Hundreds of Jewish patriots, including many who had been evicted from the two Jewish villages in Northern Samaria, Homesh and Sa-Nur, back in 2005, on Wednesday night, Israel’s 68th Independence Day, went back to revisit their demolished homes, only to be blocked by military and police forces.
The large group ran into several barricades which had been positioned by IDF soldiers in every possible access road to Sa-Nur, including roads leading from local Arab villages.
The event was planned as a combination celebration/protest, demanding to let Jews return to their old homes, from which they had been exiled by the Sharon government, with tacit approval from then Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The expulsion of Jews from north Samaria was done at the same time as thousands more Jews were forced out of the Gaza Strip.
The name Sa-Nur is a Hebrew paraphrase of the name of the nearby Arab village Sanur. The Hebrew name was proposed by the late composer/songwriter Naomi Shemer, and it means Carry a Light. The community was established in October 1977 and destroyed on August 23, 2005.
The families and their supporters who tried to return home argued that many who at the time supported the “disengagement” — the laundered name for the forced expulsion of more than 8,000 Jews — today recognize it was an abysmal failure that led to three consecutive wars in Gaza. “There’s no reason, from a security or a moral point of view, not to let the people of Homesh and Sa-Nur come home.”
Indeed, what would better express Israel’s independence than allowing the thriving communities of northern Samaria thrive again.
MK Bezalel Smotrich, who participated in the interrupted event, issued a statement saying, “There is no better fitting day than Independence Day for returning to the settlement of Sa-Nur to celebrate there our state’s independence. No demand is more righteous than the demand of these families. With God’s help, we will merit once more to return to our settlements and renew our independence across the Land of Israel. Happy Independence Day.”