Hebron Etzion
_______ Bloc Betar Jerusalem
/Kiryat \ _______ ______ _____________
/ Arba \ / Efrat \ / \ / \_______
___/ \____/ \__/ \____/ Maaleh Adumim
######### #### #### # Tekoa ______
# # # # # # # # _____ / \
# # # # # ### ##### / \ / \
# # # # # # # # # _/ \____/ \_
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"Rebuilding Jewish Life in Judea, Israel"
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JUDEA ELECTRONIC MAGAZINE Vol.9, No.4 Tamuz/Av 5761/July-Aug 2001
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Website: http://www.crosswinds.net/~judea OUR 9TH YEAR!
Contents:
* Thursday at Sbarro's Pizza
* Pinpoint Attacks are No Longer Comprehensible
* In Memoriam: Ya'ir Har-Sinai (Ossenheim), 51, of Susiya
* In Memoriam: Yehezkiel (Hezi) Mualem, 49, of Kiryat Arba
* In Memoriam: David Cohen, 28, of Betar Elit
* Capt. Shai Cohen, 22, Killed Near Otniel
* Teach Your Children Not to be Afraid
* Thanks to the Jews of Hebron
* Tekoa: After the Murders
* The Second Battle for Gush Etzion
* The Jewish Settlement Community Continues to Grow
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THURSDAY AT SBARRO'S PIZZA
Binny Friedman
Thursday, August 9, 2001, on my way to work, I found myself walking
down Yaffo street [in Jerusalem]. Hungry, I decided to stop and grab a
quick bite - at Sbarro's Pizza.
In the past 5 years I have frequented this establishment exactly
twice. Walking into Sbarro's there is a larger area for sitting in the
front, but the back looked a bit cooler and quieter, so I decided to
grab a seat in the back. That decision saved my life.
Waiting on line, when they brought me the baked Zitti I asked for,
it was cold. So I asked the woman behind the counter if she'd mind
warming it up. "No problem," she said with a smile. I will always
wonder if that was her last smile on earth.
A couple of moments later, a fellow from behind the counter came to
the back with my baked Zitti. Then he started to speak to someone at
one of the tables. That baked Zitti saved his life.
At about 2PM, I both felt & heard a tremendous explosion, and day
turned into night.
And then the screaming began. An awful, heartrending sound; the
sound of people coming to terms with a whole new reality, of people
not wanting to comprehend that life has changed forever.
Those of us sitting in the back were spared, but I was afraid of
panic, so I started yelling at everyone to quiet down; not to panic.
The ceiling looked like it might cave in, but there is always the
danger of a second explosion, detonated on purpose shortly after the
first.
But then I smelled smoke, and was suddenly afraid the restaurant
might be on fire. So we started climbing our way through the
wreckage to the front.
There are no words to describe what the front of Sbarro's Pizza
looked like in the immediate aftermath of that explosion.
A woman was lying near the steps to the back. Her eyes were staring
straight at me, following me. So full of pain and longing, sadness and
despair. I dropped down beside her trying to elicit a response to see
if she could speak. And then I watched the life just drain out of her.
I tried to get a pulse, to no avail. She died there, on the steps in
front of me. She was lying by the table I had decided not to sit at.
Her eyes, I think, will stay with me forever. Imploring, beseeching,
full of so much sadness.
There were bodies everywhere, and those images are in my mind; They
won't let go. A child's body under the wreckage; a baby-carriage
limbs and a torso; A woman holding a motor-cycle helmet and screaming
next to a person on the floor who had obviously been someone she was
with.
And then the mad rush to help the ambulance and emergency crews get
the wounded out. They were obviously afraid of a second bomb, so there
was no medical effort inside beyond getting the wounded on to
stretchers and out.
The wall behind me shielded me from the blast. Another fellow
sitting only 5 or 6 feet to my left caught the full force of the blast
and was thrown in the air. When we got him on the stretcher he was
bleeding profusely and was missing a leg.
