Residents of Beit El began construction of a new home in the town Wednesday, in spite of the construction freeze ordered by the Minister of Defense. The home was built just underneath the home of Rabbi Zalman Melamed, Dean of the Beit El Yeshiva and co-Chief Rabbi of Beit El.
The Chairman of the National Union, MK Yaakov (Ketzaleh) Katz, spoke at the house's dedication ceremony and denounced President Shimon Peres for stating, in his speech before Germany's Bundestag, that Israel would be willing to give up some of its land and hand it over to the Arabs.
"Instead of honoring Israel, Peres dishonored it by stating that parts of the Land of Israel are not ours to keep,” Katz said. “He desecrated our dignity on impure land, which is soaked with Jewish blood, while standing before the sons and grandsons of the vilest murderers of our nation.”
"Shimon, son of Matityahu the Hasmonean, who ruled the Jewish people thousands of years before Peres was born, declared ‘it is no foreign land that we have conquered’. Our homeland will remain ours long after Peres is gone," he added.
Peres had told the German parliament: “We paid a price in wars; we did not hesitate when forced to pay a price for peace. Today too, we are willing to give up territories in order to reach peace with the Palestinians, who will build their own independent, prosperous and peace-seeking state."
Photos from the construction at Beit El:
Earlier this week, a home was built in Elon Moreh, north of Beit El: