Dear Friends,

A month and a half ago we started the struggle to keep Shdema in Jewish hands. Shdema used to be an IDF army camp not far from Har Choma, Jerusalem, on the Jerusalem-Eastern Gush Etzion road.

Two years ago, because of yet one more suicidal agreement by the government, the IDF abandoned the army camp. Despite the camp being in area C, i.e. in an area under total Israeli control, we were outraged to find out two months ago,that the government planned on handing over the entire area to the Palestinian Authority in order for them to build an Arab neighborhood.

For those who do not know: the Arabs are building thousands of houses all over Judea and Samaria in areas A and B. Those areas were, to our shame, abandoned by Israel under the Oslo agreement. Even though the IDF still patrols some parts of area A and B, those areas are now under total Arab occupation and the Arabs do there as they please, building houses, expanding villages into large cities and, in the process, also illegally taking over tens of thousands of dunams of State Land that belong to Israel.

We, representing the majority of the Jewish people, of course have not given up on those lands, understanding that all of the Land of Israel, whether labeled area A, B or C belong to the Jewish people. The day, please G-d, will come when we will have a new leadership that will abolish all the agreements and will reinstall Jewish sovereignty over all of Eretz Yisrael. That leadership will make it clear to the Arab enemy that they do not belong here but rather must go back to their 22 Arab States.

But until such a government comes to power we must at least make sure that all lands in area C in Judea and Samaria, i.e. under Israeli control, stay in our hands. It is unconceivable that Shdema would be given over to the Arabs.

The struggle for Shdema is a microcosm of what is going on in this country of the Arab takeover over all that belongs to us.

United we stand in our struggle for a Jewish Shdema and we call upon all of you to take the 2 minutes to read the info below and to join in our activities. Having Shdema turn into an Arab neighborhood will endanger Har Choma in Jerusalem and Gush Etzion and will incite other Arabs to try and do the same in other areas.

Last month we came with 150 activists to try and settle Shdema but were taken away forcefully by the security forces. Since then we have come back in small groups and now we are increasing our activities , especially after realizing that international anarchists are involved in helping the Arabs take away Shdema from us (extensive info below).

Please help us spread this info on all email lists and join us.

Thank you.

The Committee for a Jewish Shdema – Women in Green

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Dear friends,

The following are new and shocking details on what is happening in Shdema and in the struggle for Shdema.

First of all, mark the following dates, on which we are planning activities for a Jewish Shdema. Make every effort to come, and to bring additional activists who love Eretz Yisrael.

A) Friday, July 11, 2008, at 10:00 a.m., in the Gush Etzion community center (Matnas):

Gathering and tour for a Jewish Shdema, with the participation of public figures, settlement secretariats, and activists from all over Israel

Details regarding the speakers at the gathering will be provided in the coming days.

The gathering in the community center will be short and purposeful. At 11:00 we will travel together by bus to Shdema, where we will tour the area and plan the activities for the coming weeks.

It is very important to attend the gathering and participate in the tour in order to see with your own eyes what is happening at Shdema and how international anarchists are attempting to take over the location (details below). Estimated return to the Gush Etzion community center at 1:30 p.m.

Those planing to arrive for the gathering and tour are requested to send an e-mail, so we will have an idea of how many people will participate and order buse accordingly. Send an e-mail to: eli7@womeningreen.org.il

B) Monday, July 14, 2008: A kumsitz and sleeping at the Shdema camp

Reserve the date. Precise details of the program for the day will be sent by e-mail in the coming days.

We will arrive at Shdema in the late afternoon, and we will repaint the buildings after the anarchists painted over what we had done about a month ago.

With G-d’s help, we will remain at Shdema until morning. It is important that many people come for this activity, as well.

The more we engage in activities at Shdema and increase the Jewish presence at the site, we will succeed, with God’s help, in returning it to our hands and turning it into a Jewish settlement.

