In light of the danger hovering over the continued existence of the town of Homesh as a Jewish settlement, Yossi Dagan, head of the Samaria Regional Council, has made an unusual request in a last-ditch attempt to have Homesh regularized and the future of its yeshiva assured, rather than seeing it destroyed.
His request? To change the name of Homesh to “Khan al-Homesh.”
To this end, Dagan approached the head of the government’s Naming Committee, Professor Moshe Sharon, noting that he hoped to be accorded similar treatment to the residents of Khan al-Akhmar.
“As you know, the residents of Homesh were expelled from their homes in the year 2005,” he wrote. “For the last 15 years, a yeshiva has been functioning there, every single day of the year, and a number of families have settled there. In a disgraceful move – in a manner more outrageous than any other in the past – the response of the government to the murder of Yehuda Dimentman Hy”d in a terrorist attack has been to give a prize to terrorism and destroy the yeshiva following his murder.
“Therefore, I am requesting of you to change the name of the settlement to Khan al-Homesh, with the understanding that changing the name of the town will also change the way in which it is treated to the way in which Khan al-Akhmar, the illegal settlement this very same government has refrained from destroying, is treated.”
Dagan added that, “I hope that changing the name of the town will lead to a cessation of all desire to destroy and uproot the settlement and the yeshiva there, and to Khan al-Homesh being treated in a similar manner to Khan al-Akhmar. I am writing these words with great sorrow, but in face of the wish to destroy following such a terrible terrorist attack, I am left with no other recourse than to attempt to stop the shameful act in any way I can.”
Last Thursday, at the end of the shivah mourning period for Yehuda Dimentman, over 15,000 people marched together with the Dimentman family – Yehuda’s widow, parents, and siblings – from Shavei Shomron to Homesh via the route on which he was gunned down on his way home at the end of a day of learning at the yeshiva.
Dagan, who participated in the march, said then: “We are here to tell the Israeli government that we are not going to give up on Homesh – not ever. As we stand here, we say to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett: The responsibility rests on you. You must bring the Jewish People back here. You must authorize the yeshiva of Homesh and issue this response to the blood that was shed here.”
Last Friday, Border Police along with police from the Civil Administration destroyed a number of buildings in Homesh, including the homes of two families. They also destroyed the yeshiva’s water supply.