Responsiveness to Itamar Leads To Kever Yosef wedding

The people of Itamar are in a very unusual situation right now. Because of the grisly murder of the Fogel family, there is an outpouring of sympathy towards the people of Itamar. It also helps that they have responded so responsibly, for lack of a better word, and have not made calls for revenge, they have avoided the "price tag" policy of retribution that is fairly common among other similar yishuvim, but have showed a tremendous level of faith and commitment. Right now, they can ask for whatever they want, and Israel will rush to try to help with a sympathetic ear.

2 examples:
1. It turns out that the yishuv of Itamar has never received its final approval signature as a legal yishuv with construction approval, despite its being built by the government and in existence for 27 years! (source: Srugim)

During the shiva, with the rush of MKs visiting the shiva house, this was discussed, and many MKs were receptive and insistent on this being taken care of immediately. The final signature has to be given by the Defense Minister, because it is in the West Bank, and for some reason, no DM has granted his signature. This is actually why many of the yishuvim have illegal status, despite having been constructed and promoted for many years by the government - because of a technical situation of one signature being withheld.

2. A couple that was due to get married last night, in the yishuv, decided that they wanted to get married in Kever Yosef.

That is not an easy request to fulfill. Kever Yosef is a hot situation, and it requires a lot of coordination between the PA and the IDF. Until recently, visits to Kever Yosef were only approved very sparingly, though in the past half year it seems to have opened up a bit more.


So they made the request to move the wedding to Kever Yosef, and immediately all issues were resolved, and it was approved. They say it was the first wedding to take place in Kever Yosef in Shchem. The wedding took place, with a band, rabbis, and hundreds of guests, in the kever complex. (source: Srugim and Haaretz)