New details follow regarding Shdema and the anarchists involved in their activities there. A report by Hodayah Karish-Hazoni appeared in Mekor Rishon in the last Shabbat issue.

We are grateful to Sharon Katz,  Efrat resident, the editor of the Voices magazine, who accompanied us on one of the tours to Shdema, discovered the activity by the anarchists, and wrote a lengthy investigative article on the subject in her magazine. A link to Sharon Katz’s article in Voices will be available soon.

Also enclosed at the end of this email, is a letter signed by rabbis and public figures, mainly from the Har Homah-Gush Etzion-Kiriat Arba-Hebron area, who warn the Defense Minister of what is happening at Shdema, and demand that this be dealt with speedily.

With the blessing of "Let us by all means go up, and we shall gain possession of it" (Numbers 13:30)

The Committee for a Jewish Shdema-Women in Green

For information:

Rabbi Yaron Durani, Rabbi of Nokdim
Yehudit 02-9961292
Anita 0505-777254
Nadia 0505-500834
Datia 0505-246770

Shdema:
Shdema is the abandoned army camp on the Jerusalem-eastern Gush Etzion road, not far from Har Homah. Despite the camp being in Area C (Israeli control), the government gave the OK to the PLO Authority to establish an Arab neighborhood there in the near future.

About a month and a half ago we began the struggle for the establishment of a Jewish city at Shdema, and the security forces removed us. Since then, we have been returning in small groups to examine what is happening and to plan the continuation of the struggle. To our amazement, we recently encountered groups of international anarchists who are trying to take control of the location. Sharon Katz conducted an investigation of who these anarchists are, and the results are simply amazing.

Actually, there are many international elements involved and mixed together.

There is the CURE organization that builds hospitals in Muslim countries in order to "draw the Muslims closer" and the like. According to what is written in their site, they are building a hospital for the children of Beit Sahur in the vicinity of Shdema, but it is not certain that this is exactly where the army camp is located. They are the ones who tell us they have $16,500,000 to develop the hospital.
http://www.helpcurenow.org/site/c.nvI1IeNYJyE/b.3411401/
http://www.curenewsroom.com/webcast/

And there are two more names: Paidia, Oush Grab

Paidia is building the Forrest Adventure Gardens on "an abandoned Israeli army base."

They call the Shdema area "Oush Grab."

They work together with an NGO of very organized anarchists and artists (Arabs, Europeans, Americans, and at least one Jew from London named Eyal Weizmann) who set up a truly horrible web site based entirely on the ideology of decolonization. That is, a web site that analyzes the question, "How to deal with the great architectural problem: what to do with the remains of the settlements when they will be destroyed and dismantled in the future." Decolonization means, of course, the dismantling of the settlements. That is, we have here a band of Israel-haters who professionally plan the dismantling of our settlements.

They write "Architecture is speculation, but we are providing real answers to what can be done on the ground." And, actually, anyone who enters the site sees that they have built an instructive professional plan, with maps, aerial photographs, and the like, of a considerable portion of the settlements: how to dismantle them, how to use the houses after being dismantled, etc.

They are a group of dozens of people who meet on a weekly basis and discuss this issue.
http://www.decolonizing.ps/site/?page_id=40

They say: "We have chosen the settlement of Psagot as a test case, because it is close to Ramallah and el-Bireh." http://www.decolonizing.ps/site/?page_id=39

Eyal Weizmann explains the national need to, first of all, destroy everything that has been built by the settlers, and shows photographs of Shdema when the Arabs destroyed the military structures.
http://www.decolonizing.ps/site/?page_id=12

After the locals destroy, then comes the next stage: dismantling (or destruction).
http://www.decolonizing.ps/site/?page_id=49

What to do with the settlers’ houses – how to dismantle them and use them – to turn them into public buildings? into a school classroom? http://www.decolonizing.ps/site/?page_id=48

And on and on.

You should take a look at their site – it’s a good idea to first take a pill against nausea.

