Palestinian Authority resident Arabs took over the town of Homesh on Thursday morning, just two weeks after a government order supported turning the Jewish community over to PA hands.
Pictures showed Arab men celebrating at the scene by waving PLO flags and holding up signs with what appeared to be anti-Semitic images, including a depiction of a religious Jew being speared through the head.
The men painted over the picture of a menorah on the local water tower that had been Homesh’s trademark, replacing it with PLO images and slogans in Arabic.
Homesh was destroyed in the 2005 “Disengagement” from Gaza and northern Samaria, but Jewish activists had returned to the town and had set up a new community in the ruins. Activists formed a group called Homesh First, with the goal of eventually resettling all of the towns demolished in the Disengagement.
They remained at the site despite frequent expulsions by the Border Police, but were forced to leave when Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein declared that the area was no longer an Israeli community, giving PA residents free access.
Former Yesha (Judea and Samaria) Council head Danny Dayan posted a photo to Twitter showing Arab men waving an anti-Semitic poster in Homesh. “This is how our partner celebrates entering the town of Homesh,” he wrote.
“The immoral government decision to allow Arabs to take over the land of Homesh is now revealed in its full power: every Jewish symbol is desecrated, anti-Semitic pictures are held up,” Dayan said.
“It’s not too late to correct this mistake and eject the rabble,” he urged.