Silent protests against Palestinian Authority terror will be held throughout Judea and Samaria during the funeral of terror shooting victims of Rabbi Eitam and Naama Henkin Friday morning. Morning prayers also were held on highways.

The procession will begin at 11 a.m., and the burials will be In Jerusalem.

The Women in Green organization has asked those who will not be at the funerals to stand at various intersections and hold Israeli flags.

The silent protests will be along Highway 60, which runs from northern Samaria through Gush Etzion, Kiryat Arba-Hebron and the southern Hebron Hills.

Those who cannot reach highway 60 are asked to stand in unison near their communities.

The Women in Green organization reacted furiously to Tuesday morning’s violent expulsion of hundreds of people who encamped in two Beit El buildings slated for demolition and charged the government with a anti-Jew and pro-Arab policy.

The group stated:

Hundreds of thousands of illegal Arab buildings are erected throughout the Land of Israel. The Israel Police does not come near them, fearing that this would ‘ignite the entire Middle East,’ but against the wonderful Jewish youth, who are about to enlist into all of the elite units in the IDF they use clubs, pepper spray, kicks and arrests.

Why are the Arab women on the Temple Mount still wailing and screaming freely? Why does the law work only in favor of the Arabs?

The answer is that our leaders have still not resolved in their own minds the basic question of to whom the Land of Israel belongs.

The Women in Green called on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu “to show the same strength that you displayed against the expansion of Iran in Judea and Samaria and then your work will be complete.”

For the first time ever, there will be no police restrictions in this year’s evening walk around the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem — a 20-year tradition begun and maintained by the Women in Green watchdog organization.

This year thousands of participants are expected to join leading public figures and rabbis in the annual Tisha B’Av event. Deputy Defense Minister MK Rabbi Eli Ben Dahan has said he will participate along with MK Bezalel Smotrich, Professor Arye Eldad, Rabbi Yosef Medelevitch and Arye Klein.

The event will begin in Jerusalem’s centrally-located Independence Park with a public reading of the Scroll of Lamentations. Immediately afterwards, the walk itself will begin via the New Gate, Damascus Gate, Herod’s Gate and the Lion’s Gate, where participants are to gather to hear speeches by the public figures leading the walk.

The heads of Women in Green, Yehudit Katsover and Nadia Matar, note that in past years there were attempts to reroute the walk away from areas determined to be foci of friction with the Muslim population, and in some years there were attempts to have the walk cancelled altogether.

None of the previous walks resulted in any confrontations, however.

This year, the police refrained from any imposing any restrictions and the Women in Green organizers said they were pleased. “Especially now, a massive Jewish presence in the walk is important, which expresses the longing for full Israeli sovereignty in all parts of Jerusalem, as well as in all parts of the Land of Israel,” the two organizers said.

The walk initiated 21 years ago with a few hundred participants has gained great momentum and strength over the years; thousands of participants now gather from every part of Israel each year and even from abroad, along with many public figures.

“It has become a tradition that expresses national pride and aspiration for Israeli sovereignty and the rebuilding of the Holy Temple,” the two women said.

The gathering for the reading of the Megilla in Gan Ha’Atzma’ut (Independence Park) will begin at 9:30 pm Saturday night (July 25) and the walk itself will commence at 10:30 pm.

For further details contact Yehudit Katsover at 050-716-1818 or Nadia Matar at 050-550-0834. May we all merit to see the Tisha B’Av fast transformed to a feast of joy!

The Women in Green movement is pained by the great loss to the People of Israel upon the passing of Rabbi Moshe Levinger, father of renewed Jewish settlement throughout the Land of Israel after the Six Day War.

Rabbi Levinger blazed the trail for glorious settlement throughout Judea and Samaria; he was the driving spirit that inspired the great movement together with his wife Rabbanit Miriam. The trailblazers of settlement in Binyamin and Samaria were his students.

His faith, courage, audacity and the love for the People of Israel resulted in the first Jewish community in Judea. He established a city that carries all of the banners of Zionism: settlement, absorption of immigrants and security. Thanks to him, Kiryat Arba-Hevron is a symbol of harmonious life among religious and secular, immigrants and long-time citizens from all sectors of the People.

