Listen to Daniella Weiss speaking to A7 about what happened at Yad Ya’ir, and why.
(IsraelNN.com) Land of Israel activist Daniella Weiss has used the term “pogrom” to describe the Israel Defense Forces’ destruction of several buildings in the Samarian Jewish outpost community of Yad Yair, near Dolev, northwest of Jerusalem on Thursday.
Yad Yair is named after Yair Mendelson of Dolev, who was murdered by terrorists. It contained a synagogue and yeshiva, which have been attacked by Arabs.
Interviewed on Israel National Radio’s Yishai and Friends show, the former mayor of the Samarian Jewish community of Kedumim said the destruction of Yad Yair was a “promo” to the destruction of the large Samarian outpost of Migron, despite government talk that Migron might not be uprooted. Weiss said, “If they succeed in putting down Migron, the other 25 what they call illegal outposts will fall one after the other like dominos.”
She added that the government and the Ministry of Defense “want to weaken the activists who prevent dismantling of new outposts.” She countered, “I can assure you that there is no chance for the government to carry out any plan of Convergence [Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's plan to uproot Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria ed.] withdrawal or anything. They can hit here and there, as they did today, but even with Yad Yair, we are going to rebuild it tonight!”
The news article from Israel National News about the illegal destruction of Yad Ya’ir
(IsraelNN.com) The Israeli Defense Forces completed the destruction of the Jewish community of Yad Ya’ir, in violation of an order from the States High Court to stay the demolition until at least 4:00 p.m., Thursday. The destruction is the second attempt in two days to destroy the town, the first attempt having been thwarted early Wednesday morning by a large gathering of Jewish protestors. Despite the court order being known of for several hours, the IDF acknowledged receipt of the order only after having destroyed the last houses.
High Court Justice Salim Joubran ordered the government to respond by 4:00 p.m., Thursday, to a petition by the residents to stop the demolition, while the court was to review both the demolition order and the petition. Meanwhile, the IDF was ordered to halt the demolition.
There has been no comment from the IDF regarding their violation of the court order. The order was already publicized by early Thursday afternoon, but only after the army had finished demolishing the last house did the IDF formally acknowledge that they had received the order.
Only after the army had finished demolishing the last house did the IDF acknowledge that they had received the order.
Many residents of Yad Ya’ir are incensed by the army’s continued destruction of their community against a clear order from the highest court in the nation. At least one resident said that the violation was an act of “childish revenge” for the community’s thwarting of a previous attempt by the IDF to destroy Yad Ya’ir.
“Everything has a price and that price will be made evident across the West Bank within hours,” said one of the protestors present at the scene of Thursday’s destruction.
Viki Ezra, another activist present at the scene, said during the demolition that most of the buildings were already destroyed, and it appears that forces are continuing to destroy the remaining buildings, against an order from the High Court not to continue with the demolition until 4:00 p.m.
Undeterred by the IDF’s apparently unlawful action, Ezra said, We will still return to the place and rebuild it.
In the early hours of Wednesday morning, a group of some 300 protestors had prevented the IDF from carrying out
One resident said that the violation was an act of “childish revenge” for the community’s thwarting of a previous attempt by the IDF to destroy Yad Yair.
the demolition of Yad Yair that day, after local area Jewish residents were alerted overnight that a large force of soldiers and demolition equipment were scheduled to arrive and destroy the community.
The IDF claims that it decided to cancel the first demolition attempt when army officials learned of the size of the gathering of protestors. However, Yanir Aldubi, a spokesman from the nearby town of Dolev, added that one of the drivers of the two demolition cranes that were ordered to destroy the houses in Yad Ya’ir broke orders and refused to carry out the demolition.
