CHOMESH (VINnews) — Several thousand Israelis marched to the dismantled Chomesh settlement in the northern West Bank on Tuesday.
Join our WhatsApp groupSubscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
Protesters demanded that the government leave the Chomesh yeshiva intact, and not harm the Jewish communities of Shomron.
The Rosh Yeshiva of Chomesh, Rabbi Elishama Cohen, as well as the families of terror victims Yehuda Dimentman and Shuli Har-Melekh HY”D, were among those who led the march.
Ettya, the widow of Yehuda Dimentman HY”D, who was murdered by terrorists while driving home from Chomesh in December, said:: “About 100 years ago there was an illegal aliyah to Eretz Yisrael, and the fathers of everyone in the government also immigrated via this illegal aliyah. The British ruled here and it was illegal. We are the settlers today, we who are called settlers and extremists do the same thing, make illegal immigration to the land of Israel, because your ancestors also immigrated to the land of Israel and it was not legal, but the land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel, and whoever thinks that is not true are welcome to move to another country.”
“The land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel, we are neither settlers nor extremists, we are just coming home. All the soldiers who fell all the years in the wars, what did they fall for? They fell because they reclaimed the land of Israel,” the widow added.
“My husband Yehuda was also murdered because we are reclaiming the land of Israel,” Ettya said. ”Today everyone is coming here on foot, free, but tomorrow morning there will be a checkpoint here again, and if there is a checkpoint here again then this government says that this country does not belong to us. Naftali Bennett says that this land does not belong to us, but belongs to Mansour Abbas and not to the people of Israel.”
“This Pesach everyone has to choose which side he is on, whether he is on the side of the land of Israel and the people of Israel or of returning to Egypt, the decision is ours.”
Several right-wing politicians joined, including Idit Silman, who quit the Bennett government two weeks ago, which was considered a major political shakeup.
Others included Bezalel Smotrich, Michal Waldiger, Orit Struck, Etty Atia, and Shomron Regional Council Chairman Yossi Dagan.
As a precuation, the IDF sealed off the roads to several Palestinian villages after initially opposing the event over concerns it could lead to violent protests and clashes.
March organizer Bareleh Kromby said on a radio interview that they had reached a deal with the army to shorten the route by 3 kilometers (1.9 miles).
“Not only is this not a provocation, but these marches are also conducted in an astonishing and dignified manner,” Kromby said. “The goal is to go back to Comesh, we do not hide this. The greatest folly of the [2005] disengagement is manifested in northern Shomron. This is an area we did not even leave, it is also open to Israeli Arabs so there is no reason not to be open to Jews.”
This is called Judea and Samaria. By calling it the “West Bank” you are perpetuating Palestinian propaganda. Please edit your article!
The only place in Israel & Judea where HaShem forbade Jews to tread was in the Holiest of Holies on the Temple Mount. Does the Prime Minister think he is greater than HaShem to forbid Jews to settle in the land given to them &, in many cases, also bought by them &, certainly, where their ancestors trod? It is time to stop pandering to those who wish us dead or enslaved. They are the ones who should be forbidden to tread in places that belong to us if they only wish to destroy us!