David Elhayani
David ElhayaniHezki Baruch

David Elhayani, the head of the Yesha Council, has welcomed the compromise solution for the Samarian town of Evyatar.

“I have a tendency to believe people,” Elhayani told Radio Kol Berama. “Now that they have signed the agreement, I believe that they will honor it. This agreement constitutes an immense achievement for the new government.

“Benjamin Netanyahu would never have reached such an agreement,” Elhayani added, “and even if he had, he would not have kept to it. And the proof is that in the past, he stabbed us in the back.”

According to the Yesha Council head, “This is one of the settlement enterprise’s greatest achievements to date. The issue was handled with responsibility and with the utmost gravity. Evyatar is situated in a strategic position, on Route 5, and my hope for all the other settlements in Judea, Samaria, and the Jordan Valley is that there should be dozens more of similar cases, with the government agreeing that in the event the land they are built on is found to be state-held land, the Jewish presence there will be regularized.”

Elhayani insisted that, “From my perspective, this is a huge victory – just look at the achievements – the buildings are not being demolished, the infrastructure is to remain, the army will defend the area. And then, later on, a yeshiva will be built and families will return to live there. We have to look at this the right way.”