Jewish residents of Beit El's Ulpana neighborhood, about to be expelled from their homes, have made a last-ditch video plea to the Likud “not to destroy everything.”
The video clip, posted to the YouTube website, notes that “prominses are made before the elections and now some ministers don't answer the phone, without shame, without thinking of tomorrow.”
However, the families warn the MKs, “In the next elections I'll change that number.”
Still, they plead, “It's still possible... You can still make a stand facing the Left.
“Just don't demolish everything!”
The five apartment buildings that house some 30 families are slated for demolition by July 1 under a High Court order that followed a petition by the far-Left Peace Now movement together with a Palestinian Authority Arab who claimed ownership of the land upon which the homes were built. The town had purchased the land years ago from a PA Arab with the same name, apparently the cousin of the man who filed the petition. A battle over ownership of the land is currently being fought in court.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has ordered the government to raze the homes in accordance with the court order, and rebuild exact replicas several hundred meters away, on a military site within the town. He also vowed to "build 10 homes for every one that is demolished." However, it is still not clear when new homes will be built for the families who will be expelled from their current abodes, leaving open the real likelihood they will be left homeless by the government's action.
A similar fate awaits other families this summer in Mitzpeh Assaf, Migron and Amona.