Army bulldozers arrived Monday to destroy homes in the six-year-old neighborhood of Bnei Adam but were put on hold. The families refused to be relocated, fearing a harmful precedent that could spin out of control, and now await the bulldozers' possible return.
The story began Monday, when army and police forces destroyed – for the fourth time in three months – the outpost of Maoz Esther, and were on their way to do the same in Bnei Adam, just north of Jerusalem.
Avi Roeh, head of the Binyamin Regional Council, told Arutz-7’s Hebrew newsmagazine what happened next: “I was on my way to a meeting in Tel Aviv late Monday morning when I heard the news. So I of course turned around, making phone calls along the way to the police, etc., but to no avail. When I got to Bnei Adam, I saw the three families outside their three caravans, with all their belongings outside, and the bulldozer ready to destroy them. I asked the police commander there to wait while I made some more phone calls, and he agreed. I somehow managed to reach the head of the Civil Administration and asked him a simple question: ‘Why destroy expensive buildings for no reason? If there’s a problem of location, let’s find a solution!’”
Roeh said the commander was unable to object, and agreed, after speaking to army commander, to call off the destruction. “We then had to find a place to move the caravans, and after another series of calls and meetings, the nearby town of Adam agreed to accept them.”
Located east of Adam, Bnei Adam was founded nearly six years ago, and is now home to ten families.
Roeh explained that he is well aware of the dangers facing the settlement enterprise, “and if I thought that this would be a precedent for future destruction – I don’t know why some people call it an ‘eviction,’ this would have been a full-scale destruction – I wouldn’t have agreed to it.”
Story Takes Abrupt About-Face
The story, however, not only did not end there, but took a radical turn to the opposite direction. The families did not agree to move, and on Tuesday afternoon, Roeh informed the Civil Administration that the agreement was off.
Why did the families not agree? Outpost activist Meir Bretler, representing them, explained to Israel National News: “The issue here is not these three caravans, but rather the 26 outposts on [Defense Minister Ehud] Barak’s list of destruction, with their 2,000 families. If we agree to relocate these three caravans, then tomorrow they will come to other caravans in Beit El and Shilo and elsewhere and threaten to destroy them if we don’t move them… The government, and the Yesha Council, must understand that there will be a major struggle over every structure. We will not allow the government to destroy Judea and Samaria in order to hand it over to the Palestinian Authority.”
Tense Stand-Off Continues
On Wednesday morning, there were some 100 people at Bnei Adam, “and we are continuing to build.” Asked if there is a fear that the bulldozers will return, Bretler said, “Of course there is. However, we don’t expect it to happen in the coming hours or even days; it’s not easy for the government to decide on a major evacuation and destruction, involving a large clash with the many people who will come at a moment’s notice, and with everything that that entails. But we certainly need people to come and help build and be ready to answer the call when and if the time comes.”