Roi Klein (Hebrew: רועי קליין; July 10 1975–July 26 2006 was a Major in the Golani Brigade of the Israeli Defense Forces. Klein was killed in the Battle of Bint Jbeil during the 2006 Lebanon War after jumping on a grenade to save his fellow soldiers.
Klein was born in Raanana, Israel. He began his IDF service in the Paratroopers Brigade but later transferred to the Golani Brigade's Egoz Reconnaissance Unit.
In 2002, Klein received a Chief of Staff Citation for his conduct during an ambush near Nablus in which 5 Palestinian terrorists were killed.
During the Battle of Bint Jbeil, a hand grenade was thrown into the house where Klein and his unit were present. Klein told his men "Report that I've been killed" and subsequently jumped on the live grenade and stopped the explosion with his body. Klein was killed on the spot but his soldiers were saved by his act of self-sacrifice. The soldiers reported that Klein recited the Jewish prayer, Shema Yisrael, as he jumped on the grenade.
Roi Klein became a symbol for heroism in Israel. New schools in Netanya and Raanana have been named after him. [1]
For his actions during the war Klein received the Medal of Courage posthumously. [2]
At the request of "Peace Now's" never ending war on Jewish housing in Israel, Israel's Supreme Court announced that the home of the widow and orphans of Major Roi Klein is to be destroyed. The home, along with 11 others slated for destruction are built in "Givat HaYovel" neighborhood of the Eli community in the Shomron/West Bank.The family will commemorate Klein's death is in 2 weeks -- it will be 3 years since he died defending Israel in the Second Lebanon War.
The Supreme Court ruled that these 11 homes were built illegally, on private land, and are to be destroyed.
The Yovel neighborhood is built on a South East hilltop in Eli. According to Eli residents, the neighborhood appears on the official and approved building plan of the community. The first homes were built in 1998 during Israel's 50th anniversary -- HaYovel is a translation for 50th anniversary. Israel's ministry of housing prepared the neighborhood's infrastructure, and the Jewish Agency built some of the 11 homes, now scheduled for destruction by the High Court's decsion.
"We are not an outpost, we are a neighborhood of Eli," said Tamar Asraf, whose home is also scheduled for destruction. The homes are legal, built on State lands and not built on lands taken from private people. We have all the legal building permits and we pay taxes to Israel. All the residents here are law abiding citizens. The time has come for the State to embrace us instead of treating us with revulsion."
Israel's Supreme Court won't let Israel destory the home of a terrorist, yet destroying the homes of widows and orphans of Israel's fallen soldiers is not a problem.
Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד
what does his heroism have to do with anything? if he lived in an illegal place, it should be taken down regardless of the fact that he was a hero.
ReplyDeleteAnd if the appropriate legal punishment for terrorists is there house being destroyed, it should be. if not, not.
What does one thing have to do with the other? Just because someone is a hero means he is allowed to break the law?
(captcha word: queries)
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ReplyDeleteYanky: Those who are merciful to the wicked end up being wicked to the merciful.
ReplyDeleteThe "illegality" of the homes is questionable considering the abundance of evidence posed; the homes all have legal building permits, the land appears within the Eli building plan, the infrastructure was built by the Israeli government, and some of the homes were built by the Jewish Agency.
The Supreme Court is pandering to Peace Now by making political decisions, which are best left to the government and Knesset.
That's a bit of a throwaway answer to "Yanky'"s perfectly reasonable comment, Jameel...
ReplyDeletePeace Now aren't "wicked", nor are they being pandered to/merciful to by the Supreme Court. They simply believe as strongly as you do (but in the opposite direction) that they are the holders of the only solution to ensure a Jewish future for the state of Israel.
It is a terrible tragedy that the family of Roi Klein z"l are to be evicted. I'd wish that nobody had to ever be evicted (or to be killed in wars which don't appear to have got us anywhere, 3 years on.)
But this planned eviction, cosmetic and token though it may well prove to be, is no more the fault of Peace Now than it is the fault of any of the involved parties, INCLUDING, as "Yanky" mentions, those who decided to live in that part of land in the first place, fully aware of its disputed status.
Tafka PP
(And I'll just preempt Mr. J. Settler with a postscript here by saying that I can easily have the same finger pointed at me for voluntarily moving to Jerusalem, where my presence is also disputed by some parties. I accept that charge with full responsibility.)
This is the reason why I decided NOT to volunteer extra army service when I finished miluim. The country will hang you out to dry in order to pander to Israeli and International leftie organizations.
ReplyDeleteIt is a shame and a disgrace that anyone be evicted from their homes bought with legal permits.
Look at the Gush Qatif evacuees are sill without compensation from their eviction too.
