Settler leaders plan to camp out by Netanyahu’s house.
There is a direct connection between Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ United Nations speech and the new wave of terror attacks, Likud Minister Yariv Levin told a right wing rally of thousands in Jerusalem on Monday night.
The protesters gathered outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s home as the cabinet met to discuss its response to the Palestinian terror attacks in the last five days that claimed four Israeli lives.
They called on the government to secure the roads in Judea and Samaria and to authorize more building in West Bank settlements.
Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan said he had been camped out by Netanyahu’s house since Friday and planned to remain there until the government ceded to their demands. Gush Etzion Regional Council head Dudi Perl said he planned to join him. Dagan called on the public to join them.
“We are asking for security” and to halt the “barbaric freeze” on new settlement construction,” said Dagan as he addressed a rally of thousands by the premier’s house.
Levin said “We’re expecting that we will hear tonight of the authorization of building [by the cabinet] that will allow us to emerge victorious over terror.”
He continued, “there is a clear link between the terror attacks and the speech of the terrorist Abu Mazen [Abbas].”
“The time has come to say clearly what we believe, that the PA is the problem. Those who teach their children to engage in terror and who pay terrorists who sit in jail, are not a partner to anything. Abu Mazen wants many things, but peace is not one of them,” said Levin. Likud Minister Haim Katz also addressed the crowd.
In between speeches the crown sang and danced.
When Dagan spoke, he told the protesters he had just held a meeting with Netanyahu, that had not yielded any results.
Dagan mimicked Netanyahu’s gesture at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, where the prime minister stood silent for 44 seconds to protest the deaf ear the international community has turned to Israel’s pleas to halt Iran’s nuclear weapons.
Dagan told the protesters that he was spurred to action after the terror attack that claimed the lives of Eitam and Na’ama Henkin, as they drove home from the West Bank settlement of Itamar.
Na’ama had grown up in the settlement of Peduel which is located in the Samaria region of the West Bank.
After the funeral, Dagan began a protest in front of Netanyahu’s home.
“We came here. We did not go to [US President Barack] Obama or the European Union. We came to the person who is our representative. We are here for one reason, because the land of Israel belongs to the nation of Israel,” Dagan said.
Protesters interrupted his words with thunderous applause.
“We want to build in the land of Israel, in Judea, in Samaria, in Jerusalem and everywhere,” said Dagan who added that he sought actions and not words.
On Monday night, after the Simhat Torah holiday, more stones were thrown at buses on the roads in Judea and Samaria, he said.
“We respect the PM, and we acknowledge the international pressure on him, but we expect him to show leadership,” said Dagan.
Since Netanyahu began his fourth term in the spring, the only new West Bank settlement he has authorized is the new Palestinian city of Rawabi, said Dagan.
Avi Ro’eh who heads the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea and Samaria called on Netanyahu to annex Area C of the West Bank.
As reported by The Jerusalem Post