Mordechai Sones, י”א באב תשע”ח, 7/23/2018
The Sovereignty movement founded by Women in Green
Dozens of youths from all parts of the country, members of Sovereignty Youth, completed last week a special two-day seminar where they were exposed to the challenges of applying Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria and various ways of coping with those challenges.
The young men and women attending the seminar are key activists in the Sovereignty Movement that in recent months has been involving youth throughout the land in extensive political action activities. Participants in the seminar, which was held at the Oz veGaon Preserve in Gush Etzion, will internalize information they acquired during the seminar as another layer of their outreach activities in the area where they live.
The event began with words of welcome from Sovereignty Movement co-chairwomen Yehudit Katsover and Nadia Matar. They were gratified with the youth’s participation in the seminar, initiated and called for by the youths themselves. Katsover told attendees about the Sovereignty Movement’s first steps immediately after the expulsion from Gush Katif and the understanding that it was necessary to bring about a significant change in policy to stop the process of Israeli withdrawal and appeasement.
Katsover emphasized the importance of their strategic presence at intersections and on traffic arteries with Sovereignty signs, shirts, and fliers, bringing to general awareness the need for sovereignty and arousing interest in the vision as well as various methods that can be used to implement it.
Matar presented background information to attendees at the seminar about the Oz veGaon Preserve and how the holdings there are a response that began on the night when the bodies of the three abducted youths were discovered. She told of impressions that she and Katsover had from their many encounters with youths who had been confused by efforts of leftist movements and Arabs to erode their sense of justice in the Zionist, Jewish cause.
Matar said, “We told the kids at the beginning of the seminar, ‘There are 2 kinds of terror: physical terror in which the terrorist stabs or shoots. The answer to that kind of terror is the IDF with weapons.
“‘But then you have the spiritual terror. The terror of the lie. Here the terrorist has as a weapon his computer and he spreads lies about Israel. He claims we are occupiers when he knows it’s a lie. He lies by saying that according to international law we have no right to be in Judea and Samaria. He lies by saying the IDF commits war crimes etc. Both kind of terrorists have the same goal: The destruction of Israel as the Jewish State.
“‘In the second kind of terror the “weapon” to fight with is knowledge. To know how to refute the lies. To know what to answer. To know the facts. To know the truth and how to pass it on. Not to be confused. And like you have elite units in the army, we must build elite units in the army of political action and knowledge.’
“That is what our two-day seminar was about. And seeing 45 youths aged 16-18 eager to be part of such an elite unit, putting their cellphones in the box at the beginning of the seminar so as not to be distracted and being able to actually sit and learn intensively from early morning till 10:00 p.m. at night, was one of Yehudit’s and mine highlights of the past several years,” Matar said.
After Katsover and Matar spoke, publicist Boaz Haetzni gave a lecture about the various phases of political negotiations and how they always failed. Haetzni presented a short but deep survey of the Jewish People’s past and the connection to the Land of Israel, explaining how the deep and long relationship of the Jewish People to its land became the basis for international recognition of the connection between the Jewish People and the Land of Israel, in stark contrast to the fiction of Palestine.
Haetzni included proven historical evidence of the continual connection of the Jewish People to Judea and Samaria, a connection accepted by the entire world. Later on he cited the Arab presentation of themselves as David and Israel as Goliath. The youths were extremely interested in Haetzni’s historical survey and asked many questions hearing details, some of which were known to them and some not, of Israel’s past.
Architect Yoram Ginsburg presented the principles of the TAMA 100 plan that he is working on at present, the only national outline plan viewing the Land of Israel as including Judea and Samaria as one unit, and is consequently included in planning for population distribution, urban and rural planning, transportation, and more.
Ginsburg teaches that the sovereign determines his own steps without external considerations. He thereby says we must remember that it is neither Trump nor Balfour who awarded the Jewish People the rights to its Land. “Who is Balfour compared to Abraham and Moses? The recognition of our sovereignty does not depend on anyone else.”
Ginsburg, who spent time with the youths before and after his lecture, was surprised with the level of interest that the youths expressed in complex and profound topics that were discussed and with the questions they asked of various presenters. After his lecture, Ginsburg remained for lunch with the youths, who asked questions and discussed with him practical implications of Israeli sovereignty over the land.
