Relocation work began a week ago in this settlement, which had been dismantled at the same time as those located in Gaza.
They are about fifteen young men with beards, sideburns and sometimes long hair, Zionist-religious settlers from the surrounding area. Drill, hammer, saw, broom, they are busy installing a white prefab. “I am a rabbi in this religious school”, presents Menahem Ben Shahar. This soulless prefab will soon be a place of Torah study. “I love teaching Torah, I love Israel, this is the perfect place for that.continues the rabbi. This implantation is a symbol. It symbolizes the evacuation that took place there and Israel’s decision to return here. It’s a flag. Proof that we have the support of the people and that is why the law passed in parliament.”
>> franceinfo junior. What is the origin of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?
In the north of the occupied West Bank, near Nablus, a Jewish settlement evacuated in 2005 by Israel is being resettled. This colony, named Homesh, had been dismantled at the same time as the colonies located in Gaza. But on March 21, the Israeli parliament repealed the law banning Israelis from traveling to the area. As a result, the relocation work began a week ago.
“I feel like I’m living in prison”
The United States, Germany and France criticize Homesh’s relocation. Several European diplomats even came to the region as a delegation to protest. A few hours later, violent settlers led a punitive expedition to the nearby village of Burqa located below Homesh. Since then, Fatma has screened her windows to prevent further damage to her home: “When the settlers attacked us, they wanted to destroy all the windows in the house. But young people from our village intervened and repelled their attack. But now to protect the house, my children have installed these grilles on the windows. You you’re at home, and you feel like you’re living in prison.”
The recolonization of Homesh is at the heart of the messianic project of the new Israeli government installed at the end of December? In the current government, two far-right settlers are Deputy Ministers of Defense in charge of the West Bank and National Security. For Yehuda Shaul, an Israeli activist for a just and peaceful two-state solution, what is happening in the northern West Bank is just the beginning: “We have the most right-wing government in the history of Israel that says, ‘No Palestine! Not two states, nothing!’ He tries to make the unthinkable possible.”
“We are already beginning to hear Israeli ministers, Israeli deputies say that Gaza must be recolonized!”
Yehuda Shaul, Israeli activistat franceinfo
For opponents of colonization, only international pressure will contain the messianic extreme right. But in Homesh, work continues.