Activists erected two sukkot (holiday booths) Sunday afternoon at the top of a hill where they hope to build the new community of Ma’a lot Halhul.

As soon as the green branches were set in place on the first, forming the roof - which, according to Jewish law, must allow the occupants to see the clouds and stars in the sky - builders began to assemble another.

More than 200 activists made the two-kilometer trek up a green, rocky hillside Sunday to the site located adjacent to the burgeoning Judean city of Kiryat Arba, near Hevron in the south Hevron Hills.

The hilltop is more than 1,000 meters above sea level and is considered the highest point in Israel south of Mount Meron in the north of the country.

DF soldiers maintained a low-key presence throughout the afternoon, using loudspeakers to remind the marchers they were entering a closed military zone and that they were breaking the law by continuing to climb the hill to the site.

Once the sukkot were erected, an IDF officer announced to the crowd, “They will be taken down today,” but avoided setting a specific time for the event.

Relations between the soldiers and activists were peaceful, with no provocation seen on either side. Israel Police officers appeared briefly but did not stay.

One marcher, Sarah Dayan, underscored the need to continue to build Jewish communities throughout the Land of Israel. 

Dayan, whose son died in a terrorist attack in Kiryat Arba while guarding a site for the Israel Electric Company “two weeks and nine years ago” was determined to make it all the way up the hill, regardless of how long the climb would take.  “If we don’t settle this land, who’s going to do it?” she asked. “The leftists? People from Tel Aviv?” 

Attorney and former Knesset Member Elyakim Haetzni offered a similar observation during a speech to the activists in which he urged them to fight to keep every inch of Judea and Samaria.

“If we go back to the Green Line we won’t have anything at all,” he asserted, “because [the Arabs] will eventually take everything back,” referring to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s plan to donate large parts of Judea and Samaria to the Palestinian Authority.

“This is not a democracy,” he said. “The tools of the media are not in our hands.  The only nationalist [broadcast outlet] was Arutz-7, and they shut it down.” 

The Kiryat Arba resident added, “The only answer that we can give is here. If I can’t talk, at least I can do something. Our actions will talk.”