The chapter on "Vision" has photographs of Shdema and the "vision" to transform the army base into a gigantic site for the showing of movies, to give the Palestinians a good feeling about an area that was once occupied and that this will become an area from which "Palestine can be seen."
http://www.decolonizing.ps/site/?page_id=11

And then there is the Paidia organization, which sends volunteer activists into the field to live with the Arabs and to help them. These are the same ones we met there. If we wondered what strange games they are playing, then here below is a  letter to their activists.

Clearly, using "games" and faking "educational projects" has become the anarchists’ tactic to steal the land of the Jews and  to push their real goal: the destruction of the settlement enterprise and ultimately the destruction of the Jewish State of Israel.

Their letter: http://www.pidev.org/new.htm

New this month at Paidia

Paidia built the Jack Forrest Adventure Gardens on a former Israeli military camp. The area is called Oush Grab, and prior to the Israeli military base, it was a Jordanian military base built on land purchased from Palestinian owners. The Israeli military expanded the base after taking control of it, confiscating adjacent private land in order to do so. The Beit Sahour Municipality, Paidia International Development, and other NGO’s worked together to lift Israeli military control of most of the area and to establish a public park there, which includes Adventure Gardens as well as other recreational facilities. The confiscated private land was returned to its previous owners. Only the top of the hill, where the old military buildings still stand, remains under Israeli control. Thus, although it is all public land, the Municipality is not allowed to develop that part of it.

On May 15th, we went to Adventure Gardens to do some cleaning. We noticed a large number of cars with Israeli plates and grew suspicious. When we went to investigate, we found that people from the surrounding settlements had come to protest the development of the land for the use of local residents and to attempt to establish a new settlement outpost in the old military buildings. There were around 40 settlers present.

When our staff returned later that day after doing some other work, the Israeli military had closed off much of the area. There were also a number of protesters demonstrating peacefully against the settlers’ attempting to live there. We joined them in order to show that we will not tolerate illegal confiscation of the public land which we are working so hard to help develop. The settlers left the site while the protesters were still present, but they made it clear they intend to return later this week. They have spray-painted pro-settlement slogans such as "The Land of Israel for the People of Israel" (a reference to the concept of "Greater Israel", which includes Gaza and the West Bank) in Hebrew on the walls of the abandoned military buildings.

As word of a settler presence in the area spreads, locals are likely to become frightened and stay away from the park. If the settlers succeed in establishing a permanent presence on Oush Grab, with the attendant military protection, we and our partners will no longer be able to use the park to provide badly-needed constructive recreational opportunities to young residents of the Bethlehem area and their families.

Paidia and several other area NGO’s, as well as other concerned Palestinians and internationals, met on Sunday to discuss non-violent and effective ways to keep Oush Grab from being taken. We intend to maintain a regular presence on the hill on Oush Grab, holding weekly events such as barbecues, games, dances, and outdoor movies. If anyone spots settlers at the site, the organizations involved in this discussion have agreed to an "emergency" plan. Internationals and locals will meet at Oush Grab as though preparing to do a program, bringing equipment for games and other fun activities. Then we will begin playing as though the settlers are not there. This, we believe, will be more effective than a traditional non-violent protest; it will be much less likely to degenerate into a belligerent or violent affair because the protesters will have something to do in addition to and in the process of demonstrating. The presence of internationals, as well as locals, is vital because it decreases the likelihood of settler violence against the locals.

Returning Paidia volunteer Andrew Raelson and Regional Director Jason Pollock had a separate worrisome encounter last Wednesday while preparing to hike a local wadi (dry river-bed) near Teqoa with around 20 kids. They had gathered the kids in a circle and were about to begin the hike when Andrew, glancing behind him, met with an unwelcome sight­"an unhappy settler with an M-16", as he put it, describing the incident in an e-mail message. He and Jason found they were unable to communicate with the man, who did not speak English. The settler called the military, and Jason and Andrew waited for them to come. Some of the kids wanted to leave right away, as they had forgotten to bring their ID cards. Some were understandably afraid of the armed settler.

