Residents of the Binyamin-region village of Givat Assaf will fight a planned expulsion with “maximum determination,” representatives said Tuesday in a meeting with Members of Knesset.
The battle will not be theirs alone, they added. Members of the public have been asked to come and help the families of Givat Assaf hold on to their land.
Visitors MK Otniel Schneller (Kadima) and MK Yaakov “Ketzaleh” Katz (Ichud Leumi) promised to do what they can to cancel plans for a demolition.
Ketzaleh noted that the threat facing Givat Assaf hangs over many other towns as well, among them Migron and Givat Ha'Ulpana in nearby Beit El. Givat Assaf’s predicament should not be seen as a local issue, he said, but rather as a larger problem involving thousands of families in total.
Givat Assaf was built 10 years ago, in memory of terror victim Assaf Hershkowitz, a young father from nearby Ofra who was murdered in a shooting attack. Today the village is home to 25 families, including more than 120 children.
The village was built without government approval, and has faced demolition threats since the beginning. Previous attempts to demolish the fledgling town have been thwarted with the help of thousands of activists who swarmed to the area, making expulsion impractical.