Left-wing activists from the Peace Now, Yesh Din, and Emek Shaveh organizations toured northern Samaria today (Wednesday) together with the head of the European Delegation to the West Bank and Gaza, Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff.
The tour included, among other things, a visit to the archaeological site of Sebastia, where the government is expected to invest millions in a tourism and heritage preservation project, and a meeting with Palestinian Arabs in the village of Burqa overlooking Homesh, which the government is attempting to relocate in order to legalize its status.
Von Burgsdorff said that "what is happening in Homesh is not only a violation of international law, it is a violation of local (Israeli) law." He also said: "There is no such thing as Area B and C, it is all Palestine."
The right-wing movement "Nachala" responded and said that "the cooperation between Peace Now and the European representatives with the aim of undermining the Jewish hold on northern Samaria illustrates the ridiculous and absurd situation of the Peace Now representatives and the entire initiative." The settlement of Homesh was named after the five daughters of Tzelafchad (from the Book of Numbers) who, in their love for the Land of Israel, did not give up a physical piece of it. The city of Samaria (the original name of Sebastia) - the capital of the kings of Israel, was founded fifteen hundred years before the Roman emperor Sebastian (Augustus) was born. The ignorance and stupidity of Peace Now and the European Union are leading them to the edge of the abyss.''