Rabbi Levinger was a symbol of simplicity, always traveled by hitchhiking or by bus, despised materialism, was always on a mission, always active for the People of Israel and the Land of Israel. He did not engage in small talk, everything always revolved around the great goal – the Land of Israel.

He died on the eve of the anniversary of the liberation of Jerusalem. He always corrected us and said: the liberation of the Land of Israel.

A very great spiritual presence, who knew how to combine the vision with reality, has gone from us.

May we be comforted in the building of the Land of Israel

Yehudit Katsover and Nadia Matar

And the entire Women in Green family

In Giv’at Oz veGa’on in Gush Etzion, celebrations were held for Simchat Beit HaShoeva.

Friday a Simchat Beit HaShoeva event was held at Giv’at Oz veGa’on, next to Gush Etzion Junction. This hilltop site was established by Women in Green in memory of the three youths who were abducted, Gil-Ad, Ayal and Naftali (Ga’on).

Both Brigade Commander Col. Amit Yamin and Racheli Frenkel, mother of Naftali, HY”D, spoke at this event.

Photo by: Gershon Ellison

Col. Yamin blessed the hundreds of celebrants who arrived in their masses, from all areas of the Land and he remarked on the uniqueness of the holiday of Sukkot, which expresses the “joy in humility and the joy in austerity”. Relating to the military’s and his personal coping with the event of the abduction of the youths he said: “the previous (Jewish) year ended with closing a circle that was important for the entire People of Israel. We brought the vile murderers to account. This was a task of primary importance for us. We did not rest, and we worked with all of the security forces and intelligence bodies until we entrapped them”.

Col. Yamin told of how “approximately four months ago I woke up and understood that we are in the midst of a military operation with national significance. As the hours passed we were shocked to see the dimensions of the event and during 18 days we labored energetically with all of the combined forces. Unfortunately we found them lifeless and this caused us the bitter feeling that we had lost”, said Yamin, but immediately continued, describing the empowerment that he felt from the families of the abducted, especially in the difficult and emotional days. Yamin told of the most significant sentence that he heard from Avi, the father of Naftali, HY”D, during the week. “Avi told me ‘you have brought us back to life’. I did not understand what he meant and he explained that he said that ‘if we had had to continue in that same situation without knowing for sure and with the sense of lack of clarity, it is hard for me to say how we could have coped with it. Now we have brought them to a grave among the People of Israel and we know how to continue from here’”.

“The three families were, for us, a source of strength and a model that gave us the ability to continue in the task of defending the citizens of Israel along with the efforts to entrap the abductors. We came to a level of solidarity and a unity that will stay with us for a long time. It was from this solidarity that the IDF and the entire nation entered Operation Protective Edge. The spirit that blew into the sails of the war effort is what brought it to its successes, and led the troops to the places and achievements that we reached”, said Yamin and remarked that this is the proof of the living link between the army and the People. “There is a tremendous sense of togetherness, a sense of great joy, of removing any doubts on a broad national level”.

Immediately after Col. Yamin’s words, as he was leaving the site to do other tasks in defense of the sector, “in order to continue to enable everyone to be here and travel here in safety”, in his words, Racheli Frenkel spoke, eager to express her appreciation and admiration for the fighters of the IDF and its commanders, as well as Col. Yamin, personally. About his words regarding the importance of humility, Frenkel explained that this is what was required of the commanders during the days of the search for the three youths, “humble enough to be able to hear others, to consult and act in order to find the boys”.

Economics Minister and Bayit Yehudi chairman Naftali Bennett praised the government today (Monday, Sept. 1) during a visit to Gush Etzion for its decision to answer terror with Jewish expansion.

Bennett visited Yeshiva Mekor Chaim in Gush Etzion on the first day of Israel’s school year Monday. The yeshiva, located in Kfar Etzion, was attended by two of the three teens martyred by Hamas terrorists this past June.

“Until a couple of months ago, you students here at Mekor Chaim were regular students. Today you are the spearhead. You now bear extra weight upon your shoulders, the “mekor chaim” – the source of life ‘’ of Israel,” he told the students.