This country deserves to be destroyed by Iran ...
Those who persecute widows and orphans will face judgment from G-d.For assuredly,the evil of their deed will follow them and no blessings will fall upon them. So has Hashem spoken and so shall it be heard and seen in Israel - woe unto to those who pervert justice in the land and who do not respect widows and orphans!
ReplyDeleteTafkaPP: When the State of Israel builds your neighborhood infrastructure, approves your neighborhood plans, and you receive a building permit from your local regional council, then it should not really be an issue of "you should have known better that the Supreme Court will deem your home, illegal."
ReplyDeleteThey simply believe as strongly as you do (but in the opposite direction) that they are the holders of the only solution to ensure a Jewish future for the state of Israel.
Now that's a throwaway answer if I ever heard one. Peace Now couldn't care less about a "Jewish" future for the State of Israel -- the word "Jewish" doesn't even appear anywhere on their long list of positions on their "About Us" tab of their website.
And if we're talking about the "Jewish" character of a country, the prophet Zecharya is very clear about justice and the prohibition of oppressing widows. The land in question does not belong to private Palestinians, it is State land (even if it is disputed) and for the Supreme Court to meddle in political issues while oppressing people is abhorrent.
The Supreme Court by the way, has no problem ignoring calls to demolish illegal structures of Palestinians in area C...
The decision by the Minister of Defense to give (or not give) his signature to a Yishuv (particularly after it received all the other relevant approvals) is a political decision - not a legal one.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous: Which makes the High Court's decision all the more odious...
ReplyDeleteAnd it also shows what Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak thinks about war widows.
Yanky and PP are surely right.
ReplyDeleteWhatever the legality or otherwise of the homes in questions, the use of Roi Klein Z'L's name (who was a relative of my wife by the way) and your headline Jameel are examples of cynical demagoguery. And this remains the case regardless of the fact that his widow is more than happy for her story to be used in this way. It is simply undignified and unrelated to the legal question.
Loving fathers, military heroes and wonderfully modest men are capable of being in the wrong legally speaking.
Yellow Boy
Yellow Boy: First of all, I must say how much I appreciate your occasional comments.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I don't believe this this cynical demagoguery in the slightest.
Roi Klein and his wife knew exactly where they were moving to -- an approved neighborhood of Eli, not an outpost, and their neighborhood was approved and even had its electrical, water, sewage, and roadwork infrastructure approved and installed by the State.
Its not cynical to call a spade a spade -- while Israel has the opportunity to leave this family in peace, they chose to include this home for destruction. You can be sure if Roi Klein were alive today, he would be fighting tooth and nail for his right to remain in his home, and this does not dishonor his memory in the slightest.
If anything, it just goes to show that many of the finest IDF soldiers and officers continue to believe in our historic right to build up the land of Israel -- and that Jews should be allowed to build everywhere -- let alone within the administrative region of an existing yishuv, with proper authorization.
The fact that Ehud Barak refuses to sign one last additional piece of paper based on purely political motives is cynical demagoguery -- and is using that excuse to oppress widows and orphans.
I think what bothers me the most is the blase disregard by the Court of the legal process that brought the Kleins and others to that neighborhood. I would agree with Tafka is this were a hilltop settlement where you plant your outpost and take your chances, but when the government enters a contractual agreement with homeowners, that contract must be honored or your legal system is bankrupt. Yes, circumstances change and if Netanyahu and Abbas signed a peace treaty next week, then government interest in that treaty trumps individual homeowner interests. But that's not the situation. Nor can I agree that building on "disputed land" carries a caveat emptor--unless there is clear and unequivocal evidence that the land in question actually belongs to someone else (title, TABU, arnona payments etc.) then a ruling simply to score political points against a government it doesn't approve of reduces the Court to simply another clutch of political hacks.
ReplyDeleteYitzchak Herskovitz owns some disputed land.
ReplyDeleteFor 16 years he has been trying to get Arab squatters off his legally purchased land in Jerusalem.
The courts have repeatedly ruled that the land is unquestionably his, and the squatters must go.
But then the squatters file an injunction, and claim the land is theirs.
And the process starts again.
I guess his land is disputed too.
The story of a true heroe :
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaL4Vmi6rqc
joel (France)
Still completely disagree with you on this. It has been clear for years to all concerned that just because the State has legitimised living in communities in the West Bank and has actively constructed the infrastructure, it still has no compunction to screw with the lives of the people they originally sent there to calm or send a message to the international community. It doesn't matter if it's a hilltop or central Ariel, the status of the land is disputed by many, both within and outside of Israel, and most intelligent people who live there are aware of this fact, unpleasant a contemplation though it may be.