I came home and gave each of my children a very long hug. But there
are so many families today who are waking up to the reality that life
will never be the same. 15 funerals with friends and families saying
goodbye to those they loved so, whose only crime was a desire for a
slice of pizza on a beautiful Jerusalem afternoon.
(Excerpted from Efrat Community Mailing List Digest, 12 Aug 01)
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PINPOINT ATTACKS ARE NO LONGER COMPREHENSIBLE
Nadav Shragai
"Every day a funeral..." lamented poet Uri Zvi Greenberg during the
period of restraint at the time of the 1936 Arab uprising. "Where is
there a diaspora land where blood flows so easily?...Where is there a
land whose Jews are drowning in blood and sadness,...months of killing
without respite?"
The frequency of incidents has long since gone beyond any
reasonable norm. From September 29, 2000 until August 1, 2001, the
Palestinians have fired 547 times at Israeli settlements within the
Green Line and outside it. Israeli vehicles on the country's roads have
been shot at 1,067 times; 279 hand grenades have been thrown; 286 bombs
have exploded; 111 have been dismantled. The Palestinians have shot at
military installations 4,016 times. Five suicide bombers and 10 car
bombs have exploded and, in all, during the past 10 months there have
been about 6,400 attacks, for an average of 21-22 attacks per day.
During this period, 136 Israelis have been killed, and 1,073 injured.
The relative legitimization that the Palestinian terror has gained
for itself in the world - thanks to our restraint - has led to a
situation where even a pinpoint attack on the attackers and those who
send them, in Nablus or in Tul Karm, is no longer comprehensible.
And inside Israel, there is a horrifying countdown until the next
major attack, only after which will it presumably be legitimate for us
to carry out a large-scale action against the Palestinian terrorist
authority. This countdown is morally horrifying, and it is wrong for
two reasons: It accepts as a norm a toll of one dead and several
injured every other day, and it also determines ahead of time that the
country will pay with the lives of dozens of additional Israelis, in
order to regain (presumably) legitimization for attacking terrorism and
its dispatchers with great force - a legitimization it has lost due to
that same restraint.
(From _Ha'aretz_, 8 August 2001, via IMRA - http://www.imra.org.il)
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IN MEMORIAM: YA'IR HAR-SINAI (OSSENHEIM), 51, OF SUSIYA
Ya'ir Har-Sinai (Ossenheim), 51, of Susiya, failed to return home
after a day of shepherding. The father of nine, his body was finally
found with bullet holes to his head and back. Thousands attended his
funeral today in Susiya, south of Hebron.
Susiya resident Akiva London describes his late friend: "Ya'ir was
a unique figure in Susiya. He was friendly with the Arabs, he lived
with nature, was always with his sheep, refused to take weapons and not
even a radio, with the idea that no one will harm him if he is 'clean.'
For years we were afraid for him, and we always tried to get him to
take at least a walkie-talkie. He was a man of great faith in G-d. He
didn't want to use modern things, but rather electricity from wind-
powered sources and water from a cistern; he lived in a stone house on
the edge of Susiya; he dressed in the way in which he felt that our
ancestors dressed 2,000 years ago....He was very environment-conscious,
and zealously guarded the state-owned lands. He had nine children,
including one married daughter, one in the army, and a year-old
toddler."
London said that Susiya has almost 80 families, with several more
coming this summer.
(Arutz Sheva News Service, July 3, 2001,
http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com)
* * *
[The author of the following letter, Tamar Bracha, an 11th grader
at the Kiryat Arba Women's High School (Ulpana), is a close friend of
Yair Har-Sinai's daughter Chana.]
Dear Friends and Family,
Monday night, my very close friend's father was murdered.
Two weeks ago, I slept over at her house. You see, we became very
good friends over the year. She had visited me in my home, and
throughout the year I was trying to convince my mom to let me visit
her. My mom didn't really want me to go because of the situation.