“Yesterday the government made two decisions – one which builds up and strengthens the Gaza frontier, and the second which builds up and strengthens Gush Etzion,” he added.

Bennett praised the government’s decision yesterday to designate a tract of land near Alon Shevut, not far from the yeshiva, as state land. The lot is located close to the bus stop and hitchhiking post from where the three teens were kidnapped and subsequently murdered.

“What we did yesterday was an act of Zionism,” Bennett explained as he toured the area. “Building is our reply to murder.”

Women in Green organization leaders Nadia Matar and Yehudit Katzover also praised the decision.

“The Defense Minister has allocated 4,000 dunams for the city of Geva’ot – congratulations! We hope that this is indicative of additional positive steps in the future, not only as a reaction to the murder of Jews but as a policy – but the high tones of protest from America, the world, the left, and the Arabs reveal the depth of the problem of Judea and Samaria.

“If the government of Israel does not apply sovereignty to the expanses of Eretz Israel, this question will remain open to negotiations and endless disputes. Israeli Sovereignty must be applied, and realized by the state maintaining law and order for all its citizens – including the Beduin, the Arabs, and others. The time has come to initiate and once and for all apply Israeli sovereignty over Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley,” they said.

Israelis heard the news early Monday morning, June 30. The search was over. Yes, the search was over, but the boys were dead.

The response throughout the land was palpable: the air of hope and unity was punctured, replaced by raw anguish.

But by 2:00 the following morning, some Israeli women responded by taking action. Their action was not one of vigilantism, nor was it to raise their fists at the intractable enemy.

Yehudit Katsover and Nadia Matar, the indefatibable Women in Green, along with a group of supporters, went to a lovely little hill just off from the Gush Etzion Junction – the site of such despair – and began clearing the area.

Since July 1, Kassover and Matar have been joined by dozens and dozens of Israelis and of visitors. They are reclaiming a bit of land that has been set aside (the site has long had official approval for tourism development), and are developing it as a functioning and vibrant tourist site.

They also renamed the hill. Previously the site was known as Givat Oz (Hill of Strength). The new name incorporates the initials of the three boys who were kidnapped and murdered – Gilad, Eyal and Naftali – and the acronym created also happens to mean great wisdom. The site is now known as Givat Oz v’Gaon.

Nadia Matar, that steadfast soldier in the war to reclaim the land, spoke with The Jewish Press about the new site.

“This is a Zionist response of the Jewish people to the incomprehensible act of killing our boys,” Matar said. “Our enemies think they will scare us away with their acts of terrorism, but they are wrong. We cling to the land ever more strongly in response to their efforts.”

The area is being cleared by hand. People show up on a daily basis to help move the rocks, clean the lone remaining stone building, and set up picnic tables for meals and chairs for lectures and services.

people came to help clear the land at Givat Oz v’Gaon.

“This will be a camping site,” Matar says. “This past weekend, the first of Givat Oz v’Gaon, we had already 70 or 80 people who brought tents to spend Shabbat here. The residents of the nearby kibbutz Migdal Oz came to join us for seudat shlishit (a meal before evening services) and swelled the crowd to between 200 and 300 people.”

The residents of Migdal Oz came by a road that connects the back of the kibbutz to the Gush Etzion junction. This is also significant, Matar explains, because for quite a long time the kibbutzniks did not use the road as there had been frequent attacks by Arabs from nearby towns.

“Now, with a strong Jewish presence between the kibbutz and the Gush junction, this road is also being ‘reclaimed’ as our response to terrorism,” Matar shared with a sense of satisfaction.

Ruthie Lieberman lives in nearby Alon Shvut. Her home was used by people who participated in the searches for the boys; she and her family lived through it with great intensity.

“The families got up from shiva yesterday,” Lieberman said. “And I found myself on this site today, helping to clear the land, to plant new trees – the ultimate act of positive Zionism.”

Lieberman and her daughter, Merav, planted one of the three trees planted in memory of the three boys.

Ruth Lieberman and her daughter, Merav, plant a tree in Eyal Yifrach’s memory at the new site created to honor the boys, Givat Oz v’Gaon.