On Wednesday, 11 Kislev, authorities destroyed a carpentry shop in what appears to have been the start of the state expulsion of the Netiv HaAvot neighborhood in Yishuv Elazar in Gush Etzion. A High Court of Justice ordered the expulsion of the 18 buildings and homes, ruling a portion was on private Arab land.

The residents and supporters of Netiv HaAvot on Thursday morning released the following declaration.

In the wake of the unnecessary destruction of the first building in the Patriarchal Path, on Thursday, at 3:00pm, together with IDF reservists, area residents and public officials will gather in the place of the destruction together with the residents of the neighborhood, and we will rebuild the carpentry shop.

The reservists who will arrive tomorrow are commanders and fighters who declared that if the carpentry shop is demolished, they will come to rebuild it.

Of the residents of Netiv HaAvot said: “This construction, which will include concrete solid foundations for the new structure demonstrates our intention and determination to stay here, in our homes.

Shlomo Ne’eman, head of the Gush Etzion Regional Council, said: “The answer to the demolition will always be construction, and until the state corrects its ways of handling and treating the settlements in Yehuda and Shomron and exercising its sovereignty, we must rectify the injustices caused by its conduct. The dedication of the volunteers to the people who will come to the task of building the carpentry workshop is very moving, attesting more than anything else to the desire of the people to see the Jewish settlement in Gush Katif flourish again.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)