Free Republic

Supreme Court President Asher Grunis issued a temporary order Wednesday forbidding the IDF from continuing the demolition of homes at the Jewish community of Maaleh Rechavam in the Etzion Bloc. The order forbidding eviction and demolition activities will stand "until another decision is given." Meanwhile, dozens of nationalist activists demonstrated at the entrance to the Knesset building, to protest demolitions carried out at the community Wednesday morning. A large police force arrived at the spot. Seven protesters were arrested. Special Yassam police and Border Police were among the forces that sealed off approaches to Maaleh Rechavam in the morning, to...

As Israelis in the town of Netzer in Gush Etzion attempted to participate in a tree-planting event organized by Women in Green, a mob of Arab thugs and international anarchists rioted, attempting to physically prevent the tree-planting from taking place. After an extended face-off, with a major riot nearly breaking out, the Arabs and anarchists left the planting site. .....

A rocket exploded in an open area near an Arab village in Gush Etzion around 2:15 p.m. as sirens wailed in Jerusalem during another barrage of rockets and missiles unleashed by Hamas. The missile exploded in an open area, and no one was injured. Minutes before the sirens rang out, an AFP correspondent in Gaza City reported hearing the loud report of an outgoing rocket. The attack was claimed by Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, which said it had fired "an M75 rocket at the occupied city of Jerusalem." United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who spent the...

The Civil Administration on Tuesday destroyed an Arab-owned house that was illegally erected in the heart of Gush Etzion. After the building's destruction Council Chairman Shaul Goldstein said it was "too little." "We encourage the civil administration personnel for persevering in the enforcement policy towards illegal Arab construction. In our opinion it is too little, but even this little serves as a most important deterrent in the struggle against the Arab takeover of our lands. The council will continue supervising the lands in its municipal boundaries and will prompt the civil administration to act on behalf of their preservation," Goldstein...

A group of Palestinian Arab men attacked Jewish farmers on Friday morning near the town of Netzer in Gush Etzion. The attack, reported by Women for Israel's Future (formerly Women in Green) activists, was one in a series of similar incidents in the area. Six Arab men approached the farmers as they went about their work, and demanded that they leave, claiming that the land they were cultivating belongs to Arabs. When the farmers refused a fight broke out during which one of the PA men attacked a Jew with a hoe, causing him injuries. Police later arrested one of...

Carter on Settlements: Gush Etzion Will Remain Israeli “Forever” Posted by Chana on Mon 15 Jun 2009 Yesterday former U.S. President Jimmy Carter visited Neveh Daniel and met with Shaul Goldstien, who leads the Gush Etzion Regional Council, in Goldstien’s home. Here are some of President Carter’s comments as reported by The Jerusalem Post:"This particular settlement area is not one I ever envision being abandoned or changed over into Palestinian territory.” He added that the Jewish communities in Gush Etzion are among a number of West Bank settlements “…that I think will be here forever.” The former President also thanked...

Expansion of Gush Etzion continues unabated; Arabs pay price Once every few hours in recent days, Army Radio has been broadcasting commercials calling on Israeli citizens to visit the Gush Etzion area during the Sukkoth holiday to enjoy the various festivities being held there, such as treading grapes, a kite festival and jeep safaris. And all this, the commercial says, is just 55 minutes from Tel Aviv and 15 minutes from Jerusalem. During these pleasure tours over the holidays, participants will get a chance to see to what extent settlements and outposts have expanded (some illegally) in recent years. What...

Thursday, March 09, 2006 Annexation? Colonies? Inflammatory U.K. Media Bias On March 6th The Scotsman ran a story with the incredible headline Israel 'plans to annex West Bank colonies' in response to Hamas. The story, of course, was about former GSS Chief and Kadima Knesset candidate Avi Dichter's detailing of Prime Minister Olmert's plans for unilateral withdrawal from most of Judea and Samaria. The headline was the most inflammatory part of the piece, of course, and it colors how a reader not intimately familiar with the history of the area and the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians will view...

