El-Matan Residents Demand Safer Road After Firebombing

Residents of the Shomron community of El-Matan, where Arab terrorists last week firebombed a car, badly injuring an 11-year-old girl, are demanding the reopening of a more secure road, Arutz Sheva reported.

In a letter to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, residents said that the road they are currently forced to use is more dangerous than the one they seek to reopen. They noted that the route has been targeted by terrorists numerous times before this.

The road they claim is safer was closed by the IDF after local Arabs filed a petition with the High Court, claiming that the road crosses land they own. The Court is still considering that case, and after 10 years the Arabs have not yet produced any proof of ownership.

Instead of traveling just a few hundred yards on a safe and stable road, the residents wrote, “we are forced to travel on a narrow 3-mile road that hangs over a cliff, without shoulders. Only one vehicle can travel in a single direction at one time, and there is no room to make a U-turn — and that was the reason Avner Shapira did not turn around when he saw the terrorists. IDF soldiers also cannot see most of the road from their lookout.”

While the issue of the road is being fought, Ayala Shapira, 11, remains in serious but stable condition as she begins the difficult process of recovering from extensive burns suffered in the attack.

On Sunday, she received a visit from Yerushalayim Deputy Mayor Dov Kalmanovich, who survived a firebombing during the first intifada. Kalmanovich suffered burns over  75 percent of his body.

“As chairperson of The Terror Victims Association, I visited hundreds of families of wounded and bereaved families. But this incident is closer to my heart, even more than usual,” said Kalmanovich.

“I wish her a full recovery in the very near future,” Kalmanovich told her parents.

The public is asked to continue davening for the complete recovery of Ayelet bat Rut.

This article appeared in print on page 6 of the December 30th, 2014 edition of Hamodia.