Josh Hasten
JNS, Jan. 4, 2023
“… a game of cat and mouse has taken place since that time between the IDF and former residents and supporters, with the Homesh Yeshivah operating inside caravans and tents on the site, and troops sent in time and time again over the years by the Defense Ministry’s Civil Administration to take it down.”
Israel’s new government is committed to strengthening the Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria and is therefore contesting a Supreme Court order to evacuate Homesh, Finance Minister and Minister within the Defense Ministry Bezalel Smotrich told JNS.
“The government is changing directions and supports the yeshivah in Homesh. As we promised, we will do everything in order for the communities in Judea and Samaria to grow and flourish,” he said.
Israel’s Supreme Court, sitting as the High Court of Justice, this week gave the new government a three-month extension to explain why the Homesh Yeshivah in northern Samaria should be allowed to remain intact, despite previous court opinions stating that the community of Homesh was built on private Arab land.
Government lawmakers view the court’s postponement as a potential game changer and the first step towards the partial reversal of the 2005 Disengagement Plan Implementation Law under which Israel unilaterally evacuated the 21 Jewish communities in Gaza and four communities in northern Samaria: Homesh, Sa-Nur, Ganim and Kadim.
The yeshivah in Homesh, then called the Har Shalom Yeshivah, was moved to Mitzpe Eshtemoa in Judea, but a renewed Homesh Yeshivah was founded in 2007. Source