Protest in Jerusalem
Protest in JerusalemEliran Aharon

Some 2,000 people, most of them residents of Judea and Samaria, are protesting outside of the Prime Minister's residence in Jerusalem, demanding greater security funding for their communities the paving of bypass roads in Judea and Samaria to allow drivers to avoid the most terror-prone roads.

The demonstration is led by mayors from Judea and Samaria, bereaved families, rabbis, and public figures.

Beit Aryeh council head Avi Naim said that despite repeated promises from Prime Minister Netanyahu, he is not working to improve infrastructures in Judea and Samaria.

"The residents of Judea and Samaria have been abandoned, and the national infrastructure revolution has skipped us: we have neither freeways nor safe highways. Half-a-million residents deserve transportation solutions like any other citizen in Israel.

"We deserve train lines in Judea and Samaria just like in the entire country, as there was already a railway station at Beit Aryeh even during the Mandate period."Na'im added that "the security components are substandard. Civilian security officers whose jobs have been cut to half-time positions are supposed to respond to attacks and thefts by their neighbors in the Palestinian Authority, and unfortunately Bibi has been stretching his promises for years and years."

Hadas Mizrahi, widow of Baruch Mizrahi who was murdered in a shooting attack three-and-a-half years ago, said at the rally: "We have already paid the price of blood!It's your turn to prevent the next attack.

"It is inconceivable that in 2017, after we've gone through countless attacks on roads and in our communities, that we still have to beg for security and [bypass] roads," Mizrahi added."It's inconceivable that three years have passed since the terrible terror attack in which my husband was murdered and my children and I were injured and still nothing has changed."

The widow stressed, "I, together with my friends here, beg of the Prime Minister: We have paid the price of blood, we have already paid the price, and the attack on Baruch, my husband, could have been prevented! The attack in which the Salomon family was murdered could have been prevented!"

Mizrahi directed a stark message to Netanyahu: "You have the ability to prevent the next attack - please take care of security!Take care of the future of our children!"

Itai, the twelve-and-a-half-year-old son of Baruch Mizrachi, spoke at the demonstration about the moments when his father was murdered."Three years ago, when we were on our way to celebrate the Passover Seder with my grandparents in Kiryat Arba, terrorists opened fire at the vehicle we were driving in, and I remember the shots and screams and the pain. This year I'll celebrate Bar Mitzvah and Father's absence is more noticeable now than ever.

"Who will prepare the reading of the parasha with me? Who will teach me how to put on tefillin [phylacteries]?" added Itai Mizrahi, leaving no dry eye among those present. "Who will stand by me on this emotional day?Father, I miss you, and not a day goes by when I don't think about you, and there is not one day when I don't ask what would have happened if... "

Finally, he said, "I'm here today in the name of other orphaned children who wish to be the last. Mr. Prime Minister, my father can not be returned - please do what it takes for my mother to be able to come home; her place is at home and not sitting in a protest tent in front of your house."

הדס מזרחי בהפגנה מול בית רה"מ
הדס מזרחי בהפגנה מול בית רה"מצילום: מוא"ז שומרון