Border Police officers evacuated the illegal A’yira Shachar outpost in the Binyamin Regional Council, in the West Bank, early on Monday morning.
In a statement, residents of the Jewish settlement blamed Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich “for continuing the former government’s tradition of harming Jewish settlement and destroying homes.”
In response to the backlash against the finance minister, sources close to Smotrich noted that the buildings were “built on regulated, private Arab land and that an agreement was not reached to move them to state-owned land where it can be regulated, as has been done in the past with Homesh.
“We build and regulate settlements on an unprecedented scale and do so with authority.”
Religious Zionist MK Limor Son Har-Melech arrived at the outpost to protest the evacuation.
The destruction of an illegal outpost in the West Bank on August 14, 2023 (VIA MAARIV)
Local settlers reportedly attempted to stop the evacuation, yelling slurs and throwing stones at Border Police forces. One person was arrested in the riots.
Statements by the outpost’s rabbi
The rabbi of the settlement, Rabbi Ohad Karakover, referred to the demolitions that took place, saying that “it has been a very difficult morning for the people of Israel.
They destroyed the homes of several families here, and why? There are empty barren lands here where people come and with great dedication, love, gentleness, and nobility settle in the Land of Israel. Why are they destroying it? So that Arabs will come here?
“We need to rise up and protest the obvious injustice of destruction for the sake of destruction.”
“They destroyed the homes of several families here, and why?”
Rabbi Ohad Karakover
The evacuations of the outpost have reportedly finished.
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