MK Yinon Azoulay (Shas) spoke to Arutz Sheva on Monday about the faction members’ visit to the community of Evyatar on Sunday, a visit he sees as an expression of Shas' continued support for strengthening the settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria and not as a one-time event.
"The settlement is the backbone of the people of Israel and the State of Israel. These are the places that strengthen us, because if we are not there the state will lose, as they will slowly come and conquer the entire country. Places like Evyatar are the human barrier for those who want to conquer Israel and we will not allow it," Azoulay said.
Azoulay did not describe Evyatar as an outpost but rather as a community of those who "make settlement sacred and everything must be done to keep them there."
He rejected the claims that Shas only "remembered" the settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria when it joined the coalition. He noted in his remarks the activities of Aryeh Deri, the chairman of Shas, for the settlement enterprise, and the fact, as he put it, that "Yamina is no longer that much on the right" while Shas expresses the right which supports the land of Israel, and as a result the party supported Netanyahu's position and remained with him in the opposition.
Commenting on the discussion on the reason for scheduling a meeting of the Knesset Arrangements Committee on the Fast of the 17th of Tammuz, Azoulay said that he is not angry with the members of the coalition for scheduling the meeting that day but feels sorry for them, as he said, for failing to understand that the existing procedure in the Knesset is not to hold such meetings on fast days.
He added he views the decision to go ahead with the discussion as an unworthy expression of controversy and separation, while his party sought to express unity and therefore came to visit Evyatar on the 17th of Tammuz.