Paidia has spoken with the Israeli military about using the area for hikes and games in the past, and they have granted us verbal permission. We have brought kids to the same wadi for over a year without incident. This time, however, the soldiers gave in to pressure from settlers and asked the group to leave. The planned hike never happened.

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Interestingly, a woman from Efrat was badly stoned driving back from Tekoa one day, by a group of Arab  children and we have no doubt that those kids who were stoning Jewish cars are connected to the so-called ‘educational" hikes organized by anarchists.

In short, we have an important mission resting on our shoulders: to restore the Shdema camp to Jewish possession and establish a Jewish settlement there. With God’s help. it is in our power to do so.

Come to the gathering-tour and the activities. Shdema is only a microcosm of what those internal and external enemies want to do to us.

Lastly, here are the latest pictures of the "activities" the anarchists organized at Shdema followed by a letter of theirs http://www.flickr.com/photos/24471684@N07/sets/72157604072599879/show/

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Update Oush Grab

http://kristelsweblog.web-log.nl/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2008/06/07/dsc_0285.jpg
About forty settlers came to the old military base at Oush Grab on Friday 30th May

(See story about Oush Grab my previous posting!)

We were about 10 people playing some Paidia games when the settlers appeared on the top of the hill of the old military base. Some of them came down and started making graffiti’s over our murals. Some of them came down to talk with us and they were very confused about what we were doing there. There were a couple of them wearing guns. Most of them were Americans, middle aged, now living in the settlements of Kiryat Arba and Gush Etzion.

What do they want? According to them they want to create a settler outpost to prevent the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Municipality of Beit Sahour from building a children’s hospital cause they are afraid for a new Arab neighborhood!

See:

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/147463

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/126162

http://womeningreen.org/?s=shdema

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zieRkqkZLHc

http://kristelsweblog.web-log.nl/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2008/06/07/dsc03381.jpg

In the week after the settlers ruined our beautiful wall paintings, we went back to Oush Grab and with a group of about 15 people we re-painted the place and made it look more beautiful than before! You can see us at work on: http://www.flickr.com/photos/24471684@N07/sets/72157604072599879/

Last Friday we organized a Bingo at Oush Grab!

It was a very warm morning, the start of a very hot day! We arrived by 8am and prepared for the arrival of our guests who were asked to pay 2 shekels to join the Bingo event. In case the settlers would arrive we would cordially invite them to our bingo game, if they would be willing to pay the two shekel. Otherwise they would be welcome to watch, but not join our event…

http://kristelsweblog.web-log.nl/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2008/06/07/dsc03393.jpg

Around 9am we had a group of 40 international and Palestinian participants and we started our first round of bingo! It took a while before the first winner shouted "BINGO" and from the table of presents he chose the DVD with dabka music !

By this time three Israeli soldier had arrived. They didn’t come down the hill, but they spoke with the guys who were selling the tickets at the entrance of the site. One of them (who was wearing a mushroom shaped hat over his helmet!!) could see the humor of it all, but the other one kept repeating that ‘this is not funny’ and ‘we will see how we will make an end to this circus’.

We kept on playing bingo for another hour, til we received a message from the mayor of Beit Sahour that we should leave Oush Grab as he had received a phone call from the military, probably with some threats or promises towards what would happen if we stayed there.

The settlers didn’t show up the rest of the day, hamdullilah! so we will not have to paint again next week! We will, however, continue our activities at Oush Grab and get more and more people involved and acquainted with this beautiful place on the outskirts of Beit Sahour!

See for pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/24471684@N07/sets/72157604072599879/

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Translation of a letter sent in Hebrew to all the undersigned.

To: Defense Minister Ehud Barak
Re: International anarchists are taking over the Shdema camp on the Gush Etzion-Har Homah route

We, the undersigned, join the voices in the IDF that oppose handing over the deserted Shdema camp to the Palestinian Authority in order to establish an additional Arab neighborhood in the region.