Finally, I got her to agree in the last week of school with the
convincing statement of "You never know what things will be like next
year. Maybe then I won't be able to visit her at all."
I went to her house. They live actually right outside the
settlement of Susiya. There's a small path that leads down the hill to
their home. It's an amazing house. It reminds you of Heidi's house. All
out of wood, so beautiful, so like a dream. They had built a small
swimming pool into a stone right near their house. They have a cave
right near it too (they sleep there sometimes) and on top of the cave,
her brother was building a mini-house for himself to be in. They also
had the place where they kept the sheep.
When she gave me a tour and showed me the mini-house her brother
was building, she said that they had hired Arabs to help him, until the
people from their settlement voted against it. At the surprised look on
my face, she said that the Arabs were very friendly with her dad and
with them. They are the same Arabs that murdered him, the Arabs they
all thought were so friendly and harmless.
There were over 2,000 people at the funeral. On the way to the
burial, I met my friend Chana. When she saw me, she came to me and
started crying. We hugged, but I wouldn't let myself cry. Most of us
didn't. We knew we had to be strong for her. What you saw in her was a
strength more powerful then you could ever imagine. Her and her family.
When one of the girls in our class went up to Chana and told her to
be strong, Chana replied "we get stronger every minute that passes".
The thing is, it was so true. You could see it in them. At one point in
the funeral, people started screaming "revenge!" Dalia, Ya'ir's wife,
got up. She said she wasn't planning on talking, but what was happening
here called for it. Then she said "I understand your anger, your want
for revenge. But talking or screaming about it won't do anything. Ya'ir
was a man of action and of little talking. The only way you could
revenge is by coming and helping us. By coming and living out where we
are. By making our roots there stronger and showing the Arabs that they
didn't make us weaker, but stronger. That will be the real revenge."
(Hebron Press Office, July 9, 2001, http://www.hebron.org.il)
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IN MEMORIAM: YEHEZKIEL (HEZI) MUALEM, 49, OF KIRYAT ARBA
Yehezkiel (Hezi) Mualem, 49 year old father of four, died of wounds
sustained during last night's terrorist attack outside the Harsina
neighborhood of Kiryat Arba.
Mualem, a member of the Kiryat Arba town council, was the
construction manager for the Kiryat Arba Development Company. He lived
in Kiryat Arba with his family for over 20 years. A well-known figure,
Mualem is remembered as a "chazan" (the conductor of prayer services),
a "Ba'al Hesed" (a man of great mercy), and a "Ba'al Tzadukka" (a man
of charity), who never said no to anyone needing help. He was also a
registered ambulance driver. He was a tank commander in the IDF, and
was injured during the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
(The Hebron Press Office, July 13, 2001)
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IN MEMORIAM: DAVID COHEN, 28, OF BETAR ELIT
David Cohen, a 28-year-old building contractor from the Betar Elit
community, was shot in the head yesterday morning while in his car, at
the western entrance to Kiryat Arba. Arafat terrorists opened fire on
his car, and on an army jeep. The jeep was hit, but no one was hurt.
Israeli soldiers returned fire.
Cohen's latest building project was a new Bnei Akiva children's
youth center in the Givat Harsina neighborhood of Kiryat Arba.
(Hebron Press Office, July 13, 2001)
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CAPT. SHAI COHEN, 22, KILLED NEAR OTNIEL
At about 12:30 am on July 8, 2001, an Israeli officer, 22-year-old
Captain Shai Shlomo Cohen, was killed when his jeep was destroyed by a
remote-control land mine. The attack occurred near the Otniel community
in the Southern Hebron Hills. A second soldier was slightly wounded.
Captain Cohen was the deputy company commander of an IDF unit serving
in the area.
(Hebron Press Office, July 9, 2001, http://www.hebron.org.il)
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TEACH YOUR CHILDREN NOT TO BE AFRAID
Elisheva Federman, mother of 6, lives in the Jewish community of
Hebron in Judea, which has suffered from frequent Arab sniper fire from
the surrounding hills.
