Lieberman Submits Proposal to Legalize Havat Gilad

State efforts to provide legal and security solutions for the residents of Havat Gilad in response to the terror attack there last week continued on Sunday, as Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman went to the cabinet with a proposal to retroactively legalize the outpost and build new housing for those on disputed land.

“Security forces are pursuing the terrorists who murdered Rabbi Raziel Shevach, Hy”d,” said Lieberman in a statement. “I feel the pain and sorrow of his wife Yael and his six children yblc”t. I have instructed the heads of the Defense Ministry to assist the family and the residents of Havat Gilad. I have also ordered an examination of the possibility of legalizing Havat Gilad and making it a community among the other settlements in Yehudah and Shomron.”

The government “should advance the establishment of a new town on Israeli land in Shomron. The town will receive municipal services from the Shomron Regional Council, will be given its own unique town emblem, and will absorb among other people, residents currently living on private [Arab or disputed] land in the area,” read Lieberman’s proposal, according to Arutz Sheva.

Meanwhile, Moshe Shevach, the father of Rabbi Raziel Shevach, spoke of his son, the family and the community in Havat Gilad:

He said that praise for his son heard during the shiva was not exaggerated. “All the stories are true. [Raziel] was a person who knew how to apply in his life the rare combination of Torah, kindness, love of people and love of the Land of Israel…I don’t say this for its own sake, but so that [these lessons] can be incorporated into people’s lives.”

Shevach also had praise for his daughter-in-law: “She stood behind him and [enabled him] to do all these things. It is not easy for a person to be absent from home when he has six young children at home. Sometimes when he studied for exams and was absent for two weeks from home and did not return until he finished the test it was not easy. There is no doubt that Yael has great merits. It will be difficult for her, but I believe that with her strength and our assistance, as well as that of the entire Jewish people, she will overcome this. It is difficult, but she will overcome it with her head held high.”

He spoke, as others have in recent days, of the primitive conditions in Havat Gilad which, as an unauthorized outpost, was not provided with normal infrastructure.

“The place had no lighting. We had to wash our hands from dishes as if we were in the stone age. It was hard for us to accept this, but in the end, not only did we accept it, but all his brothers are living in [Yehudah and Shomron]. We have no regrets about that.

“We are not asking for revenge. We are asking for rebirth. And the rebirth we are asking for is to give life to this place,” said Shevach.

“As Rabbi Raziel lived, so too should this place live. There is no problem with the lands here, as most of it is privately-owned and purchased by Moshe Zar. In the Bedouin communities, there is electricity and water, even if the community is not recognized. The minimum is electricity and water, and only now is the prime minister – and we thank him for this – giving an order along with the defense minister, to examine the status of the settlement. We would be happy if this were not merely a declaration but was translated into action,” he told Arutz Sheva.