Education Minister Naftali Bennett on Thursday evening visited the Gush Etzion region, strengthening local residents following the terrorist attack in which Ezra Yehiel Schwartz and Rabbi Yaakov Don were murdered.

Bennett visited the Derech Avot school in Efrat, where Rabbi Yaakov Don was a teacher. The Minister met about 150 students for whom Rabbi Don was an educator and coordinator of education as well as dozens of residents who came to commemorate his memory.

“I salute the heroic residents of Gush Etzion,” said Bennett. “This is a battle of eternal values ​​against murderous values – and we will win it. Islamic terrorism in France wants an Islamic state in France, and the Islamic terrorism in Israel wants a Palestinian state in our country.”

“Both will not succeed. We will respond to terrorism with more education, more settlement and more happiness,” he stressed.