J.J. Goldberg March 12, 2010

Israel’s environmental protection minister, Likudnik Gilad Erdan, went hiking on Friday in Nahal Kaneh, a wadi in the northern West Bank, near Nablus. He was accompanied by several hundred settlers, according to Maariv’s nrg.co.il Web site. The wadi was the scene of fighting several years ago between local Palestinians and the nearby settlement of Karnei Shomron, and has deteriorated since then, Maariv reported. Erdan’s jaunt was meant to kick off a restoration project cosponsored by the Karnei Shomron local council and the Environmental Protection Ministry.

Erdan was quoted saying it was “important to strengthen the connection between Israelis and their environment. At times like these, when people are talking about disengagement, we’re talking about connection.”

Earlier in the week, Jerusalem deputy mayor David Adari visited the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem, where a small group of settlers has moved into a home from which a Palestinian family was evicted after the property was reclaimed by a Jewish trust that had owned it before in 1948. Adari vowed that more Jewish families would be moved into the neighborhood, according to Yediot Ahronot’s Ynet.co.il Web site.

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Here’s a clip of the house from last week, as the settlers inside were celebrating Purim. The song they are heard singing on the clip, described as coming from Ynet, is “Dr. Goldstein, Dr. Goldstein, there is none like you in the world / Dr. Goldstein, Dr. Goldstein, everyone loves you.” Listen for the line where he “shot bullets and shot bullets and shot and shot bullets…”

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