Veteran Homesh activists and guests celebrated the holiday of Simchat Torah among the ruins of the Shomron (Samaria) community razed in the 2005 "Disengagement" and said they believe it would soon be rebuilt.
Most of the celebrants were members of the “Homesh First” group and of the Homesh Yeshiva, which has been operating at the mountainous location for the past two years. “It was an uplifting sensation,” one of the guests told Arutz Sheva after the holiday ended. “There was great holiday joy in the air and excitement over the privilege of holding rounds of dancing in the very spot where a harsh and criminal eviction had taken place. Simchat Torah in a place like Homesh gives strength and power for the coming year.”
Hoping for rebirth
"Holding Simchat Torah at Homesh is the most symbolic thing,” said Homesh First spokesman Yossi Dagan. “The ones who came and destroyed Homesh wanted one thing more than anything else: to smash religious Zionism and the strength combined strength of Torah and land which are embodied in the people... The tikkun (correction) of the crime of the expulsion began when thousands of people ascended to Homesh, and is advanced daily by the students of the High Yeshiva at Homesh, who study at the spot despite the many evictions.”
Dagan added: "We are certain that with the grace of HaShem, in the next winter that is coming upon us, the political establishment, too, which already admits that the expulsion was a grave mistake, will correct that mistake and formally and fully re-establish the communities that were uprooted: first, Homesh, Sa-Nur, Ganim and Kadim in northern Shomron, and later with HaShem's help, the communities of Gush Katif.”