Settler leaders launch tent protest over lack of security funds

Settler leaders launch a tent protest outside the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem Tuesday, demanding that Benjamin Netanyahu immediately allocate funds for bypass roads and other security improvements for residents over the Green Line.

Joined by two chairmen of local settler councils as well as members of bereaved families who lost loved ones in terror attacks that took place on West Bank roads, Samaria Regional Council chairman Yossi Dagan calls on Netanyahu to transfer the NIS 300 million ($85 million) that he had promised the settlers two years ago in the form of a security package.

“Mr. Prime Minister, you think that sourpusses exist only on the left. I regret to inform you that there are another half a million sourpusses in Judea and Samaria as well,” says Dagan, a reference to Netanyahu’s Monday speech opening the Knesset’s winter session in which he labeled his opponents “sourpusses” for downplaying the country’s many successes.

“(West Bank) residents do not receive the basic right to security. The nationalist camp won the elections (promising) to pave these roads and build up the settlements,” Dagan says sternly.

Draped across their protest-tent is a black sign with the biblical verse, “do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor.”

— Jacob Magid