By: Nadav Shragai
September 26th, 2007
Right-wing activists are planning to set up five new settlement nuclei throughout the West Bank this Sunday, during the interim days of Sukkot.
The operation, details of which were announced Tuesday, will include taking possession of the land at the following locations: Givat Ha’eitam near Efrat, Hill 1013 near Halhoul in the Hebron region, Nofei Hashmonaim near Hashmonaim, “Harhivi” outpost near Elon Moreh, and “Shvut Ami” outpost in Samaria.
The extra-parliamentary right-wing movements participating in the operation are also planning a major march to Homesh, a northern West Bank settlement vacated in 2005 as part of the disengagement from Gaza.
“This is the only way to get out of the alleyways and back to the main road, through the Land of Israel,” one movement leader, Arye Yitzhaki, told Haaretz. “We will keep building communities and redeeming territory in the land of the Patriarchs.”
Various rabbis have voiced their support for the operation. The rabbi of Efrat, Shlomo Riskin, who is known as a moderate, called on Efrat residents to take part at Givat Ha’eitam. Riskin’s call was seconded by other Gush Etzion rabbis.
In Hebron-Kiryat Arba, local rabbis, led by Moshe Levinger and Eliezer Waldman, issued calls for the public to accompany the operation at Hill 1013.
The army and police are readying to block the activists from carrying out their plan.