Q: How do you teach your children not to be afraid?
A: I teach them that there is the Holy One Blessed be He who
directs the world, and every time a miracle happens to us and we are
unhurt, I put their hand on their heart and say: "Feel how God loves
you. Feel it here. Here. God is not somewhere distant. He is within us.
Feel the protection and the love." And they speak with Him when it is
hard for them.
A few weeks ago there was massive shooting in Hebron. Bullets were
whistling above us. During a break in the shooting, our 5-year-old,
Oved, decided to take his 2 1/2-year-old brother to the synagogue where
his father had gone. And Oved told him on the way, on the stairway,
"Feel how God protects us." Suddenly there was a round of fire toward
our house. The soldiers on our roof responded and everything shook. The
two children sat down in place because of the noise.
I went out to hug them, and I saw the 5-year-old take the hand of
the 2 1/2-year-old, put it on his heart, and told him: "Feel how God
protects us. Nothing happened to us."
(From _Maariv_ Weekend Magazine, 3 August 2001, p. 40)
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THANKS TO THE JEWS OF HEBRON
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon proposes that every student in the
State of Israel be obligated to visit Hebron's Jewish Quarter as well
as the Cave of the Patriarchs. In an interview with Yediot Ahronot
newspaper, Sharon says that the Jewish people's roots are in Hebron,
adding that the Jews who have come to settle there "have taken upon
themselves a job for which we must all thank them.
"If these Jews were not there, then other Jews would not be able to
visit the Cave of the Patriarchs." In an interview in Ha'aretz, Sharon
added: "No people has a monument like the Tomb of the Patriarchs, where
the patriarchs and matriarchs of the nation are buried: Abraham and
Sarah, Yitzchak and Rebecca, Jacob and Leah. No people in the world has
a historical asset like that. When I visit Washington, I look at the
people who are standing at the foot of the Washington and Lincoln
monuments, and they were truly great individuals. But here, in Hebron,
we are talking about 4,000 years. 4,000 years. After all, what is Tel
Rumeida? It is ancient Hebron. That is where King David was crowned…"
(Arutz Sheva News Service, http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com,
April 12, 2001)
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TEKOA: AFTER THE MURDERS
Shlomit Eitam
The eighth-graders in Tekoa grew up suddenly one morning. When they
arrived at school on May 8, 2001, they already knew that their friends,
Kobi Mandel and Yosef Ish-Ran, had been murdered during an innocent
trip to Tekoa's backyard, in Wadi Hariton that they loved so much (see
Judea Magazine 9.3).
Two months have passed since the terrible murders. Six of their
friends speak here: on life in Tekoa, on memories, on the will to
continue normal life and on the difficulty, on Yosef and on Kobi.
"Always when you hear that a child has been murdered you feel that
it is awful, but you don't think that it will reach you. Only when it
arrives do you understand how terrible it is," said Shlomo.
"When Shmuel Gillis from Carmei Tzur was killed, we went to the
funeral," said Amit. "Kobi was next to me. I said to him: 'Look, what
an unfortunate person, see what kind of vicious death can happen to a
person.' Then Kobi said: 'This man is now in a much better world. The
unfortunates are those who remain after him. They need to deal with
this.' After what happened I thought about this a lot. Here, they are
now in a better place and we are the ones who remain, broken. He said
that sentence off-handedly, but he was so right."
Avshalom: "They brought a psychologist in from our school to help
us, someone who had been Kobi's baseball coach. In the beginning he
didn't know who the murdered children were. When we told him, he
suddenly realized that it was Kobi, that it was connected to him too.
After that he couldn't act as a psychologist anymore and he just sat
with us."
They have a black album with all the news stories that appeared
after the murder. Eti: "I didn't want to keep the articles. Who Yosef
and Kobi were and how they lived is not written there, just how they
were murdered."
