A protest rally is scheduled to be held Tuesday evening in the small town of Reut, just outside western Samaria (Shomron) near Modiin, against the abrupt eviction orders issued to three young Jews living in Samaria. The three were informed last week that they must leave their homes and not set foot in Judea or Samaria for the next 3-4 months.
The orders, signed by IDF Central Commander Gen. Gad Shamni, state that the three "present a danger to the public order," but do not elaborate.
A petition has been signed by dozens of rabbis (see below), as well as Jonathan and Esther Pollard, demanding that the government rescind the evicition decree.
The sudden orders place a difficult burden upon the three evictees, all of whom have young families and earn their living in Judea and Samaria.
The three are Meir Bretler (two children, expectant wife) and David Libman (3-month-old baby ) of Adei Ad, near Shilo, and Akiva HaCohen (three children, age 4.5 and younger) of Yitzhar. HaCohen's wife Ayelet-HaShachar told IsraelNationalNews, "We are gratified and encouraged by this demonstration, which shows that people are refusing to accept what the establishment is doing and just allowing it to go unchallenged." Asked if she believes there is a chance the decree will be rescinded, she said she does not know of any developments to this end, "but we are praying that something will happen at the last minute."
The orders are to take effect on Tuesday evening at 7 PM - the hour at which the protest is to take place.
"The issue here is not a humanitarian one for me and my family," Akiva said last week, "but rather a national one." He said he believes the government has targeted him because of his activity on behalf of an intiative to hinder the army from evicting pioneer youth from hilltops in Judea and Samaria. "We have a system we call 'Mutual Responsibility' whereby whenever the army tries to evict Jews from one hilltop, Jews everywhere else do what they can to stop it, whether by standing in the roads with signs and the like. The police don't like when we show mutual responsibility, so they arrest us..."
Milling Tons of Wheat
The humanitarian issues loom large nonetheless. Ayelet-HaShachar said, "We are here working hard to mill five tons of wheat kernels before the edict goes into effect." Asked to explain, she said, "The last time we received a leave-home order, for several months, we lived in Kfar Gideon, just north of Afula, and we grew some 40 dunams [10 acres] of wheat. We had about 12 tons of wheat, we sold some, and then we had 5 left. I don't do it; only my husband does. We have this electric mill that does about 100 kilograms an hour, and we're working to do as much as we can."
Mrs. HaCohen said she and her husband's housing plans for the next four months are not yet finalized: "We have a possibility for the next two months, but it is not certain." Regarding schools for her children, she said, "We are home-schooling them, which makes it both easier and harder. If we live in a city, it will be very hard to keep them cooped up at home all day..."
In addition, the HaCohens had plans to plant ten dunams of grapes next month, right after the end of the Shemittah year in which farming is Biblically prohibited. Their hopes to till the Land of Israel in that manner will apparently be dashed.
Mutual Responsibility
Women in Green co-chair Nadia Matar, an organizer of the protest, told IsraelNationalNews, "If they don't like how we display mutual responsibility one for another, we'll show them how we really do it. We will not accept this unlawful treatment, throwing young families out of their home without even formal charges or a trial. Just as we demonstrated outside the home of Shamni's predecessor when he issued orders like this until he finally ran away to study abroad, we will protest this injustice without tiring."
Nearly 100 Names Gathered in 3 Days
Among the nearly 100 signatories on the petition to the government in favor of the three young expelless are: Rabbis Dov Lior, Yaakov Yosef, Moshe Tzuriel, Shmuel Eliyahu, Uziyahu Sharbaf, Ido Elba, Yehoshu Shapira, Yosef Mendlevitch, Yosef Artziel, Shalom Dov Wolpe, and others, as well as several Knesset Members, Yossi Ben-Aharon, Ariel Zilber, Dr. Aryeh Morgenstern, Prof. Hillel Weiss, Moshe Rosenbaum, and many others.
The IDF Office for Public Complaints can be faxed at 03-569-9400.