Solidarity Visit in the Home of Boaz Albert

Delegations from Women in Green and Professors for a Strong Israel visited the Albert home in Yitzhar to show their solidarity and support. The delegations expressed their support for the members of the family and voiced their protest at Boaz’s continued incarceration resulting from the draconian administrative restraining order issued against him

Yesterday (Wednesday, December 25) about fifty Women in Green members from throughout Israel came to Boaz Albert’s home in Yitzhar, accompanied by representatives of Professors for a Strong Israel.

The visitors wished to express their support of Albert’s legal struggle against the phenomenon of administrative orders and the legal abuse of the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria. The heads of Women in Green, Yehudit Katsover and Nadia Matar, who initiated the visit, say as they sum up the visit that they went there to be strengthened by the steadfast spirit of the Albert family and Boaz’s resolution in holding onto the land.

An administrative restraining order was issued against Albert, without any explanation or reason, that required him to leave his agricultural land during the harvest season, which would have meant that the fruits of his labor of many long months would have been totally lost. We should also recall the violent arrest of Boaz, that received much media attention, in which he was given Taser electric shocks by police officers, without his having offered any resistance, solely because he insisted on remaining in his house with his wife and children, despite the draconic order issued against him.

During the visit, the heads of Women in Green gave the Albert family a modest gift – six olive, pomegranate, and fig trees, that the family will plant in the lands of Yitzhar, thereby expressing the call to strengthen the agricultural presence there. They were also given a set of construction tools, symbolizing the hope of continued building momentum in Yitzhar, and in all the Samaria communities as a whole. The gift was given, among other reasons, as a birthday present to the three Albert children who had birthdays in this month of of Tevet.

On the way to Yitzhar, Nadia Matar provided explanations about the Samaria and Benjamin communities, and about the struggles to maintain possession of the land, in the face of Arab takeovers and legal and administrative mistreatment.

During the visit Yehudit Katsover delivered greetings, and explained that “we did not come to strengthen you, for you need no strengthening. You are strong and unshakable. We came only to say ‘Thank you,’ in the name of the people of Israel, for the struggle that Boaz is waging on all our behalf, for the values of freedom, justice, and integrity.”

Katsover added that it seems that, to a certain degree, since the expulsion from Gush Katif, the rightwing camp has not been keeping its head high, but “such an atmosphere does not exist in the community of Yitzhar, where there is constant spiritual ferment, that does not allow anyone to sink into depression, forget the lessons of the expulsion, or the importance of Jewish possessions of the lands of Eretz Israel. Such ferment renews and strengthens in all of us the profound discourse concerning the identity of the people of Israel in its land, the importance of guarding the honor of the people of Israel, the value of the settlement enterprise, the need for additional anchors for the people of Israel’s return to its land, and more.”

“These clarifications are critical for all of us as a people and as individuals, especially in these days when there are those who raise question marks about our possession of the Jordan Valley, Judea, Samaria, and Jerusalem,” Katsover emphasized.

Speaking on behalf of Professors for a Strong Israel, Dr. Navah Tavger, too, congratulated the members of the Albert family and strengthened their resolve. Her words were accompanied by a gift – the book My Hebron that tells the story of her husband Prof. Ben Zion Tavger’s struggle to redeem the ancient Jewish cemetery in Hebron, the Avraham Avinu synagogue, and the grave of Rebbitzen Menuhah Rahel in Hebron.

“We were amazed by the strengths manifested by Irit and the children in the light of the harsh reality in which they have been living since the father’s arrest,” Yehudit Katsover and Nadia Matar conclude. They add, “It is uplifting to see a family bursting with mental and national health, a family that maintains its – and our – principles, and is prepared to pay a heavy price for this.” They add to this a call to the public at large to come to Yitzhar, in private or organized groups, to express their support for and solidarity with the members of the family and with Boaz himself, together with protesting his continued imprisonment.

Irit, Boaz’s wife, warmly thanked the visitors and those offering their best wishes, on behalf of her husband and her children.

The visit ended with the purchase of bottles of wine produced by Boaz Albert, this, too, to strengthen the family, this time financially.

Link to video filmed by Hakol HaYehudi, Yehuda Perl http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kC-MadGLR5g