The way to Homesh lies open for those who are determined to return. Winding back roads to the symbolic ruins are usually only traversed by Arab vehicles seeking to bypass IDF checkpoints. Now even the local Arabs yell “Homesh! Homesh!” out their windows when they see Jews driving tentatively toward the great hilltop. Email subscribers, click here to view story including photos Forks in the back roads Homesh from a distance Homesh, located 20 miles due east of Netanya, towers high above everything else in the region. Activists come via different routes each time. “There is no getting lost,” says one. The hikes up the mountain last Chanukah , over Passover , on Independence Day and for special occasions now and then have put Homesh at the center of the map for Land of Israel youth. The activists are part of a grassroots movement, Homesh First, that has set as its goal the rebuilding of the town of Homesh as a first step in rectifying the damage of Ariel Sharon's 2005 Disengagement Plan, in which Israel demolished 25 of its own towns with the stated purpose of improving its security situation. The curbs in Homesh are still painted blue and white to indicate where parking is permitted. The only vehicles in town, though, are jeeps driven by those seeking to resettle the northern Samarian town and police vehicles seeking to prevent them from doing so; neither are concerned with parking regulations. "Home Sweet Homesh" Steps that once led home Rows of dead bushes, unwatered after those who planted them were dragged off the towering hilltop two years ago, divide the yards without houses. Other trees and bushes continue to flourish, their deep roots drawing water from the underground springs that nurture the green hills even during the dry summer months. Home, Bittersweet Home Alice Zeeman was born in Munich, Germany. She moved to Israel and made Homesh her home several years ago. Her daughter Hitta was born there and prior to the Disengagement she thought, she would never leave. Alice, her husband and her two children were forcibly evicted by IDF soldiers; dragged from their home and told they would never be able to return. Alice Zeeman and her son at their campsite in Homesh Until a few weeks ago, they lived in a refugee camp of sorts – caravan homes clustered in a corner of Shavei Shomron, the closest Jewish town to Homesh. Together with several other families expelled from the town, they kept their homes intentionally temporary, waiting for the moment they knew would come; the moment of return. After several dry-runs, the core-group of Homesh returnees was determined to return to Homesh by Tisha B’Av, the Fast of the 9th of the Hebrew month of Av. On July 15th, 10 days before the fast day, Zeeman took part in the public return to Homesh. Days earlier, the Homesh First organization had waited for thousands of police to deploy and then announced that it was postponing the ascent – purposely inconveniencing the authorities as a way to protest their refusal to allow the return. But on that day – just days before the Fast of Tisha B’av - a different strategy was put into play. “We climbed one of the hilltops on the other side of the valley,” she recalled. “We built a tower and were with groups of families who were kicked out and truly intend to return home. Eventually they [the security forces –ed.] came, destroyed it and used real violence against us. I took it very hard.” But now, a month later, she, her husband and their two kids have returned to Homesh itself, and been camped out there for over a week already. They live in tents, cook their food over a campfire and shower and wash their laundry using cold water from a hose – but they are in heaven. Weekly Disengagement The activists and former residents are all haunted by memories of being dragged out of homes, whether in Gush Katif, Homesh, Amona or various outposts across Judea and Samaria. Never, they say though, have they been faced with such deliberate attempts to demoralize and break their spirit. “The Yassam riot police have shown up every Friday except one,” recounts a young teenage girl who has been back in Homesh for over a month. “Just as we are almost ready for the Sabbath, they show up and destroy everything we built and take everything they can find.” Work begins rebuilding the synagogue each time is it destroyed Chopping down dead trees for building Relaxing during a break from building But until now, the young men and women have not been deterred. They run in all directions, taking to neighboring hills, area caves and other hiding places until the police leave. “Then we come back and celebrate the Sabbath in the dark.” Beaten But Not Beat Bashi HaKohen did not walk up to Homesh. She can’t. She has been unable to be on her feet for long periods of time since she was airlifted out of Amona with wounds all over her body and internally as well. She was in the third of nine houses in the hilltop community of Amona targeted for demolition by then acting-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert following a petition by Peace Now. The Israeli-born daughter of American immigrants from the mixed religious-secular Gush Etzion town of Tekoa, Bashi said she simply could not stay home when such injustice was being carried out. Though she was wounded early on, she left the medical tent set up on the outskirts of Amona and returned to bodily shield her friends from the blows and assaults of the riot police. It was only once the dust and rubble of the homes had settled that she allowed herself to collapse and was airlifted to Hadassah Hospital, where she was treated for the wounds inflicted by police internally and externally throughout her body. She has no regrets and is thankful that the roads to Homesh are open. She says her parents worry about her. “Neither they or I are sure I could survive another beating by the police,” she says. Last time the riot police came she boarded a bus and let them take her away quietly. She returned to Homesh the next day. Summer Camp? There is a definite atmosphere of summer camp in the air at Homesh. Innovative solutions to life off the grid are constructed and conceived daily. The residents take turns cooking over a wood fire in large industrial-sized pots. Vegetables and other cooking supplies set up around the kitchen area "Someone came the other day with a whole bunch of pizzas donated by a bakery!" The water tower at the center of the community is the only original remaining structure from Homesh. The water is used by a local Arab village down in the valley as well so the state did not want to cut it off. Activists use it as drinking water, creating a reservoir of plastic bottles near the camp. Bottles of water "so in the middle of the night we don't have to walk all the way to the water tower in the dark" Esther and Tova, sisters from the Green Line town of Tel Menashe, do their laundry by hand beneath the water tower, painted orange with large Hebrew letters reading: “Homesh First!” It is a declaration echoed by the girls themselves, who tell of excursions to Sa-Nur, another northern Samaria Jewish town destroyed during the Disengagement, wedged between Shechem and Jenin. Sisters do their laundry by the water tower “There are people who don’t understand what we have seen and what we are willing to go through to build the Land of Israel,” they say. They insist that their real names be printed. “We are proud of being here and not afraid,” the sisters agree. The Zeeman children are having a mid-day shower. Down the hill, the sound of a guitar drifts out of the women’s camp. The smell of tomato soup wafts out of the kitchen area and several boys drag huge pine logs as they try to reconstruct a teepee that was destroyed by the riot police last week. The makeshift shower at Homesh Bashi HaKohen says there was concern that with the start of the school year, activists would be forced to come down from the mountain. Now, however, two yeshivas, one for men and one for women, are being formed. “Homesh has been reborn,” she declares. Click here to listen to an interview with Bashi HaKohen on Israel National Radio MK Chaim Amsalem (Shas) visits and speaks with the Homesh activists Building a swing The swing is a hit with the Zeeman kids (Photos: Josh Shamsi, Arutz-7 Photojournalist )
