Settler leaders call for increased settlement building at funeral of slain rabbi

Local settler leaders urge Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to allow more Israeli construction in the West Bank after Rabbi Raziel Shevach was shot dead in a terror attack last night.

At his funeral in the Havat Gilad outpost, Samaria Rabbi Elyakim Levanon tells mourners it’s time for Netanyahu to revise his settlement polices so that “not every meter of building will be a debate.”

“Our dear Raziel, we are at a war and you are our sacrifice. A war of light against dark,” Levanon says. “And if you want to see a crack of light in the darkness, you are that light. You brought so much happiness to this world.

“We cannot continue in this way as if nothing happened. Mr prime minister, come here and look at this family in the eyes and you’ll see what you have to do,”| he adds.

In his remarks, Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan calls on Netanyahu to “restore national pride” and recognize Havat Gilad as an official settlement,

“Rabbi Raziel did not die from cancer, he died because he was a Jew living in Israel,” he says.

“I call on the government — we have the strongest army in the world — to return our national pride. Mr. Prime Minister, we call on you to recognize Havat Gilad as a regulated community that’s part of Israel.”

— Jacob Magid