ReplyDeleteAnd, regarding my "throwaway answer", re Peace Now: Many of the people I personally know who are affiliated a) consider themselves just as Jewishly motivated as you consider yourself, and b) joined for the exact reason I wrote above. Like any movement, they're comprised of lots of people with diverse opinions, and in my experience that includes plenty of individuals with Jewish pride and aspirations and even religious fervour.
It's all too easy to blame the Supreme Court, the State, the Settlers, the Leftists, etc. Whoever's turn it is. But what we have to acknowledge here is that the current set-up is not viable, and arguably never has been- and we as a people are going to need to unify to get through whatever is in store for us, as opposed to point fingers and harbour resentment which will only serve to create more divisions.
TAFKAPP: So what's your point? That the Klein family deserves to be screwed by the State? It's clear that the State has no problem evicting people from their homes, regardless of whatever status their land may be -- from Gush Katif (built by the Labor government) to "Unified" Jerusalem to the annexed Golan Heights. Just because the governments are pathetic doesn't mean that we should tolerate their behaviour.
ReplyDeleteAnd, regarding my "throwaway answer", re Peace Now: Many of the people I personally know who are affiliated a) consider themselves just as Jewishly motivated as you consider yourself, and b) joined for the exact reason I wrote above. Like any movement, they're comprised of lots of people with diverse opinions, and in my experience that includes plenty of individuals with Jewish pride and aspirations and even religious fervour.
I'm sure their are well intentioned individuals in Peace Now wtih Jewish Pride and perhaps even religious Jewish fervor. Yet your choice of word is perfect -- "individuals".
Peace Now, as an organization abhors the concept of a "Jewish" State, refuses to acknowledge it their positions papers and statements (you can search through their entire website). The #1 priority is self-determination for Palestinians -- not "saving the Jewish character of Israel". Its probably no coincidence that just as Fatah, Hamas and the Palestinian Authority refuse to acknowledge a "Jewish" Israel, that Peace Now dovetails with this position and refuses to mention the word "Jewish" on their website.
But what we have to acknowledge here is that the current set-up is not viable, and arguably never has been- and we as a people are going to need to unify to get through whatever is in store for us, as opposed to point fingers and harbour resentment which will only serve to create more divisions.
Can you name one common denominator around which all the people of Israel can rally?
I used to believe that some existed -- now I'm not so sure.
Oy, Did you even read my first post?? I didn't at any point say(and wouldn't DREAM of saying) that the Klein family deserve to get screwed by the state. G-d forbid!!! I think I made that quite clear.
ReplyDeleteI was saying that we all need to take shared responsibility for our decisions, which, living in Israel, are always layered and complex and can't always be blamed on external factors or bodies when it suits our political agendas.
As for finding common ground for all Jews... let's get thinking... all of us.
I was saying that we all need to take shared responsibility for our decisions, which, living in Israel, are always layered and complex and can't always be blamed on external factors or bodies when it suits our political agendas.
ReplyDeleteWhich is exactly why Ehud Barak and the Supreme Court should take external factors into account when it doesn't suit their political agenda.
When they don't (like now) they deserve to be called on it. There's no reason to harass people, especially widows when a political signature would change everything. The land isn't "stolen" in a private sense of the the word (if anything, its state land), the houses weren't built without approval -- like outposts are...and tempering "justice" with "mercy" is exactly what is needed in this case -- not brutal legal pandering due to a purely political decision.
Thousands of people should go to the homes and keep them surrounded and protected day and night!!! This is outrageous!!! Our Supreme Court doesn't reflect Jewish values!!
ReplyDeleteWhat is tripp doing here???
ReplyDeleteUndoubtedly Jameel did a service for the people living in Givat HaYovel. Every injustice should be exposed. It's unthinkable that they should demolish his home and leave his wife and children bereft! Are they giving them 'adequate' compensation? Are they entitled to a REFUND on their purchase?
Why don't a group of Israeli lawyers form a group to fight these injustices!
I sure hope it will be fought. I put the story on my page on Facebook where lots of people will read it.
ReplyDeleteIf anyone is interested in trying to help this family you can go to this site and sign a petition to ask for the house to be spared:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.atzuma.co.il/petition/be770/1/1000/
Peace Now is a group of evil, trouble makers. I wish they could be banned from Israel for ever. I can't believe they can petition to have a widow and children evicted and be proud of the fact. The PA and Hamas are direct--they hate us and want us all dead--Peace now is like the worst type of cancer feeding and destroying from the inside out.
I have already signed. I put the petition on my FB page and sent it to friends via e-mail.
ReplyDeleteShabbat Shalom