Land of Israel activists in Judea and Samaria said Thursday they planned to establish three new Jewish communities in the region during Chanukah. In addition, activists plan to return to three communities that were originally built this past Sukkot but which police have repeatedly torn down. Two of those built on Sukkot are still standing.
The activists said they will build the new communities on the fifth day of Chanukah, Sunday, December 9. One will be located near Beit El, and will be called Givat HaOr, “The Hill of Light.” The second new community, Maoz Esther (“Esther’s Fortress”), will be built near Kokhav Yaakov just north of the capital, and a third town will be built near the Jerusalem suburb of Maaleh Adumim.
Earlier this month, Arab workers from the Civil Lands Administration uprooted saplings and destroyed a temporary synagogue at the site of the budding hilltop community of Givat HaOr, which was originally established on Chanukah a year ago, though without buildings. The Arabs also demolished a temporary shelter where people prepared for ritual immersion in a nearby spring.
Five outposts that have been repeatedly torn down by the government have been resurrected by activists each time.
At least two of the five are located in Judea. One is Maalot Halhoul, a hilltop overlooking the Palestinian Authority-controlled Arab town of Halhoul near Kiryat Arba, with a stunning view of the rocky green Hevron Hills. A second one is Eitam Hill, located at the northern end of the city of Efrat. The latter is expected to connect the eastern and western sections of Gush Etzion.
In the Binyamin region of Samaria, near the town of Hashmonaim, activities by volunteers undeterred by government efforts to dislodge them have begun to transform a hilltop into the community of Nofei Hashmonaim, ten kilometers east of Ben Gurion International Airport.
In western Samaria near Kedumim, government troops have also repeatedly hauled activists out of the small outpost of Shvut Ami ("Return of My Nation"), established during Sukkot and rejuvenated by activists after each evacuation by government forces.
Not so far away, near Elon Moreh in eastern Samaria, a hilltop named Harchivi (meaning "Expand," based on Isaiah 54: "Expand the place of thy tent…for thou shalt break forth both right and left") has also been peopled by activists and depopulated by government forces.
Activist Daniella Weiss said the new communities would be a response to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s plans to establish an Arab state in Judea and Samaria. “He wants to put us in a ghetto," she said, "but we will burst out with our spirit, the spirit of the Maccabees, and will establish new communities.”