Hilltop 26

Hilltop, outpost or lot 26 was an Israeli outpost founded by Netanel Ozeri. It was founded near the city of Hebron in the Judean Hills of the West Bank. It lay approximately 100 metres from the Kiryat Arba settlement. At the time of its destruction, it had a population of around ten.

The settlement was dismantled on 24 March 2003 by the Israel Defence Force (IDF). The settlement had been created without a permit, and was therefore unauthorized under Israeli law. The settlement was the first to be destroyed during Ariel Sharon's second term of office.

Netanel Ozeri

The settlement made headlines following the death of Netanel Ozeri on 17 January 2003. Ozeri was killed in the evening by two Palestinian gunmen from Hamas. One of the gunmen was subsequently killed by other Israelis present, while the second gunman was tracked and killed later by the IDF. Ozeri belonged to the banned Jewish religious and nationalist Kach movement.

During Ozeri's funeral, hundreds of settlers went into Hebron, smashing windows and setting cars alight.^{[citation needed]}

Netanel (Nati) Ozeri, born in Jerusalem, was a student at the Yeshivat HaRaayon HaYehudi established by Rabbi Meir Kahane, and was a study partner of his son, Binyamin Ze'ev Kahane, who was killed in a terrorist attack in December 2000. Ozeri later went on to teach at the yeshiva in Jerusalem as well as in Kiryat Arba.

Ozeri was a leader of the Hebron community in terms of both settlement and Torah study/teaching. His close friend, Noam Federman, said Netanel was "an interesting and unusual combination, the type of person who stood out as a leader. He was a man of Torah and a man of action." Federman noted that Netanel not only established new settlement outposts and interested youths in settling there, he also made sure to teach them Torah on a regular schedule. He himself moved with his family several years ago from Kiryat Arba to the nearby Hilltop 26, where he engaged in organic farming.

After a long burial procession, Netanal Ozeri was buried in the old Jewish cemetery in Hebron. During the procession, settlers went against Jewish custom by exposing his face.^{[citation needed]} They marched with his body throughout the southern West Bank, attempting to bury it on various hilltops in order to establish a Jewish presence there. The incident appears in Dan Setton's documentary Israel's Next War.

External links

• March 24 statement - IDF statement on the end of the settlement