The Brigade Commander to the Committee for Jewish Shdema:
“In about a week the army will return to Shdema to establish an outpost”

Shaul Goldstein: “This is a sign that progress is being made. Shdema will yet be a community”

The Committee for a Jewish Shdema: “We will continue to conduct activity at the site”

Two days ago, on Friday, we traveled from Har Homa to Shdema in a car convoy of more than a hundred people, in dozens of vehicles bedecked with Israeli flags, in the pre-Tu bi-Shevat event with the slogan: Connecting Jerusalem to Gush Etzion – Har Homa to Shdema.

A moving morning was held at Shdema, beginning with greetings by the head of the Gush Etzion Regional Council, Shaul Goldstein. Goldstein related to the statement by the brigade commander, who announced the establishment of a military outpost at Shdema in the coming week or two, and said: “This is good news. The establishment of a military outpost at Shdema is a sign that, with God’s help, Shdema will become a flourishing community, and this is due to the determined and persevering activity of the Committee for a Jewish Shdema. The Committee for a Jewish Shdema succeeded in its mission, and now can keep going forward, and become the ‘Committee for Jewish Jenin’ or for Jewish Shechem.”

Then Herzl Yehekzel, chairman of the Har Homa neighborhood administration, spoke and mentioned the importance of the linkage between Har Homa and Shdema and the Jewish continuity between them, in order to prevent the spread of the Arab construction that threatens to choke Har Homa: “This [the Jewish continuity] could become reality, just as Har Homa expanded beyond expectations and plans.”

Avraham Azoulay, the editor of the Le Petit Hebdo weekly, a Har Homa resident, spoke in the name of the immigrants from France of the importance of the struggle for a Jewish Shdema.

The Committee for a Jewish Shdema and Women in Green will continue to conduct activity in the Eretz Israel culture center at Shdema. In the meantime, two goals have been attained: (1) the area has not been handed over to the Arabs; (2) there is a Jewish presence.

A special holiday atmosphere reigned at Shdema. Eretz Israel and Carlebach songs – with Adam Tzahi and Yoni Sharon, accompanied by Eli Gilboa and his accordion – are always heartwarming. The event concluded with joyous dancing.

This Friday Prof. Hillel Weiss will lecture on “The First Furrow in the Literature of the First Aliyah.”

For photographs of the event on Friday, click on the link to the photos by Gemma Blech:
http://picasaweb.google.com/gemmablech/SHDEMATuBShvatCARCONVOY#

The Committee for Jewish Shdema and Women in Green

for details:
Yehudit Katzover – 050-7161818, Nadia Matar – 050-5500834