An estimated 1,000 people spent Shabbos in the area known as E1, an area between Maale Adumim and Yerushalayim. The participants in the unique Shabbos are hoping to pressure Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu into keeping his promise, to build Jewish homes in that area. Realizing that to date the prime minister’s bold statement have been nothing more than hollow words, they are hoping to embarrass him into taking action.

A number of state officials visited the area on motzei Shabbos, including Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon, Deputy Minister of Religious Services Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan and Rabbi Moshe Levinger Shlita, the pioneer of the renewed Jewish settlement in Hebron.

Danon and Ben-Dahan called on Mr. Netanyahu to fulfill his promise.

After the PA (Palestinian Authority) took its case for statehood to the United Nations General Assembly, obtaining observer nation status, the prime minister announced that Israel would build in that area in retaliation for the unilateral PA move. The area is particularly significant to the PA for in the PA plan for statehood, it will serve as the bridge between areas in Yehuda and Shomron and Israeli construction in the E1 area would sabotage those plans.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)