Mitzpeh Yitzhar, once again, is in danger. A Supreme Court panel rejected yesterday a petition against the demolition of a wooden house in the small outpost located between Tapuach and Shechem.
The petitioners had demanded a hearing, claiming that the hearing they received was run more like an interrogation, and that they were essentially not given a chance to present their claims. The judges, however, ruled that the hearing was legitimate, and that they had been given another one several months ago. Yitzchak Sandroi, "father" of the small neighborhood - it currently hosts a family and six singles - is thus down, but not out. "On the one hand, we saw that the judicial system is run unfairly," he told Arutz-7's Yosef Meiri today. "We had plenty of claims, but they didn't give us a chance. On the other hand, we still have another legal approach that we will try, and it may turn out for the best; we just hope that we will be able to complete it - and thus reclaim another piece of the Land of Israel - before the army comes to take us down. On the third hand, we know that G-d is running the show, and we just have to do our share."
Sandroi has just completed several months of work on the wooden house in question, at a cost of tens of thousands of shekels. He said that the neighboring "mother" community of Yitzhar is very supportive of the young neighborhood.
This past June, large army forces clashed with hundreds of residents and supporters, taking ten hours to demolish several structures there. Sandroi slept that night, and many others since then, at the site, often with nothing more than a sleeping bag. A few months later, he was arrested on suspicion of having cut down nearby Arab-owned olive trees. "I was held for a week," Sandroi said today, "but of course was not charged with anything. [Suspicions were later raised that the trees were pruned by the Arabs themselves - ed. note] I think they held me just so they could post the evacuation orders on the two buildings here without any trouble..."
The petitioners had demanded a hearing, claiming that the hearing they received was run more like an interrogation, and that they were essentially not given a chance to present their claims. The judges, however, ruled that the hearing was legitimate, and that they had been given another one several months ago. Yitzchak Sandroi, "father" of the small neighborhood - it currently hosts a family and six singles - is thus down, but not out. "On the one hand, we saw that the judicial system is run unfairly," he told Arutz-7's Yosef Meiri today. "We had plenty of claims, but they didn't give us a chance. On the other hand, we still have another legal approach that we will try, and it may turn out for the best; we just hope that we will be able to complete it - and thus reclaim another piece of the Land of Israel - before the army comes to take us down. On the third hand, we know that G-d is running the show, and we just have to do our share."
Sandroi has just completed several months of work on the wooden house in question, at a cost of tens of thousands of shekels. He said that the neighboring "mother" community of Yitzhar is very supportive of the young neighborhood.
This past June, large army forces clashed with hundreds of residents and supporters, taking ten hours to demolish several structures there. Sandroi slept that night, and many others since then, at the site, often with nothing more than a sleeping bag. A few months later, he was arrested on suspicion of having cut down nearby Arab-owned olive trees. "I was held for a week," Sandroi said today, "but of course was not charged with anything. [Suspicions were later raised that the trees were pruned by the Arabs themselves - ed. note] I think they held me just so they could post the evacuation orders on the two buildings here without any trouble..."