A spirit of youth is animating the Sovereignty Movement
credit photos: The Sovereignty Movement
In a number of key locations spread out throughout the country, youthful members of the Sovereignty Movement set up hasbara (public relations) booths and signed people up to embed the vision of sovereignty in Israeli society . The slogan chosen for the campaign: “Sovereignty – the People is in Favor!”
The youths set up booths in Tel Aviv, Rosh Haayin, Jerusalem, Gedera, Kfar Saba, Haifa, Tiberias, and many more cities and yishuvim. They met passersby, held lively discussions with them on the vision of sovereignty and the future of Judea and Samaria, handed out hasbara material that had been prepared ahead of time and signed up many people, in every area of the country, who want to be part of the sovereignty initiative and take part in the process of moving it forward.
The Sovereignty Movement, founded by Women in Green, says that this is a first-of-its-kind activity, and in the near future there will be many more such activities, whose purpose is to encourage the decision makers to promote the legislation to apply Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria, legislation that is winning increasing support in the Israeli street.
“The initiative for their activity came from the youths themselves”, say Yehudit Katsover and Nadia Matar, the heads of the Sovereignty Movement. “We met the youths and spoke with them. After the meeting we understood that the youth deeply care about the future of the Land, the future of the People and the future of Zionism and that the youth sees itself as an emissary in this historical mission of unprecedented importance”.
“The youth understands quite well that it is a very important link in the chain and that it must now join in leading the diplomatic and political processes because of their sense of responsibility, good judgment and in order to be emissaries in this long-standing Zionist mission”, say Katsover and Matar. “Anyone who thinks that the younger generation spends all of its time bent over the screens of its electronic gadgets and totally involved in its smart phones, is invited to see the fresh and lively spirit with which the youths carried out this operation, the first in a series of operations that are planned in the coming weeks and months and organized by the youth themselves”.
Among the hasbara material that is being distributed in the youth’s booths is also a flyer outlining the essence of the sovereignty vision, its goals and the key issues that it deals with – demography, security and more, but first and foremost, the leaders of the operation emphasize, “This is a political plan that is a practical implementation of the Zionist vision and the yearnings of the Jewish People for its Land throughout two thousand years of exile. Without sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, the birthplace of the Jewish People, we will not be able to claim any right to Tel Aviv, Ra’anana or Haifa”.
It should be noted that along with the youth activity in the hasbara booths, hundreds of large signs were hung by the Sovereignty Movement over the past few days on the sides of major traffic arteries all over the country with the slogan, “The people support sovereignty!”
At the end of the first day of the campaign, there is talk of great enthusiasm among the youth around the vision and around the activity. Ariel Gasfriend who is in charge of the campaign in the Northern area of the country summarizes and says: ” “A lot of people came to the booths, admiring the initiative and the involvement of the youth. There were people who said that with the current government nothing will advance, but after a conversation with the youth, they were happy to see that there are youth who care about the state, they care about sovereignty, they admired and signed agreeing to join and support. “
Gasfriend adds that during the day there were quite a few interesting and lively discussions between the youth and the passers-by, and as a result of the ideological preparation that the boys and girls underwent, the information materials they read and the conversations they held proved proficiency and ability to withstand the arguments that arose.
“We are talking about quality youth who are ready for any task, and they are already waiting for the next activity that will come soon”, concludes Gasfriend.
“More than ever, Israel has the opportunity to demand ownership of what has been ours for thousands of years,” says Assaf Jason, one of the leaders of the project and one of the young leaders of the struggle to regulate Netiv Haavot in Gush Etzion. Slowly, the public understands that sovereignty is the only and best answer to resolving the conflict. That is why we were not surprised that in less than a week, over 300 young people joined us and we can now see them deployed in hasbara positions all over Israel. I do not believe in passivity, the trend is positive and if Israel continues in the current direction, Israeli sovereignty will be seen in the coming years. “
The Sovereignty Movement believes that it is especially important to lead these hasbara operations precisely at this time. “We are now at a time when we all must exert ourselves to push the vision of sovereignty forward. The Central Committee of the Likud, the ruling party, proved that the idea is no longer that of the political and diplomatic margins; the Land of Israel Lobby in the Knesset is leading the effort to legislate in this spirit and within the government and the coalition there is a clear majority in support of this vision.
On the other hand– recently we have been hearing about a political plan that the White House is formulating, led by American President Donald Trump, which apparently includes establishing a Palestinian state on ninety percent of the territories of Judea and Samaria. This would put a terror state in the heart of the Land, a disaster for the State of Israel and the Zionist vision. Washington’s plan is being formulated because the Israeli leadership still does not speak clearly about the connection between the People of Israel and the areas of Judea and Samaria and no political plan that agrees with the will of the People is put forth – the plan for sovereignty. Trump’s plan is a result of this political vacuum. We cannot expect the U.S. president to present a more Zionist plan than that which the Israeli government presents. This is the reason that the public call for the leadership to lead the Israeli ship of state toward a safe and secure political shore – politically, security-wise, economically, ideologically – to the vision of sovereignty, is so important, precisely now. The contribution of the young people in this process is critical and in the near future we will continue to work with those youth who are calling for the older generation to take responsibility and lead”.