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Justice Minister: Annex Samaria settlement in response to attack

Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked said normalizing the legal status of the Israeli town of Ofra should be one response to last night’s terror attack.

By World Israel News Staff

On Monday, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to make the Israeli town of Ofra in Samaria officially part of Israel.

She made her remarks in response to a drive-by shooting that left six injured, including a pregnant woman at a hitchhiking station near the town on Sunday night.

“The terrorists’ goal is to kill us in order to break our spirit. In the face of [PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s] ‘price of terrorism,’ we must set a price of our own: Every terror attack will strengthen the settlement rather than weaken it, and every potential terrorist will know in advance that the settlement will be registered in his name,” Justice Minister Shaked said.

The town of Ofra, founded in 1975, was one of the first Jewish towns established in Judea and Samaria after Israel conquered the territory in the Six Day War in 1967. It includes 700 homes, of which 500 face legal issues, either having been built on private land or without proper permits, according to a defense ministry report.

The ministry of defense had unveiled plans earlier this year to correct the issue, according to The Jerusalem Post.