Some 50 special Yassam unit policemen burst into a yard in Efrat Wednesday morning and destroyed a patio that had been built in violation of the construction freeze.
The cement for the patio, 25 meters square and 3 centimeters thick, was poured by a family of new immigrants for the purpose of hosting their son’s Bar Mitzvah there. The family was not at home at the time of the demolition, which involved a large tractor. It occurred in the Dekel neighborhood, in central Efrat.
Efrat’s Deputy Mayor Josh Adler was briefly detained during the course of the demolition, after he attempted to stand in front of the tractor.
Mayor Oded Ravivi told Arutz-7 what transpired: “When we saw such a large force of policemen bursting into the town, we feared that a security incident was underway, so we rushed to the site together with them. But we soon understood that it was nothing more than a concrete square. It doesn’t look at all like a construction start or anything that should bother anyone – but it turns out that despite the fact that we have enemies from right and left and from up and down, our security forces have nothing better to do than destroy a patio.”
He said that the forces brought the tractor into the yard and blocked off the area so that residents would not be able to arrive and protest.
Mayor Revivi released this statement after the incident: “This was disgraceful and humiliating behavior on the part of the security establishment, which during this memorial period [between Holocaust Day and next week’s Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers] sees the need to employ its forces to destroy a concrete surface, while at the same time closing its eyes to the hundreds of illegal Arab houses in the vicinity.”
Revivi is scheduled to meet later today with the IDF Central District Commander and give him a message for Defense Minister Ehud Barak. “Barak himself, the force behind the freeze and these demolitions, refuses to meet with settlement leaders,” Revivi said, “so I’ll have to send my message with the District Commander.”