Today, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations expressed its deep dismay over the clashes in Israel between Jewish citizens and soldiers as the government sought to implement an evacuation of Amona. News reports indicate that more than 200 Israelis, including members of the parliament, were injured.

Union president Stephen Savitsky and executive vice president Rabbi Tzvi H. Weinreb issued the following statement:

Today, as Israel faces renewed threats from those who would destroy her, we cringe at the sight of Jew clashing with Jew.

In the shadow of the Palestinian election in which a majority of Palestinians knowingly gave over the leadership of their community to Hamas – a terrorist organization whose platform is and remains the destruction of Israel, the Israeli government sought to remove Jewish settlers from Amona. Especially in this context, this effort, while authorized by the legislature and the courts, required special sensitivity and consideration in its implementation.

We are dismayed that the soldiers of the Israeli Defense Forces were unable to carry out their orders without resort to forceful tactics and we are dismayed that many who objected to and were protesting the evacuation resorted to acts of violence.

Now is a time where all Jews must unite in brotherhood in the face of a renewed threat to the Jewish State and the Jewish People. We call upon political, religious and community leaders in Israel to exercise restraint in their words and their deeds and to endeavor repair the bonds of mutual responsibility. The means for debating policy disagreements is the pending election campaign in which all sides should vigorously engage.