Education Minister Naftali Bennett on Wednesday visited the family of terror victim Itamar Ben Gal, who was killed in a stabbing attack earlier this week.
Ben Gal, 29-year-old teacher and resident of Har Bracha, was stabbed by a 19-year-old Palestinian Authority Arab terrorist as he stood near the entrance to Ariel in Samaria.
He is survived by his wife and four children, the youngest of who is six months old.
During a condolence visit to the Ben Gal home, Bennett told stories that he had heard Wednesday morning from Ben Gal's students at the Bnei Akiva Yyeshiva in Givat Shmuel.
"The purpose of this murder was to make us depressed, to break our spirit," Bennett said. "Besides for how we are going to handle this attack, and how we will handle the terrorist, the real answer needs to be tripling Har Bracha's population and turning it into a major city in Israel. There are zoning plans ready to be approved, the only issue is political. I take it upon myself to work to triple Har Bracha's size, and to send the message that we are here."
"In the past 120 years, a lot of cities have been born in response to murders. Kiryat Shmona, Maaleh Hahamisha, this is the answer. There are more families, more children, more schools, more towns, and more homes. When this is what sprouts up in front of them, they'll start to understand that they're banging their heads against a cement wall, and it's a waste of their time."
Samaria Regional Council Head Yossi Dagan reiterated Bennett's statement and urged the government to make its decisions quickly.
"The message to our enemies has to be that we are going to turn Har Bracha into a city, to immediately approve all of the construction plans which have been waiting for approval for years," he said. "It needs to be very clear to all our enemies that anyone who tries to destroy a single Israeli life will receive a thousand families in return. Anyone who tries to destroy an Israeli home will see thousands of homes."
Rabbi Shlomi Badash, Ben Gal's father-in-law, told Bennett that "our enemies must know that if they try to harm us and Havat Gilad becomes a legal town, Har Bracha will become a city. This needs to be the policy, so that they know ahead of tie what the response will be."
Watch the Hebrew video here:
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