Hunger strike protest tent
Hunger strike protest tentFlash 90

Five buildings in Beit El are to be torn down despite efforts to save them, but Rabbi Yair Frank believes the protest was not in vain.

“Our protest cause the Prime Minister to commit to building instead of destruction, that the policy of demolition will stop, that the state’s responses to the Supreme Court will look different,” he told Arutz Sheva.

Rabbi Frank, the rabbi of Amona, said the government will be tested at the end of the month. “We want to see if the promises are kept,” he said. “They promised to change the course taken in responses to the Supreme Court, and at the end of the month, the state will have to give the Supreme Court an update regarding Amona.

“There is no conclusive verdict on Amona, so the state has a real opportunity to give an answer that will match its promises,” he explained.  

He added, “We hope they won’t be like a dog going back to its vomit, destroying [again] without checking if there’s a serious claim.” State attorneys agreed to demolish the Beit El homes, as well as homes in Migron, without asking the Palestinian Authority Arabs who claimed ownership of the land to prove their claims.

While he expressed strong support for Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria, Rabbi Frank condemned acts such as the vandalism last week of a car belonging to Ze’ev “Zambish” Hever, who heads the Amana construction organization. “It is forbidden to damage someone else’s property as a protest,” he said.