Hundreds March in Protest of Terror Wave

Gush Etzion (TPS) -The heads of Judea and Samaria’s municipalities and regional councils led a protest march along Route 60 in Gush Etzion on the afternoon of Tuesday, March 15.

More than 500 Judea and Samaria residents joined the march to protest the continuing wave of terror in the region and what organizers viewed as a weak response by the Israeli government.

“Our march is a call to the prime minister and the defense minister’s government to return the deterrence,” Malachi Levinger, head of the Kiryat Arba municipality, told Tazpit Press Service (TPS).

“We cannot tolerate a reality in which Jews are afraid to drive or go outside in Gush Etzion, Hebron, Jaffa, and Jerusalem. Being afraid of Palestinians who wake up in the morning and decide to go out and murder Jews,” Levinger added.

The Judea and Samaria regional council and municipality heads who organized the protest were joined by MK Bezalel Smotrich of Habayit Hayehudi. Smotrich endorsed their demand from the government, in which Smotrich himself serves.

Protesters called on the Israeli government to implement a stricter enforcement and defense policy in Judea and Samaria.

“The policy of the Israeli government in the north and on the Gaza border is, ‘If there is no peace and quiet for Jews, there will be no peace and quiet for the other side.’ We demand that the same policy be implemented in Judea and Samaria,” Har Hevron Regional Council head Yochai Damari told TPS.

Protest organizers said the government should respond with harsh military action after every terrorist attack and block roads and traffic routes out of Palestinian villages.