Katsover and Matar: The Prize – for the thousands of supporters and partners
Yehudit Katsover and Nadia Matar are grateful for the decision to award them the Moskowitz prize and mention to whom the prize really belongs, and its meaning.
The co-chairwomen of the Sovereignty Movement, Yehudit Katsover and Nadia Matar, were surprised by the decision of the Moskowitz Prize committee to award them the prize for the year 2019 for their public work in promoting the vision of sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.
“We were totally surprised to find our name on the list of the prize recipients”, say Katsover and Matar, who are grateful for the decision but also emphasize that in their opinion, the prize does not belong to them alone, but to the hundreds and thousands of volunteers and supporters of the Sovereignty Movement throughout the Land and abroad. “Our work in promoting the vision could not have been realized without the practical and ideological tailwind that they provide to us by the contribution, volunteerism and work of those esteemed partners who are no less deserving of the prize than we are”.
Katsover and Matar comment: “To us, the importance of the Moskowitz Prize is immeasurably greater than other prizes, even the Nobel Prize. This prize from Cherna Moskowitz, who is such an active character for the People of Israel and the Land of Israel, this prize, which is a continuation in the same tradition of prizes that she and her late husband, Dr. Irving, obm, began, is a milestone in the revival of the People of Israel in its Land and an impetus to continue the steps in the Zionist journey of more than a hundred years. It is a great honor for us to be named among the long list of personages of action and spirit who promoted and advanced the Zionist vision with their public works and in their private lives”.
The two women say already now, that as expected, the amount of money to be awarded to the Sovereignty Movement will be earmarked for the movement’s planned activities in the near future. “We can already tell you now of one important event that is planned for the coming months, which will be another sovereignty youth conference to be held, b”H, in light of the success of previous work with the youth that led the Sovereignty Movement to raise consciousness on the issue of sovereignty and shape the leadership of the next generation of the State of Israel in the spirit of the vision of sovereignty and the completion of the People of Israel’s return to its Land”. The youth conference, which will take place during the time when Trump’s Plan of the Century will be published, is meant to deepen the youths’ awareness of the need for sovereignty and the opposition to the two-states plan. “The youth must internalize the fact that the Land of Israel is only one geographical, historical, ecological unit. Sovereignty over all of the Land of Israel is the next level built on the Zionist-nationalistic base laid by the legendary pioneers of settlement in Hevron, Judea, Samaria, the Golan and Gaza. Sovereignty must include governance over all sectors”.
Here, we note the explanation given by the members of the prize committee for their decision to award the prize to Katsover and Matar:
Yehudit Katsover is a woman of the settlement enterprise, a woman of education and public activism on behalf of the Land of Israel. Katsover was in the group of 13 women who, in 1979, entered Beit Hadassah in the heart of Hevron, and in doing so, paved the way for the establishment of the Jewish community in the city. Later, she led and participated in the struggles for a Jewish holding in the areas of Hevron and Gush Etzion.
Nadia Matar has been a woman of the settlement enterprise and an activist for the Land of Israel. Since 1993, when the Women in Green movement was established by her mother-in-law, Ruth Matar, obm, Nadia Matar served as chairwoman of the movement. As part of her public work, she participated and led in the public struggles and protests against the Oslo Accords and against the idea of returning to the Green Line and establishing a Palestinian state in the heart of the Land of Israel.
In the summer of 2005, during the struggle against the plan to uproot Jewish communities from Gush Katif and northern Samaria, Katsover joined Women in Green and its head, Nadia Matar, and became the co-chairwoman of the movement together with Matar.
Against this background, the two women led non-governmental activities to encourage the settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria, to prevent illegal Arab takeover of the lands of Area C, public hasbara campaigns against the policy of withdrawal, organization of educational and Zionist activities for youth groups, they reinstated the traditional march around the walls of Jerusalem on the eve of Tisha B’Av and more.
In 2011, Katsover, together with Matar, established the Sovereignty Movement to work with members of Knesset and public figures to lead the vision of the application of Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria. The movement, under their joint leadership, has brought about a change in awareness regarding the discourse on policy in Israel by holding conferences throughout the Land, with the participation of leaders and intellectuals discuss the vision and ways to implement it. The movement also produces the Sovereignty Journal and the Sovereignty web site, which include articles, essays and updates relating to the vision.
Along with hasbara and consciousness-raising initiatives, the Sovereignty Movement continues to strengthen the state’s practical holdings on the ground, such as the Oz veGaon preserve, which was established by the movement’s activists in memory of the three youths who were abducted and murdered and has since become an educational-tourism site visited by thousands of people and they have led a number of other projects related to the settlement enterprise in the area of Gush Etzion as well.
Under the leadership of Katsover and Matar, the Sovereignty Youth movement has also been established, which carries out youthhasbara activities throughout the Land and in new media. The movement also promotes the shaping of leadership for the next generation in the spirit of the vision of the People of Israel’s sovereignty over all parts of its Land.
We note that along with Katsover and Matar, Prof. Moshe Koppel, founder and chairman of the Kohelet Forum and Dr. Aliza Bloch, mayor of Beit Shemesh, will also receive the prize. The ceremony will take place on June 4th 2019, at Binyanei hauma in Jerusalem at 7:00pm.
Moskowitz Prize winners announced: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/262423
Moskowitz Prize winner: Time to apply Sovereignty http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/263098
Interview with Josh Hasten: http://thelandofisrael.com/moskowitz-prize-for-zionism-winner-time-to-apply-sovereignty/
Moskowitz Prize website: https://moskowitzprize.com/en