Students at the Orot Etzion Girls School in Efrat began their second day of school with a lot of excitement and a bang. A bang and a boom actually.

After someone noticed a very suspicious looking object in the in the school’s lower courtyard, police and army services were called in the deal with the “Hefetz Hashud”.

Hundreds of students were evacuated to the park across the street, and the main entrance to the Zayit neighborhood was shut down as the police bomb disposal experts did their job.

Everyone chipped in to help. Efrat’s mayor, Oded Ravivi, was helping direct traffic, Efrat’s General Manager, Yehuda Shreiger, was coordinating with the security forces, while Uzi, an Orot Etzion school employee, played the violin to entertain the girls while they waited.

It took a half hour, and 2 controlled explosions to do it, but the demolitions experts managed to blow up the suspicious object, without anything more than a loud explosion and some even louder screaming from the girls (see the video below).

Oh. And what was the suspicious object that got blown up?

It turns out that a yoga teacher forgot to take one of her pillows after a class yesterday.

But its always better to be safe than sorry.

The IDF’s Etzion Brigade honored Yaacov Ehrlich, the security chief of Efrat in Gush Etzion, with the coveted “Ravshatz” (Security Chief) of the Year award.

Ehrlich has been Efrat’s security chief for only one year. He is the third security chief from Efrat to have received the award.

Hatzala of Judea and Samaria reports that Arabs were throwing stones at cars travelling along the road between Jerusalem and Gush Etzion. The rock throwing occurred near the El Hadr (Beitar) Junction on Highway 60.

No injuries were reported.

The Shas Sephardi said Monday it will file a complaint with the Supreme Court, charging the government with discrimination for removing the Haredi city of Beitar Illit in eastern, Gush Etzion, from its list of national priority communities that receive special benefits.

The government on Sunday placed 91 communties in Judea and Samaria on the list, most of them in areas near the Lebanese and Egyptian borders, and removed Beitar Illit from the list. Also taken off the list were Kiryat Malachi and Kiryat Gat, which are predominantly non-Haredi cities, and Harish, near the north-central Mediterranean Coast.

Shas party leader Aryeh Deri screamed “foul” and accused Jewish Home party chairman Naftali Bennett and Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid of tilting the list to protect communities where they are popular.

Although politics is blatant every time the government sneezes, Shas’ accusations are more for making political hay with its constituents than for making any logic.

One of the Jewish Home’s strongholds is the heavily Anglo-populated community of Efrat, in Gush Etzion, but it was removed from the list, a move that is not going to win applause for the Jewish Home party. Significantly the government placed on the list three former outposts that were legalized shortly before the last elections.

The new list favors communities that have not enjoyed substantial growth, as opposed to Beitar Illit, Kiryat Malachi, Kiryat Gat and Harish, all of which have grown handsomely thanks to government financial props.

It is an old story of getting used to being on the dole for so long that one forgets how to get along without it.

The Haredi community is learning, painfully because there is no other way, that forever does not last for eternity.

Real state entrepreneur and contractor Ya’akov Hershkop, born in the United States, cried to the Hebrew-language Yediot Acharonot’s website, “This government is simply cruel. There are no other words to describe what is happening here. Our public is being ‘attacked’ on a daily basis, and they are taking away the milk and bread we have left.

“We will have to take matters into our own hands and seek the support of the Diaspora Jews, who will stand by us. I have no choice but embark – together with the community leaders – on a fund-raising trip abroad. Maybe our salvation will come from there.” Yitzhak Ravitz, chairman of Degel HaTorah’s Beitar Illit chapter and the son of the late Haredi Knesset Member and deputy minister Avraham Ravitz, told the newspaper, “For every apartment here there are a hundred people who want to buy it, and suffocating this city is a foolish act. It is a stupid and irresponsible decision as far as the settlement enterprise is concerned. It is also malicious.”

One question the newspaper did not ask him: If there is such a big demand to live in Beitar Illit, why does it have to be on the national priority list?

Arabs threw 5 firebombs at IDF soldiers near the northern entrance of Efrat in Gush Etzion.

No other details are available at this point in time.

Palestinian Authority prime minister Rami Hamdallah’s vehicle collided with an Israel car on Saturday near Bethlehem, seriously injuring the Israeli driver and leaving his children and three PA security guards with light injures.

The PA vehicle was returning to Ramallah from a meeting with the governor of Hevron when his car collided with the Israeli car near Tekoa, east of Efrat. The family

A security vehicle escorting Palestinian Authority caretaker Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah collided with an Israel vehicle near Bethlehem on Saturday. The Israeli family – and four children – was rushed to Sha’arei Tzedek Hospital in Jerusalem, and the PA guards were sent to the hospital in near Beit Jalla.

Overnight, two firebombs were thrown at Israeli cars on road 60, south of the tunnel checkpoint, near the Beit Illit junction in Gush Etzion.

One of the drivers reported that he saw a terrorist about to throw the firebomb at them, so he hit the gas to get away. As a result, the firebomb landed just behind his car.

The army began searching the area for the attacker. During the search, a car was stopped and in it they found two sniper rifles, a homemade silencer, telescopic sites, bullets and magazine cartridges, according to a report by the Tazpit News Agency. Three Arabs were arrested.

There were other stone throwing and firebomb attacks in Judea and Samaria overnight.

Overnight, terrorists threw four firebombs at the Gush Etzion checkpoint near the tunnel entrance to Jerusalem.

There were no injuries or damage from the attacks.