Limor Livnat, the Minister of Culture and Sport, visited homes slated for demolition in the communities of Eli and Haresha in Samaria Wednesday. She said that in communities in Judea and Samaria, “children are born who must be allowed to lead normal lives.”
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In the course of the visit, a former resident of Gush Katif who was evicted from her home in Neveh Dekalim approached the minister. Livnat told her that she wants to apologize to her personally for the expulsion in 2005. “The wounds of the Disengagement are still bleeding,” she said, “and it must not be repeated.”
Livnat said that in the past few months, she has been leading a struggle for changing the government's reply in a High Court motion demanding the destruction of homes being built at Kiryat Netafim. Because of the State's new position, she said, the High Court changed its policy and refrained from issuing a restraining order against the construction of the new homes.
Regarding the meeting earlier Wednesday between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and United States Special Envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell, Livnat said: “Right now, nothing is happening in the negotiations with the Palestinians.” At this point, she said, nothing is clearly on the agenda and “the Palestinian side is toughening its positions.”
An announcement communicated by the Prime Minister's bureau after the meeting did not say whether there was any progress in the meeting that would make it possible to convene a three-way meeting between Netanyahu, U.S. President Barack Obama and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas at the U.N. Assembly in New York next week.