The Ben-David family has returned - for the third time - to the Beit HaKerem hill in the southern Hevron Hills community of Negohot to rebuild its police-destroyed home. Dozens of professional builders and volunteers arrived in the town this past Friday for the rebuilding effort.
Just a week ago, police swarmed down on the family's wooden home in Negohot in southern Judea, in the middle of the night, forcing out the parents and six small children, and then proceeded to wreck their home for the second time in several weeks. The orders came from the Civil Administration, at the behest of Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and included two other structures in Negohot deemed to be "illegal."
The Ben-Davids, a founding family of Negohot, had built the small wooden home in the same place where police destroyed their former home, which was built with their life-savings. They began moving into their new home several days before it was destroyed.
The volunteers currently there "understand that the way to meet today's struggle against the destruction is by building," explained Women in Green, the grassroots organization that is behind the latest initiative. "No matter how many times the authorities will destroy - our goal is to constantly build and expand. This is the alternative for all lovers of the Land of Israel: to build, to expand and to settle in all parts of the Land of Israel, building new towns and cities and thus declaring to the entire world: The Land of Israel belongs to the People of Israel."
The hard-working pioneers feel that this is not only ideology, but real-politik: "The moment this will be official government policy, the Arabs will understand that they have nothing to look for here, that they will never be able to expel the Jews from the Jewish Biblical Homeland, that their status is of a guest in a land not theirs and that they must choose between two options: remain in the land that belongs to the Jewish People, or find somewhere else to live."
Women in Green, also known as Women for Israel's Tomorrow, has established the YIBANE (Will be Rebuilt) Fund for the continued settling and development of Judea.
Photographs of the rebuilding in Negohot (by Women in Green) can be seen here.