Bat Ayin: 'Won't Live in Ghetto'

Gil Ronen
Arutz 7

Adam Nativ, whose 13-year-old brother Shlomo was murdered by an Arab with a pickaxe on April 2, said Sunday that the incident near Bat Ayin on Saturday was not a Jewish “revenge mission,” as media reports have claimed.
Four residents of the Gush Etzion community were arrested following clashes with Arabs from a nearby village. Arab sources said two Arabs suffered light to moderate wounds from gunshots.


Nativ says that the two off-duty soldiers who were arrested following the incident should have been acclaimed as heroes. “We have a hill that will be named ‘Arzei Shlomo’ in memory of Erez Levanon and my brother Shlomo Nativ, may Hashem avenge their blood,” he explained. [Arzei Shlomo means, literally, “the cedars of Solomon.” Arzei is a plural form of erez, and is a reference to Erez Levanon, a Bat Ayin resident who was murdered two years ago while praying near his home. Shlomo – the original Hebrew form of Solomon – is the name of the child who was murdered last month – ed

“We ascend to that place regularly, and obey strict limitations issued by the security forces. This time, when we made the trip, we took a short-cut through the ravine on the way back. The residents of the village woke up and came at the hikers. The shooting was only carried out after the Arabs began to run towards them in a crazed way and throwing rocks. This was not a revenge expedition and there ws no intention of waking them up with gunshots,” he added.

The brother of the slain boy denied that the Jewish side provoked the Arabs. “People expect that if we dare venture out of our homes we will only do so within the confines of the ghetto and then shut ourselves in for fear of the next pogrom. This is not our attitude. We are supposed to live in a national home,” he said.

'The old arrangement has ended'

“If Arabs jump and throw rocks because people pass near their homes then that is a matter for the security forces. The arrangement whereby we do not venture outside the community ended when my brother was cruelly murdered within the community’s limits.”

“All of the village’s residents came at the hikers with bloodlust, screams, shouts and rock throwing. If we had not reacted we would now be talking after an additional funeral,” Nativ said. The IDF’s claim that the gunfire was carried out without justification was a lie, he claimed. “The army forces arrived late and did not see what happened there. The gunfire was only carried out after the hikers’ lives were in danger.”

As for security arrangements in the community following his brother’s murder, Nativ said that so far, there was nothing but talk of change. “Other than a heightened presence of security forces, which – as we learned yesterday – is not necessarily in our favor; nothing has been done,” he said.