About a month ago, we, some 150 activists, came to protest the intent to hand over the Shdema camp to the PLO Authority. Army and police forces immediately arrived and forcibly evacuated us from there.

Since then, we come every week, in small groups, to examine what is happening. To our amazement, we see groups of activists from the extreme left, international anarchists, and Arabs coming to the Shdema camp, settling in there, taking control of it, and conducting activities there, and no Israeli body removes them, despite this absolutely being Israeli Area C.

It appears to us that you are not aware of the identity of those international activists who masquerade as innocent volunteers and youth counselors. These are most likely the same type of dangerous anarchists who struggle with our soldiers at Bil’in, and whose sole aim is the elimination of the State of Israel.

Our examination revealed that this is the Paidia organization that is building a park in the area. They call the area "Oush Grab," or in English, "The Jack Forrest Adventure Gardens."

Paidia is an organization that sends volunteer activists to the areas of the PLO Authority to live with the Arabs and to aid them to struggle with IDF soldiers and Jews, masquerading under the innocent guise of "cultural games and nature tours."

We appeal to you with the urgent request:

1) to immediately change the forgiving attitude of the security forces to those international activists. It is inconceivable that in a place such as the Shdema camp, that is under Israeli control, Jews are forcibly evacuated – while anarchists are permitted to take control of the location, in the guise of "cultural" activity. They must be located, arrested, and deported from Israel for incitement to violence and harming the country’s security.

2) to return the IDF to the Shdema camp. or to allow Jewish settlement there. Abandoning the Shdema camp to the Arabs constitutes a security risk to the inhabitants of Har Homah and those traveling on the Gush Etzion-Jerusalem road, and severs eastern Gush Etzion from Jerusalem.

(signed)
* Rabbi and Mrs. Dov Lior, City Rabbi, Kiriat Arba-Hebron
* Rabbi Gideon Perl, Rabbi of Alon Shvut and regional rabbi, Gush Etzion
* Rabbi Shimon Golan, member of the Efrat rabbinate
* Rabbi Yaron Dorani, Rabbi of Nokdim
* Rabbi Shalom Klein, Har Homah
* Rabbi Dr. Avraham Wallfish, Tekoa
* Herzl Yehezkel, Chairperson, Har Homah Committee
* Eli Berkovitz, Chairperson, Homat Shmuel (Har Homah) Community Administration
* Avraham Azulai, Journalist, Har Homah
* Dr. Ruth Wallfish, Chairperson, Administrative Committee, Tekoa
* Hayyim Finkelstein, Building engineer, Tekoa
* Ina Vinyarski, former Amanah member, Tekoa
* Datia Yitzhaki, Secretary of Maaleh Rehavam

For details, contact Rabbi Yaron Dorani, Rabbi of Nokdim, tel. 0508-761886

copies:
* Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, Chief of the General Staff
* Major-Gen. Gadi Shamni, GOC Central Command
* Brig-Gen. Noam Tivon, Commander, Judea/Samaria Region Division
* Col. Nir Salomon, Commander, Etzion Brigade
* Commander Moshe Avshalom Peled, Commander, Hebron Police Region
* Minister Eli Shai
* MK Benjamin Netanyahu
* MK Avigdor Liberman
* MK Rabbi Porush
* MK Yuval Shteinitz
* MK Reuven Rivlin
* MK Gilad Erdan
* MK Gideon Sa’ar
* MK Aryeh Eldad
* MK David Rotem
* MK Yuli Edelstein
* MK Estherina Tartman
* MK Uri Uriel
* MK Binyamin Elon
* MK Tzvi Hendel
* MK Effie Eitam
* MK Yitzhak Aharonovitz
* MK Limor Livnat
* MK Otniel Schneller
* the former Head of the General Staff, Moshe (Bugi) Yaalon
* Mr. Uri Lupolianski, Mayor of Jerusalem

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