Shlomo: "About a year ago my father died. Yosef would talk to me
about this, and sometimes I would cry a little. Then he would say to
me: 'You don't need to cry. You need to remember him and be glad.' Now
I always think about what he told me to do, what he would have wanted
me to do." "He loved to enjoy life. Once he said to me: 'Come, let's go
to Ashdod.' Just like that, suddenly. So we went. I said to him:
'Yosef, what are we doing?' Then he said to me: 'If you have an
opportunity to have an experience, you should take advantage of it,
because maybe you won't get a second chance.' After he was murdered I
thought about this a lot. How did he know?"
Avshalom: "Kobi was funny. Whenever you asked him something, he
would answer something funny." Eti: "In a large group he was quiet. But
if you were with him alone or with one other person he would begin to
open up, to laugh and make you laugh." Amit: "When there was a need to
work, he always volunteered. In the Peace for Generations group he went
from door to door through the entire village signing up everyone."
Shlomo: This event has actually strengthened most of the residents.
There is a feeling that if we leave here, it's a surrender. That would
give the Arabs what they want to gain by their violence. So we stay
here.
(From _Makor Rishon_ Magazine, 13 July 2001, pp. 18-21)
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THE SECOND BATTLE FOR GUSH ETZION
Shlomit Eitan
I'm riding to Gush Etzion in an armored bus, remembering the
stories of the armored convoys trying to resupply besieged Gush Etzion
(the Etzion Bloc) in 1948. The story of Gush Etzion holds within it the
story of the fight for Jewish settlement throughout the Land of Israel.
Yeshiva students from Meah Shaarim in Jerusalem, Yeminites with
long sidecurls, an elderly American woman, and a few Ashkenazi families
were the first settlers in Gush Etzion in the modern era. Seventy-four
years ago, in 1927, Migdal Eder, an ultra-Orthodox village, was
established on the road between Jerusalem and Hebron (near the main
intersection of the Gush today). The first residents suffered greatly
from the harsh winter. They were buried under snowdrifts and almost
froze to death. In 1929, at the time of the massacre of the Jews in
Hebron, the last settlers left the place and Migdal Eder fell into
ruin.
The next chapter of the story was written in 1932. Shmuel Zvi
Holtzman founded a company named El Ha-Har (To the Mountain), with the
objective of purchasing land between Bethlehem and Hebron in order to
establish a Jewish village with the name Kfar Etzion, a translation of
the name of the founder Holtzman (Holtz means tree or "etz" in Hebrew).
In 1935, 30 workers were brought into the area, most of them members of
HaShomer [Jewish guards]. With them came a group of immigrants from
Kurdistan and members of Zionist youth groups from Magdiel and Kfar
Saba. When the Arab riots of 1936 began, the Arabs began to attack the
village, and the place was abandoned in the summer.
The third and perhaps better known chapter began in 1943 with the
settlement of Kfar Etzion by the "Abraham Group" of Hapoel Hamizrachi.
Some of the original settlers are still alive, but I was only able to
find one person from among a number of the original settlers of Kfar
Etzion who found the strength to speak to me.
Tzipora Bilig, today a resident of Alon Shvut (in Gush Etzion),
worked until a year ago in the archives of Kfar Etzion. Tzipora came to
Israel from Poland via Russia in 1940, at age 17, with the "Abraham
Group" of Bnai Akiva, and was one of the first members of Kfar Etzion.
"Half the Villagers of Beit Omar were at My Wedding"
Bilig speaks: "At a certain time the Jewish National Fund gave us
land in Gush Etzion. There were those who opposed going there because
the land was difficult to work for agriculture, and they had been
educated to be farmers."
Q: Was there opposition because of security fears?
