The protest was hastily organized following the attempted shooting of the Levi family as they drove home Friday afternoon. The Levis are still in mourning for their son Avichai, who was murdered in a shooting attack at the Beit Haggai Junction last June. The Levis were not injured in Friday’s attack.
Residents from Negohot, Otniel, Beit Haggai, Kiryat Arba and the Jewish community of Hevron took part in the protest march, along with Land of Israel activists and young people active with Land of Israel Youth.
Protesters marched from the community of Otniel to the site of Friday’s shooting, beneath the Arab village of Kharama, north of Otniel. At the site they held a ceremony. Rabbi Matanya ben Gedalia, one of the founders of the Maginei Eretz (Defenders of the Land), the recently-established activist alternative to the Yesha Council, addressed the protestors.
“We are asking that the IDF begin taking the situation seriously,” he said. “We are citizens of the state and the IDF must provide us with security – which it is able to do. When we are shot at, it is due to the army’s failure and it should apologize and do everything in its ability to prevent future shootings. We will not allow this situation to become the norm.
“We hope we won’t have to embark on more extreme steps to make this happen,” the rabbi concluded.
Ben Gedalia, together with Attorney Boaz HaEtzni of Kiryat Arba, called upon residents to establish and strengthen branches of the new grassroots activist network in their communities. One of the stated goals of the movement at its founding meeting two weeks ago was that it would ensure that roads in Judea and Samaria remain open to Jewish traffic and safe from terrorists.