The Jordan Valley IDF commander Colonel Yochai Ben-Yishai is more than a bit angry at some 80 right-wing activists who broke through a military checkpoint and took up position in a Yericho shul on Sunday evening at about 6:30pm. 35 people were arrested after they barricaded themselves in the shul for a number of hours. All but two were released. The two remanded to custody are being charged with assaulting officers as well.

When instructed to leave the shul, the Jews shouted “Yericho is Eretz Yisrael. Take the Arabs out!”

Taking part in the event were MK (Ichud HaLeumi) Dr. Michael Ben-Ari, Baruch Marzel and Ben-Ari’s parliamentary aid, Itamar Ben-Gavir.

The incident he explained could have escalated rapidly, and led to dire consequences and fortunately, this was not the case. He is calling for a harsh response against the several dozen people involved in the act of illegally entering the PA autonomous area, referring to PA-occupied Yericho. 

Ben-Yishai explained they could have arranged to enter the PA area in advance and such a request could have been accommodated and the situation could have and should have been avoided. At one point, Ben-Yishai contacted PA security forces in Yericho, requesting that they do not intervene. They accommodated the colonel’s request.

According to the 1993 Oslo Agreement, Jews are to be permitted “free access” to holy sites, which then Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres promised would be the case, but sadly, as was predicted, this is not the case today; not regarding the shul in Yericho or Kever Yosef in Shechem to name two. In the case of the two locations mentioned, PA residents have set the holy sites ablaze on numerous occasions, yet Israel fails to take action, paralyzed or simply uninterested in responding to the continued defilement of Jewish holy sites.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)