The government “celebrated” the 10th anniversary of the expulsion of Jews from Gaza and four Shomron communities early Tuesday morning by staging a pre-emptive sweep on hundreds of protesters who had barred themselves up in two buildings slated for demolition Thursday.

The High Court has ordered the destruction of the “Dreinoff” housing project, named after their developer, after accepting Arab and leftists’ petitions that they were erected without permits.

The court’s decision overruled the Civil Administration’s retroactive approval of the building project.

Tuesday morning’s clash was a duplicate of the expulsion 10 years and two days ago and again a year later in Amona.

Black-clad police along with Border Police used riot dispersing methods, including pepper spray, to easily but violently overcome the protesters, mostly youth, and took over the building.

More than 50 demonstrators were detained.

The military explained:

In accordance with the High Court of Justice ruling and with the goal of preparing for the evacuation and demolition of the skeleton of the ‘ Dreinoff ‘ buildings in the community of Beit El, the decision was made to deploy a Border Police force in the complex earlier this morning.

In order to prevent [settlers] from barricading themselves in the buildings and thus reduce the tension and violence in the area so as to enable the demolition to proceed as planned, a Border Police force was placed in the building.

Knesset Member Moti Yogev, whose arm was broken in the brutal police violence at Amona nine years ago, warned that the “if the Dreinoff buildings will be demolished, the court will remain in Israel but it is not certain that there will be a government,” meaning that he might urge the Bayit Yehudi (Jewish Home) party to tear down the coalition.

Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel also warned that the government is in danger and accused Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon of breaking his promise the day before that police would not pounce on the protesters.

“Been there, done that.”

The same promise was made by then-Defense Minister Ehud Barak several years ago hours before he ordered the police to violently remove Jews from a building in Hebron. Eventually, the courts accepted appeals from Jews that the building was legally purchased

The Beit El Regional Council is planning to appeal to the High Court this week to cancel the planned demolition.

Below are four videos and three Tazpit News Agency photos of the clashes that began before dawn Tuesday, They are more suitable for viewing on Tisha B’Av.

The Cabinet Sunday morning approved amendments to the conversion reform law of the last administration and returned more power to Hareidim, over the objections of coalition partner Bayit Yehudi (Jewish Home).

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu ordered Bayit Yehudi chairman Naftali Bennett to vote for the changes, alleging that they were part of the coalition agreement with the Shas and Yehadut HaTorah (United Torah Judaism) parties.

Bennett said at the Cabinet session, “I did not agree to this in coalition negotiations,” but the Prime Minister shot back:

All of the agreements obligate everyone.

Likud Parliamentary Group Chairman Ze’ev Elkin stepped into the fray and confirmed that Bennett opposed rolling back the reform, and the Cabinet passed the changes with Bennett and Bayit Yehudi Cabinet member opposing it.

Avigdor Lieberman, chairman of the Yisrael Beiteinu party that is not in the coalition, also voted against it.

The amendments wreck all of the efforts in the previous government to take conversion out of the hands of Hareidi rabbis an allow local rabbinical courts to decide on the delicate issue that has the most impact on 300,000 Russian immigrants who are not Jewish according to Jewish law. Hareidi courts generally are far less willing to accept conversions than are national religious rabbis.

The Cabinet also transferred authority over the country’s rabbinical courts from the Justice Ministry to the Ministry of Religious Services, which is headed by another Shas MK, David Azoulay.

Refusal to accept reforms means that it is more likely that all of the children and future generations of the immigrants will not be Jewish. If the woman marry Jewish men, there would be even more non-Jews in Israel and would create complications that could affect their children’s future.

The need for Prime Minister Netanyahu to form a coalition forced him to accept the Shas and UTJ demands to put the conversion process back in the hands of Hareidi courts. Under the new amendments local courts still can process conversions but only with the approval of the Chief Rabbinate.

Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef, son of the late Rav Ovadia Yosef, is part of the Shas movement that his father founded, so it is no wonder that the Shas party insisted on eliminating reforms.

Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau also opposed the reforms.

It only is a matter of time before reform once again will undo the Hareidi establishment that never misses an opportunity to forego bridging gaps with the non-Hareidi population and bring people closer to Judaism, simply because they insist on such a rigid approach to religion and concentration of power that pave the way for a backlash that could weaken Orthodox Jewish influence in Israel.

Veteran Likud Minister Without Portfolio Benny Begin has resigned from the new Netanyahu government (not the Knesset) after coalition jockeying refused to yield him a seat at the table.

Begin quit on the heels of the ongoing battle over whether the cabinet could stretch to allow an additional seat in the already expanded government.

Coalition partners refused to allow the Likud to add the extra cabinet seat for Begin, who submitted his letter of resignation to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Friday.

The resignation takes effect today (Sunday), 48 hours from the time of submission.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat is the latest politician to let off steam against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his acrobatics in rounding out a coalition Cabinet.

The Prime Minister had promised on Jerusalem Unification Day that he would head the Jerusalem Affairs Ministry and work hand-in-hand with Barkat instead of letting someone else head the post.

Like all election promises, this one also was dependent on “other things being equal.” With the thinnest Knesset coalition majority possible, Netanyahu has performed enough juggling and tightrope-walking acts to qualify for the circus.

Barkat did not take into account that there are not enough Cabinet ministries to satisfy Likud bigwigs, even after Netanyahu split a couple – ministries, not the bigwigs – into two different departments…

He placated Likud MK Ze’ev Elkin by appointing him Minster of Jerusalem Affairs after being forced to take the Strategic Affairs post away from him in order to bring Gilad Erdan back into the Cabinet.

Erdan was not satisfied with the Public Affairs Ministry without having the additional responsibility for Strategic Affairs. Netanyahu yielded, set off another round of musical chairs and lit the fuse that blew Barkat off his mayoral throne.

“Jerusalem is not a consolation prize,” said Barkat, contradicting the fact that everything is a consolation prize in the current coalition.

He charged Prime Minister Netanyahu with wasting the taxpayers’ money for the sake of “narrow political considerations” that he thinks will hamper the development of Jerusalem.

Time will tell if he is right or wrong, and he probably is wrong.

As important as Jerusalem is to Barkat, as a politician, his own future is no less important. Doubling as major of Jerusalem and co-minister of Jerusalem Affairs would advance his political career.

Barkat has the right to be angry, but he has forgotten that as a politician, survival is the top priority, and Netanyahu considers his own survival more important than Barkat’s.

120 Knesset voted today on whether or not to allow the coalition to expand beyond its 18 minister limit.

In a tight vote of 61 to 59, the Knesset passed the proposal’s first reading.

The proposal will require two more votes to allow Netanyahu to add more ministers.

The last Cabinet session of the outgoing government unanimously approved Sunday morning adding a number of ministries to satisfy demands of coalition partners in the new government.

If all of the ministers competing for the status of bang called “Minister” had their way, there would be approximately 61 ministries in the new government, one for every Knesset Member.

The Knesset later will approve the expansion, which will cost taxpayers a hundred million dollars.

Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein said Sunday that he might rule that the coalition is not legal if there were specific agreements to allot a specific amount of money to different parties for earmarked projects.

Israel governments have a tradition of buying off coalition partners with promises for money for their pet projects.

Druze Likud MK Ayoub Kara has demanded PM Netanyahu make him a minister, or else.

Kara said that this coalition must include a Druze minister to let everyone know the Druze are an integral part of the country.

Kara later clarified that he did not threaten to take down the government.

Kara first entered the Knesset in 2003, and has been in and out depending on the fortunes of the Likud.