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Settlers violating the building freeze at the West Bank settlement of Efrat. (Photo by Haaretz)

Settlers, rightist MKs hold emergency talks on thwarting freeze

On Saturday, about 200 people led by the chairman of the Yesha council of settlements, Danny Dayan, and MKs Tzipi Hotovely and Uri Ariel convened an emergency meeting in the West Bank settlement of Ofra to discuss tactics to thwart the moratorium.

The chairman of the Binyamin regional council suggested, among other things, that "everyone begin building. Add a shed, and make it white so that the satellites will pick it up. Build new structures, for B'nei Akiva, for whatever, build them far from the gates so that it will take the inspectors a long time to reach them."

The government has recently deployed dozens of new inspectors to the West Bank in efforts to enforce the freeze, and has taken satellite photos of the region in order to compare with later images and pick out new structures built in violation of the freeze.

The Binyamin regional council head added that "construction should be carried out on a hill, so that the tractors won't be able to demolish them, and they will have to be demolished by hand. Everyone should participate in the construction. We don't want a situation where only one person is building, making it easier [for the authorities] to pick on them."

During the meeting, the Binyamin settler council handed out pamphlets with further suggestions on how to fight the freeze, including legal, political and media tactics. The council also suggested that the settlers refrain from reporting to Israel Defense Forces reserve duty for as long as the freeze is in effect, and to prevent new recruits from enlisting to mandatory service during that time.

Dayan commented on these tactics, objecting to the use of IDF service in the protest efforts. "We don't deserve a double punishment: not to be able to protect the residents of Sderot as IDF soldiers, as well as a construction freeze.

"There are people who say that we are violating the law," he continued. "To them I say: We will disobey the order, we have a moral duty to do so. This is so anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist that we are willing to pay the price. There are orders that we will disobey."

By Chaim Levinson and Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondents, and Haaretz Service

Haaretz