Rawabi, as seen from Ateret
Rawabi, as seen from AteretOrit Flint

Israel recently destroyed three homes in Migron, and the government is planning the demolition of several more homes in accordance with a Supreme Court order. In the meantime, the Palestinian Authority continues a massive building project just minutes away.

One frustrated resident of Ateret, who sees the PA construction from his window, wrote to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu this week.

“I want to share with you something that residents of Ateret experience each day,” wrote Motti Houminer. “The city of Rawabi is being built 24 hours a day opposite our windows. There, they do not need building permits, and they do not need to worry that someone will come in the middle of the night and destroy anything, because that would enflame Mideast tensions, G-d forbid…

“While here, in Ateret, we need to ‘give our very souls’ in order to get a single building permit.”

Houminer had harsh words for the Prime Minister regarding the demolition of Jewish homes in the region. “I wrote to you after you pushed [Moshe] Feiglin out… I wrote that just as you ‘pushed’ someone who didn’t think exactly like you, unfortunately, you will expel us from our homes without batting an eyelid.

“The minute you decide, like Arik Sharon, that Jews have finished playing a role in Samaria, for the sake of an agreement with Abu Mazen that is worth less than the paper you sign on, you’ll simply destroy our homes with no pangs of conscience, as happened in Migron.”

He later added, “We heard no response from the Prime Minister’s Office after the three homes were destroyed… Apparently it is convenient for you, and for others in government, that [Defense Minister] Ehud Barak does the dirty work of demolition for you… I’m sorry for the harsh tone, but the feeling among many here in Judea and Samaria is that we are living on borrowed time, and you are the ones responsible.”

Despite the feeling of living under threat, “we do not live in despair, we continue to create, to build, and to raise children and grandchildren who love the land, serve in the army, and fulfill all of our obligations,” he added.

Houminer told Arutz Sheva that aside from emphasizing the lack of building in Jewish areas, the massive PA project in Rawabi poses environmental and security risks. There is no supervision of building in the area, he said, and the city “is likely to post an immediate threat to those living in nearby Jewish towns.”

In addition, he said, construction proceeds 24 hours a day, seven days a week, leaving those living nearby with no respite from the noise.

Houminer has expressed his concerns in letters to Members of Knesset. Only a handful have responded, he said, among them MK Aryeh Eldad and MK Tzipi Hotovely. “But if the Prime Minister does not intervene, or let us know what lies in store for us, nothing will happen,” he lamented.