The storm of planting in the Bedouin diaspora arose today (Tuesday) from an unexpected direction: Did the Likud Knesset members who went down to the Negev in protest of Ra’am’s opposition violate the halakhah when trees were planted there?
The situation was exploited in the coalition to get down on the Likud members who keep most of the tradition. “I heard that in the midst of the year of the Shemita in 1952, the members of the ‘national camp’ went to plant trees in the Land of Israel. What happens to the opposition, to quarrel with Ra’am before the laws of Shemita? ” MK Moshe Kinley Tor-Paz from the Yesh Atid party wondered. He was joined by MK Yulia Malinowski from Yisrael Beiteinu, who said: “Wait a minute … but what about the laws of the Shemita year.”
However, voices condemning the incident did not remain the lot of the coalition when MK Uri Maklev of Torah Judaism also attacked his friends, claiming that “the act of planting trees now in the middle of the shemita year in the south is strictly prohibited according to Halacha !. Protest does not allow harm in the year of the shemita! “
According to the KKL-JNF website, planting in the Negev is permitted by halakhic permit, but only by non-Jews. “Individually approved by the rabbinate,” it said.
Regarding idle plantings for the purpose of seizing land, Rabbi Yehuda Amichai, head of the Torah and time Institute, tells us that “if this is the only way to save land that Arabs want to take over – this is only possible by idle trees in the bloc.” However he clarifies that it is better for this to be done by a foreigner. “We would certainly prefer in the first place that wrongdoers do it, but if there are no Gentiles in the case of an idle tree that was in a block of earth and transferred to another land in that block (without the blockade disintegrating) one can plant in the new place even by Jews, as allowed “To preserve the lands of the Land of Israel that others will not take over, it is clear that this should not be allowed for political purposes.”
Rabbi Amichai gives an example from the period of austerity, according to which “in 1952 there was a similar case. In that year there was a great aliyah of Jews from all countries, there was great austerity, “. He also mentioned that “seven years ago, the terrorists from Gaza would shoot in the direction of the train that traveled from Ashkelon to the cities of Netivot and Sderot.
During the visit to the place, MK Avi Dichter said: “As is customary with us, ‘this is the small – it will be big.’ The struggle here is between criminal people and the state. The criminals want to take over areas that are not related to the locality and the state.
It should be noted that the Yoav unit’s fighters, Border Police and MFA fighters of the Israel Police, secured the activities of the Jewish National Fund in the Moleda area in the south during the day. During the operation, 18 suspects were arrested for throwing stones at police officers and disturbing the order, and they were taken for questioning.