"Perhaps a bit, but that was peripheral. We weren't thinking at all
about the issue of security. Most of the opposition was concerned with
the question of economics, the ability to establish agriculture in the
region. Settlement in the area also violated the [British] White
Paper," said Bilig. "We didn't arrive in Kfar Etzion with the approval
of the British authorities. In the beginning we sent a few men who were
there to guard the land. After a while the rest joined them, and in the
end, the women and children as well. We were a small group of Jewish
settlers in a totally Arab region. In the beginning we were very
careful, we didn't go beyond the fence, but with time we felt more
secure."
Q: How did you get to Jerusalem?
"There was one truck and it was usually busy bringing supplies.
Mostly we walked from the kibbutz to the Gush Etzion intersection,
about 3 kilometers, and caught a bus from Hebron to Jerusalem.
Q: Weren't you afraid to travel like that?
"No. We rode together with the Arabs. We were careful, but there
was no fear. In fact, the Arab villagers from Beit Omar, that was close
to us, befriended us and visited the kibbutz often. I was married at
the kibbutz, it was the second wedding in Kfar Etzion. I remember that
half the villagers of Beit Omar were at my wedding."
The establishment of additional villages in Gush Etzion gave the
members of Kfar Etzion "a better feeling of greater security," said
Tzipora Bilig. In November 1945, Masuot Yitzhak was established
northwest of Kfar Etzion. In 1946 came Ein Tzurim, and in 1947 Hashomer
Hatzair established Kibbutz Revadim. Uri Finkerfeld, today a member of
Kibbutz Revadim now located in the valley below Judea and a past
secretary of the Kibbutz Artzi movement, was one of the founders of the
original Kibbutz Revadim.
A Decision to Remain in Place Under Arab Sovereignty
"Among the land that was purchased in Gush Etzion," recalls
Finkerfeld, "one parcel was in dispute. It was clear that we needed to
end the dispute by establishing facts, but there was no group of
religious Palmach soldiers available for settlement. In addition, the
Hapoel HaMizrachi group thought it would give a push to settlement of
Gush Etzion and the country in general if another kibbutz movement, one
that was not religious, came into the area. We were a group of 70 men
and women in our 20s from Hashomer Hatzair.
Q: As members of Hashomer Hatzair, did you not have an ideological
problem settling land that was in dispute?
"No, the opposite. Hashomer Hatzair believed in "greater Zionism":
the concentration of the majority of the Jewish people in the Land of
Israel. From the beginning, for Hashomer Hatzair, the Land of Israel
was the joint homeland of the Jewish people returning to it and the
Arab people located there. The solution was to establish a binational
state here. The break came with the Holocaust. Hashomer Hatzair saw the
urgent need to establish a Jewish state here, and since the Arabs were
not ready for the idea of a binational state, we agreed to the idea of
partition. The suggested map was possible only if there were open
borders, otherwise it would be impossible to establish."
"In the partition plan of 1947 there were 36 Jewish villages that
fell inside the Arab state, including 9 Hashomer Hatzair kibbutzim,
almost a quarter of all the kibbutzim in the movement. Ben-Gurion
invited representatives of these kibbutzim to a meeting. Before the
meeting, the Hashomer Hatzair people met with their leaders, Meir Yaari
and Yaakov Hazan, and there was a decision to remain in place, under
Arab sovereignty. From our point of view, this was part of the complete
Land of Israel, our homeland. The rest of the Gush Etzion kibbutzim
decided the same. Nevertheless, of course we prepared ourselves for
defense. We requested more arms and reinforcements.
The Women and Children are Evacuated
On the eve of the riots that began in 1947 there were 450 souls in
Gush Etzion, which covered an area of nearly 20,000 dunams. There were
many plans for expansion and development: the purchase of additional
land, the establishment of a fifth settlement, the setting up of
factories, and the like. The war stopped everything.
Tzipora Bilig: "When they began to speak about the partition plan
and about a Jewish state, the people of Beit Omar warned us that they
would stop coming to visit, and that we should be careful because other
currents were flowing among them. In that same period guards began to
accompany the vehicles going to Jerusalem. The first serious attack was
on the Convoy of the Ten, on Hanukkah. The convoy was attacked near El
Hadar and ten people were killed. This was a terrible blow to all the
residents of the Gush. There was a feeling that the security situation
would not allow normal life, and it was decided to evacuate the women
and children to Jerusalem. We went to the Ratisbone Monastery. The
kibbutz became a military base, populated by men and women without
children. I already had a daughter, so I went to Jerusalem."
