The Jewish communities of Samaria held meetings at week's end to discuss ways of combating the no-building decree issued by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu earlier in the week.
The Samaria Regional Council and the grassroots Samaria Residents' Council held emergency meetings and additional meetings are planned for this week, in individual communities and among pro-settlement activists in the cities throughout Israel.
A special meeting of the communities' rabbis was held in the offices of Gershon Mesika, the Samaria Regional Council Head. Rabbis from various communities in Samaria convened to discuss the decrees, the political action to be taken by the Samaria Regional Council, and plans for protest moves by the Samaria Residents' Council.
This meeting was followed by a large scale emergency meeting in the Yakir clubhouse, where the top administrators of numerous communities convened. These included secretariat chairmen, secretariat members, community secretaries and Samaria Residents' Council activists. The Samaria Regional Council reported that the gathering was “very unique” in terms of the number of administrators who showed up despite being given short advance notice, and the varied nature of the assembled crowd, which brought together residents of western Samaria with others from the mountains, secular and religious residents, residents of “hard core” communities alongside more moderate ones. All in all, over 150 people attended.
The Residents' Council presented a working plan and operational dossiers were handed out to activists.
Beeny Katzover, Head of the Samaria Residents' Council, told the participants that the “street battles” against the freeze inspectors are expected to continue in the coming period. He praised the ' tenacity exhibited by men, women and youths in fighting the inspectors. “The settler body is now in an existential test in the face of grave diplomatic moves that may advance. The settler body must withstand this test in order to prevent further deterioration. [US President] Barack Obama, [Defense Minister] Ehud Barak and Netanyahu are monitoring the struggle, expecting to see if there is a chance for continuing the decrees that are hatched up by the radical Left.”