai's funeral is scheduled to start at 10:00 Friday morning at the Shamgar funeral home before he is buried on the Mount of Olives. Mesika added, "I demand that the prime minister and defense minister come to the funeral and look widow Elisheva Chai and the seven orphans in the face because they cannot say 'Our hands did not shed this blood'."