Q: When you went to Jerusalem, did you think you would soon return?
"Yes, we thought it would be just a month or two until the
situation stabilized and we returned. We left our homes and most of our
possessions. From then on, the Arabs more or less controlled the road
from the Gush to Jerusalem. Every movement had to be in a convoy, that
usually came under attack. In the spring of 1948, a convoy of 51
vehicles loaded with equipment reached the Gush safely, but on its
return trip to Jerusalem the Arabs blocked the road and attacked. In
the battle at Neve Daniel 14 fighters were killed and 40 wounded. Then
came direct attacks on the settlements."
Q: I understand that the people of the Gush were under siege, under
fire. Were there thoughts or discussions of evacuating the place?
"Yes. After the battle at Neve Daniel and after they began
attacking the Gush directly, arguments began about leaving the place.
There were those who thought we needed to leave. Others said that this
was our home and we need to fight for it. In the end, a decision was
made to remain."
Q: And today in the Gush do you hear talk or thoughts of leaving?
"It is hard for everyone, but we need to stand strong. There is no
choice. The Arabs don't want us here, that isn't new, and we have no
choice but to struggle with them. The greatest struggle is to remain
here and to continue our lives. Everyone is afraid and worried, but I
haven't heard any talk of this type."
The Gush fell in May 1948, the day before the proclamation of the
State of Israel. After the fighters at Kfar Etzion surrendered, the
Jordanians told them to assemble in the center of the kibbutz in order
to photograph the surrender. After everyone had gathered, the
Jordanians opened fire with machine guns. 122 people were killed that
day in Kfar Etzion, 79 were members of the kibbutz. No other Jewish
village paid such a price.
"Tzipora Bilig: "The news reached us at Ratisbone. I remember the
very moment. Everyone lay on the beds crying. Almost all of the men had
been killed, leaving just women with children. My husband had been in
Tel Aviv on that day because he was one of the organizers of the supply
convoys. He was one of the few men left alive."
In the three other kibbutzim the Jordanians committed no massacres
and their members were taken captive. Uri Finkerfeld had left Kibbutz
Revadim on a mission for the kibbutz movement with the last convoy,
that was attacked at Neve Daniel. He was supposed to return in two
weeks but was unable to do so and so was not captured. Even before
captured members of Kibbutz Revadim returned, a group set up an
alternative settlement in the Judea foothills, where the kibbutz
remains until today. Masuot Yitzhak and Ein Tzurim were also
reestablished elsewhere.
The members of Kfar Etzion were given a place on the border of Bat
Yam and Jaffa, near Tel Aviv, where they continued living as a kibbutz.
In 1952 the kibbutz broke up with the establishment of Nir Etzion,
which was meant as a replacement for Kfar Etzion.
Yohanan Ben-Yaakov, today a member of Kibbutz Kfar Etzion and
responsible for Jewish education in the former Soviet Union, was born
in Kfar Etzion before it fell. He left the kibbutz for the Ratisbone
Monastery at the age of 3, together with the women and other children.
His father was one of the fallen in the last battle at Kfar Etzion.
"This was a broken society, a group of widows and orphans. As children
we were raised on stories of the kibbutz that once existed and was
destroyed. There was an album with pictures of Kfar Etzion and we
studied the pictures backwards and forwards. We knew every path and
every house in the kibbutz as if we lived there for real. When we were
older, every Independence Day we would take a trip to the Jerusalem
mountains to look towards Gush Etzion."
