Second Town Faces Demolition, Barak: No Connection to US

Maayana Miskin Barak: Demolition Not Tied to US
A7 News

After a day in which security forces destroyed the Samaria community of Maoz Esther and a second town received orders to stop building, Defense Minister Ehud Barak gave a speech Thursday evening denying a connection between the events and United States pressure. "This eviction has nothing to do with the Americans or American pressure,” Barak said at a Labor party meeting. “Israeli society owes it to itself to evacuate unauthorized outposts.”

"A society that wants to survive and to abide by the law cannot allow citizens to undermine the state's authority,” he added.

All unauthorized Jewish communities will be quickly dismantled, Barak warned. Security forces will continue to demolish buildings that were built without permission, he said.

The year and a half-old town of Maoz Esther in Samaria was destroyed on Thursday morning, shortly after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu returned from meeting with United States President Barack Obama in Washington. During Netanyahu's stay, American officials called on Israel to freeze Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria and to demolish unauthorized communities.

Residents of Maoz Esther began to rebuild their homes shortly after security forces left the area.

Also on Thursday, state officials announced that the IDF Civil Administration had issued orders forcing a halt to construction of 11 homes in the town of Neve Tzuf, in the Binyamin district. The orders were issued in response to an appeal from Peace Now, which labeled the buildings illegal.

Comment: Yes Mr. Barak you are correct when you say “Israeli society owes it to itself to evacuate unauthorized outposts.”

"A society that wants to survive and to abide by the law cannot allow citizens to undermine the state's authority,” he added. the difficulty with your rhetoric it is only aimed at Jewish Israelis. You do not engage in the same rhetoric nor the same actions when Arabs build illegally and there are far more of these illegal buildings than any Jewish number. Please reconcile your hypocrisy!