Netzer in the Haarets newspaper

This past Friday, 10/2/2012 , we were surprised to discover that a huge article had been printed in the Haarets newspaper, about the battle for the lands in Netzer.

It seems that the same Arabs who in the past few months have attacked us and have uprooted our trees time and again, are very well connected- not only to Ezra Nawi, the UN, the PA and leftists and international organizations- but also to Amira Hass from the Haarets newspaper.

Not surprisingly,Amira Hass did not bother to check any facts. She printed all the lies the Arabs told her, using the false information to advance her radical anti-Zionist agenda.

Link to Amira Hass’s article in Haarets:
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/saplings-serve-as-weapons-in-battle-for-west-bank-land-1.412054

Today Friday February 17th, Women in Green is publishing its answer in the Hebrew and English Haarets paper.The designed ad is attached. Here is the text:

The Battle to Reclaim the Lands of Eretz Yisrael through Planting: The True Story

Response by Women in Green to the article by Amira Hass in Haaretz, Friday, February 10, 2012.

Yehudit Katsover and Nadia Matar

The anti-Zionist mindset of Amira Hass, who denies the Jewish people’s connection to its homeland, leads her time and time again to a political crusade built on erroneous claims and tendentious journalism. For Hass, the Jewish return to its land is an act of criminal “occupation”. We cannot change Amira Hass’s opposition to Jewish settlement in Eretz Yisrael.

But the Haaretz readership deserves to hear the truth:
Yes, there is a battle for every dunam of land in Gush Etzion, and throughout the rest of Judea and Samaria. The battle is waged to safeguard state and public lands for the Jewish people, and to prevent the organized Arab trespassing that seeks to take control of these lands. The Arabs do this both by massive illegal construction of thousands of houses on state lands in Israeli controlled “Area C”, and by an “agricultural jihad”, in which the Arabs, backed by almost unlimited international financing, steal state lands by cultivating them. Their goal is clear: an Arab takeover of all the areas between the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, in order to choke them and prevent their expansion.

In a conference held in Tul Karem, Salem Fayyad called for the planting of ten million trees: “The great challenge against the occupation and the settlements is to increase the investment and agriculture on the lands in Area C” (WAFA press agency, February 10, 2011).

As members of Women for Israel’s Tomorrow-Women in Green, we are trying to stop and block the Arab takeover of public, nonprivate lands – whether classified as “survey or as “state” land – by planting trees. The tree that strikes roots in the soil determines whether it is ours. The tree is our literal soldier in the field, acting as a marker and stake in the earth and holding the ground for us.

We operate in accordance with up-to-date maps that delineate all the public lands. In contrast to what Amira Hass claims, we do not plant on privately-owned land. Moreover, we do not claim personal ownership of the land or even of the trees that we plant. We have only a single aim: the redemption of the fallow land, and safeguarding of lands that belong to the Jewish people, for future generations.

The Arabs, backed by the UN, the Palestinian Authority, and leftist and international organizations, come almost every day and – in broad daylight – uproot the trees that were planted by Jews on public lands. They burn and destroy the irrigation systems, and they attack those working in the fields. Our response: for every tree that the Arabs uproot, we plant two!

This land is ours! Judea and Samaria are the very heart of Eretz Yisrael. They belong to the Jewish people, by virtue of a past and Jewish heritage stretching back thousands of years. We, and millions of Jews and non-Jews throughout Israel and the world, believe that we have returned to these parts of the homeland by authority of the biblical promise that G-d made to the people of Israel. Therefore, only our residence in, and development of, Judea and Samaria, provides the ultimate, moral justification for living in Tel Aviv.
The time has come for the government of Israel to unequivocally establish the true status of Judea and Samaria, and to apply Israeli law. We should not be deterred by the consequences of such a move *, including the possibility of granting citizenship to the Arabs of Judea and Samaria, who will pledge loyalty to the State and its laws.

Sovereignty throughout all of Eretz Yisrael is the one and only Israeli alternative.

* “The demographic realities are very clear: anyone who claims that Jews are destined to be a minority west of the Jordan, is mistaken and intentionally misleading” (Yoram Ettinger, Fresh Demographic Statistics, Yisrael Hayom, 13.12.2011)
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Those wishing to contribute to the planting of trees on the hills of Judea can send a check to Women in Green, POB 7352, Jerusalem 91072, Israel. Additionally, we would be happy to give a tour to anyone who wants to learn what is happening on the ground. For our site and our movie channel please go to: www.womeningreen.org For details: 050-7161818 or 050-5500834