The main goal of the seminar was to train the youthful advocates of sovereignty throughout the land, a significant part of the work being public speaking. For this reason, Hagay Luber,principal of the Aspaklaria Theater and School of Theater, spoke and demonstrated how to stand, articulate, and edit material, the importance of self-confidence, and more. In his lecture, Luber demonstrated basic elements of the art of persuasion and discourse, with films and his demonstrations.
Economist Erez Zadok, Jewish Home Knesset candidate who recently met with representatives of the U.S. administration and European Parliament, told of these encounters where he presented the feasibility of Israeli sovereignty vis-à-vis the security, economic, and regional dangers that would be entailed in dividing the land and establishing a Muslim terror state in its heart.
Zadok’s economic plan, entitled Industry and Sustainability in Judea and Samaria, calls on the United States and European governments to apportion grants to international companies that establish factories in Judea and Samaria to create joint workplaces for Israelis and Palestinian Authority residents, thereby creating normalization and co-existence in the region, with extension to additional areas after that.
Zadok presented his political plan for gradual application of sovereignty – the first phase would be the areas of Jewish settlement and Area C enjoying broad consensus within Israeli society and as a first step toward later steps.
Another speaker who made a presentation was Kohelet Vice-President Ran Bar-Yehoshefat, who contends with pro-Palestinian bodies and organizations. Bar-Yehoshefat presented the key arguments of the Left that relate to potential tension between Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. He offered various answers to this question.
Among other things, he mentioned the response to the apartheid state charge, response to the concern over international reaction to steps taken toward sovereignty, and more. Bar-Yehoshefat explained the status of Judea and Samaria in international law, the true reasons there is still no peace, and more.
Later on in the first day of the seminar, a presentation was shown that the youths had prepared as a basis for “sovereignty ambassadors’” political action where main points of the vision and its objectives are summarized.
The youths concluded the first day with a fascinating late night discussion with author and LEHI fighter Ezra Yachin, who spoke about his experiences in the time before the establishment of the State, encouraging the youths to be the next emissaries in the Zionist campaign.
The second day of the seminar was a combination of a tour of Hevron, a visit to a display in Kfar Etzion, and more lectures on the importance of the vision of sovereignty and its implementation.
One of the speakers on the second day was Gush Etzion Council head Shlomo Ne’eman, who dealt with the ideological aspect of the difference between exile and redemption and presented his daily encounters with lack of sovereignty resulting in severe harm to civil rights and equality between citizens of the State of Israel.
Interpersonal communication expert Dr. Esther Kasalsi Israeli offered a personal empowerment and consolidation workshop dealing with the goal and the vision.
Knesset Land of Israel Lobby manager former MK Orit Struk also met with the youths in Hevron, and told them about practical parliamentary activity within the vision of sovereignty. During her talk, she criticized the Prime Minister’s actions in preventing sovereignty legislation and emphasized the importance of the youths’ activism in instilling awareness of the need for sovereignty within Israeli society, which will result in this consciousness eventually reaching the leadership.
Sovereignty Youth coordinator and leader Hallel Suissa, who lives in Sderot, sums up the seminar with great satisfaction: “With this kind of youth, you can sleep well at night… It was exciting and delightful to see the social diversity and good will among youth to investigate, learn, and influence. We feel we’ve acquired knowledge and tools that will serve us well to continue on our way to implement the Movement’s vision. I’m sure that with such high quality youth we’ll go far. It takes a strong youth to build a strong people.”
Sovereignty Movement co-chairwomen Yehudit Katsover and Nadia Matar sum up the seminar with satisfaction: “Close to 50 youths came from all over Israel to learn. They proved again that they are aware of the significance of timing and the great importance of the mission on the shoulders of their generation, the mission of sovereignty. The youths were the ones who initiated the seminar and we designed the structure of the seminar together with them, which turned out to be much more than was planned. The youths were focused on the goal and imbued with faith and motivation. The questions and requests for clarification raised by the youths to us and to the lecturers prove the next generation has broad shoulders and ideological resolve, and they’ll be able to carry on the mission of sovereignty to legislation and practical implementation of the vision.”
Katsover and Matar add: “The left and well-funded foreign organizations are fueled with zeal for the Arab lie. In contrast, the Sovereignty Youth and the Sovereignty Movement are filled with the fervor of Jewish and Zionist faith and truth and this is what will cause the political revolution among the people and spread to its leaders.”