Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan has tested positive for Covid-19. In all probability, he contracted the virus while at the protest tent outside the Prime Minister’s official residence in Jerusalem, where he and others are demonstrating against the government’s intention to evacuate and destroy the yeshiva of Homesh and to abandon state land at the site in Samaria.
Dagan reportedly felt unwell at the end of last week, experiencing cold symptoms, but tested positive for the Omicron strain of the coronavirus, which is generally as mild as the common cold.
“I’m just providing an update that I have contracted Omicron,” Dagan wrote on Facebook. “I left the protest tent at the end of last week feeling like I had a mild cold. I already had Covid-19 and recovered last year, and I’m vaccinated too, but I followed recommendations and went to get tested and as I noted, the test came out positive.”
Dagan added that, “Thank G-d I feel fine – basically like I have a cold or a mild flu. I’m in quarantine at home and being careful to follow the rules. Anyone who came into contact with me in the last few days should go and get tested, as the Health Ministry advises. Meanwhile, I can be contacted at home over the phone and via Zoom, and with G-d’s help I will continue to fulfill my task of building up Samaria and strengthening the settlement enterprise in the Land of Israel, even from afar.”
For the last ten days, Dagan has been demonstrating outside the Prime Minister’s Jerusalem Residence, protesting against the government’s intention to destroy the Homesh yeshiva at the conclusion of the shloshim mourning period for Yehuda Dimentman who was murdered at the end of a day of learning at the yeshiva as he and his friends made their way home. The demonstration is also in protest against the government’s passage of the Electricity Law, which enables thousands of illegally built Bedouin homes in the Negev to be connected to the national power grid and to the water supply, while unauthorized homes in Judea and Samaria that were built by Jews are unable to do the same.
Over 15,000 people have joined Dagan’s protest. Addressing a crowd last week, he said: “This government will fall on the issues of Homesh and the Negev! In the name of the entire Jewish People, we are telling this government loud and clear: We will never give up on the Land of Israel! We will build in Samaria, in Judea, in the Negev, and in Lod. Everywhere! We will rebuild Homesh and everywhere else too.”
Many mayors and local council heads from communities throughout Judea, Samaria, and the Negev have arrived at the protest tent to add their voices to Dagan’s.