Gov't Silent as Illegal Arab Building Cuts Off Gush Etzion 14:02 Jan 19, '06 / 19 Tevet 5766 By Ezra HaLevi As the government declares "war" on unauthorized Jewish communities, Arabs, funded by the Palestinian Authority, are deciding Israel's future borders through unhindered illegal building. An investigative report by Erez Tadmor, of the Hebrew weekly Makor Rishon, exposed the massive unauthorized Arab building projects, which are going on all over Gush Etzion, the 'settlement bloc' just south of Jerusalem that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon repeatedly claimed would remain in Jewish hands. Mr. Sharon insisted that a letter he received from...

IDF Destroys House in Gush Etzion ´Settlement Bloc´ 22:20 Jan 11, '06 / 11 Tevet 5766 By Ezra HaLevi and Hillel Fendel Police used severe violence in Gush Etzion, firing tear-gas grenades into a house sought to destroy, pepper-spraying protestors, and dragging and hitting those who interfered, injuring 12 youths. At the end of the day, the mixed secular/religious community of Sde Boaz saw a small house and stable destroyed, while thwarting the demolition of a large foundation for a future home was saved. Rubble of the home demolished in Sde Boaz, with the cities of Betar Illit and Tzur...

IDF Attempts to Destroy Homes in Gush Etzion 'Settlement Bloc' 12:54 Jan 11, '06 / 11 Tevet 5766 By Ezra HaLevi Without warning, a small community in the consensus region of Gush Etzion has become the center of the government's demolition efforts. Demolition forces face unexpected opposition. Residents of the community of Sde Boaz, twenty minutes south of Jerusalem, received less that 24 hours' notice that the Civil Administration, on orders from the government, planned to destroy a newly built house, the foundations of a large home and a large stable that were built over the summer. Border police, accompanied...

Thursday, November 17, 2005 20:43 IST JNW HEADLINE NEWS 'Annex Gush Etzion now!' By Ryan Jones November 17th, 2005 The security fence Israel is building in Judea and Samaria is not so much a means of fighting terrorism as it is a belated effort to impose the 1948 United Nations Partition Plan on the region, Jewish residents of Israel's biblical heartland say. “If the ‘settlement blocs’ that [Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon speaks about are really to exist and if there really is a consensus regarding Gush Etzion, Israel must assert sovereignty and annex the region into the State of Israel...

Nov. 16, 2005 19:30 | Updated Nov. 16, 2005 20:03 Mofaz tours E1 area, Gush Etzion By ERICA CHERNOFSKYConstruction of the security fence in the Gush Etzion and Ma'ale Adumim area should begin as soon as possible, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said while visiting the West Bank settlements Wednesday. Mofaz met with the heads of the settlements and following his visit affirmed that the government will continue to strengthen the large settlements blocks, according to the Defense Ministry spokeswoman. He added that it would be these settlements that determine the eastern front of the state of Israel. He also said...

Here are some of the latest headlines about Palestinians terrorist attacks, many against civillians, that are happening today alone. If no Israelis were killed it wasn't because the Palestinians weren't trying. Firebomb & Rock Attacks Continue on Gush Etzion-Hevron Road 20:43 Oct 27, '03 / 1 Cheshvan 5764 (IsraelNN.com) Motorists traveling on the Gush Etzion – Hevron road during the evening rush hour were targeted in a firebomb attack near Beit Omar and rock-throwing attacks near el-Aroub. There were no reports of injuries. Oslo War Running in the Background 15:44 Oct 27, '03 / 1 Cheshvan 5764 Arab gunmen opened...

Oct. 13, 2003 Riskin: Efrat to outlast Yossi Beilin By GIL HOFFMAN Residents of Efrat are not losing any sleep worrying about the Geneva Initiative, Efrat Chief Rabbi Shlomo Riskin said on Monday. The plan, hammered out by a group of Palestinians and Israeli leftists over the weekend, would leave the 8,000 resident Gush Etzion community outside the borders of the State of Israel as part of a final-status agreement. But Riskin said he does not expect the initiative of former Justice Minister Yossi Beilin and former Palestinian Culture Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo to gain enough legitimacy to threaten Efrat....