"Kfar Etzion was the largest and most established of the four
kibbutzim. There were already many families and children. In addition,
there was the tragedy of Kfar Etzion, the story of the massacre in
which nearly all of the men were killed. This made the connection
between us and that place even stronger. There were 67 children with
mothers, who lived with the feeling that we have a home and we will
return to it."
Ben-Yaakov came to the Gush immediately after its liberation in
1967. At Kfar Etzion he found an abandoned Jordanian army camp. "A
month after the war there was a meeting of all the children of Kfar
Etzion. It was clear that we would return. It never occurred to us that
there would be any political problem with our return, but the
government (the national unity government headed by Levi Eshkol)
postponed the matter repeatedly. They simply gave no answer."
In the summer of 1967, three and a half months after the liberation
of the Gush, the sons were allowed to return to their homes. This
begins the fourth chapter in the story of Gush Etzion, one that has
continued for 34 years. Tzipora Bilig and her husband, the late Yaakov
Yisrael, returned to Kfar Etzion after 1967 and were among the founders
of Alon Shvut.
Q: After the Gush was liberated in 1967, was it clear that you
would return?
Tzipora: "To us, yes. But there were many, especially the widows,
who did not want to return. They were afraid. Those who returned were
primarily the sons."
Q: Does the difficult situation today remind you of the difficult
days of the past?
"First of all, with all the difficulty of the situation, I am
pleased to see the development of Gush Etzion, all the activity.
Despite the situation, I can't compare it to the past. Now we have our
state with more security and more power. Nevertheless, I see what is
happening today as the direct continuation of what began in 1948,
except that the Arabs today have more power, more military force, and a
stronger national identity."
Ben-Yaakov: "In the current situation, there is no place to discuss
questions of the value of different areas. The struggle is for all of
Eretz Israel, and there is no difference between Tel Aviv, Kedumim,
Netanya, or Gush Etzion."
(From _Makor Rishon_ Magazine, 29 June 2001, pp. 14-17)
*********************************************************************
THE JEWISH SETTLEMENT COMMUNITY CONTINUES TO GROW
Nadav Shragai
At the end of 10 months of fighting, the Jewish settlement
community in the territories continues growing, though at a much slower
pace than it has, on average, since the settlement movement began in
earnest in the late 1970s.
According to Interior Ministry figures, the overall settlement
population grew by some 5,000 people in the last year, representing a
six-month growth rate of 2.44 percent.
In the religious, ideological settlements, close to the Palestinian
Authority or otherwise known as "deep in the hinterland" - including
those where the security situation is difficult - a positive growth
balance is being maintained.
Gush Etzion: On June 30, 2001, the aggregate number of families to
have left the region numbered only 30 out of some 2,000 families in the
area, while dozens of new families joined the mostly religious
settlements in the area. In Neve Daniel, no apartments are available
for sale and out of 20 apartments available for rent, 16 have been
taken.
Efrat, near Gush Etzion, saw 50 families leave, mostly renters. But
30 new families moved in. Counting the children, the settlement
maintained a balance of 6,600 residents.
Kiryat Arba: The population has remained stable. There are 40
apartments now under construction in the neighborhood, of which 28 have
been sold.
South Mt. Hebron: In recent weeks 15 families have moved to Otniel,
3 to Carmel, and 6 to Susiya. Most of the settlements in the area are
religious, but in a secular settlement like Shima, 10 new apartments
have been bought. In Neguhot, eight new families have joined the 12
veteran families living there.
Mid-Samaria: Newcomers, driven by ideology, are joining. Har Bracha
saw 11 families join. Elon Moreh saw 10. Kedumim had 64 new families
join the settlement.
Gush Katif: Since last fall 22 families have left the area and 38
have joined. Isolated Netzarim has seen 8 families join, Kfar Darom, 6,
and Morag, 7.
Binyamin District: Some 28,000 Jews live in the 33 settlements and
six outposts of the district, which has seen a 4-6 percent increase in
the population.
(From _Ha'aretz_, 8 August 2001, via IMRA - http://www.imra.org.il)
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