The real battle over Shdema is starting now

With mixed feelings of happiness and worry we came to Shdema yesterday, Friday February 5th to listen to Prof. Hillel Weiss's lecture on the literature of the first aliyah.

Feelings of happiness-because of the IDF's decision to return to Shdema and set up an outpost there.

Feelings of worry- worrying whether the outpost would stand firm against the international pressure against Israel.

When we came down the hill at the end of the morning, a consular car was there, watching our moves. When we came near to try and see who was inside, we saw the driver was a bodyguard. Somebody was in the back. The back window was very dark. When we tried to approach the car even more to see who the person in the back was, the car fled towards Bet Sahour. We drove after them to photograph them and they fled towards Jerusalem. There is no doubt that in the car was a person who did not want us to know he was there. We think it might be the USA consul himself. A picture of the car can be seen by clicking on:
http://www.yeshabulletin.com/FIGHT%20BACK/FightBack.htm


The Haarets newspaper and their reporter Amira Hess* came out on Thursday and Friday with articles against the IDF's return to Shdema, articles in favor of the Arabs of Bet Sahour and in favor of the illegal Arab construction at the bottom of Shdema claiming that the lands of Shdema have been taken away from the Arabs.

The truth is exactly the opposite. Since the Oslo agreements most of the area has been taken away from Israel and has become area A (under full Arab control). Gush Etzion has been left with only 4% of the land and from these 4% they want to take away Shdema from us!

About the second claim, i.e. that all the Arabs want is to build a hospital in Shdema that will serve "all"…we checked and saw that they have lots and lots of lands in area A on which they can build hospitals if that was what they really wanted. It is clear that the claim that they want to build a hospital there is just an excuse that sounds very "humane" when their real purpose is: to take away from Israel yet another area C under Israeli control and break the Jewish continuity between Jerusalem and Eastern Gush Etzion.

On June first of 2009, Shaul Goldstein, mayor of Gush Etzion, wrote a letter to the Defense Minister explaining why one should not allow the Arabs to build a hospital in Shdema claiming rightfully that it will
not end with a hospital: "the Palestinians will then continue and demand to receive the rest of the area into their hands too- claiming they need parking spaces, and areas in which to grow and expand in the future".

Unlike what Haarets is trying to claim, it is clear that the IDF's decision to return to Shdema is a purely professional decision. The IDF understands the strategic importance of Shdema for the security of the area. Anybody with common sense understands one cannot abandon such an important place.

The Committee for a Jewish Shdema and Women in Green will continue with its activities in Shdema as planned.

Next week we will have the pleasure to hear a lecture by Emanuel Shilo, editor of the "Besheva" newspaper who will talk in Hebrew on "How to turn the plate around to our favor".

The presence of each and every one of us in Shdema is now more important than ever. The support of all our members together with the constant presence of the devoted activists from Har Choma, Jerusalem, Bet Shemesh, Efrat, Gush Etzion, Kiryat Arab Hevron, together with the involvement of the members of Knesset active on behalf of Shdema- is what brought progress in the struggle for a Jewish Shdema. Now we must continue and make even more of an effort to come every week. Please G-d, we will succeed.

The Committee for a Jewish Shdema and Women in Green

Rabbi Yaron Durani (El David Nokdim)- Tsuri Botosh (Shdema youth,Jerusalem)-Igor Bialsky (Tekoa)-Elisheva Ginzburg (Alon Shvut)-Orly Glauber (Maaleh Rehavam)-Ruthi Wallfish (Tekoa)-Ina Viniarsky (Tekoa)-Yehudit Tayar (Bet Horon)-Timna Katz (Neve Daniel)-Tomer Karazi (Nokdim military mechina)-Nadia Matar (Efrat)—Gedalya Friedman (Neve Daniel)-Yehudit Katzover (Kiryat Arba Hevron)-Eli Rodan (Elazar)

For details :
Nadia Matar 050-5500834 , Yehudit Katsover 050-7161818

*Article by Amira Hess on thursday


(we did not find an English translation of Amira Hess's Friday article)

Other related articles on the IDF's return to Shdema:
Link to Arutz 7 article: (English)
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/135785

Link to Jerusalem Post article:(english)
IDF to return to strategic hilltop
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=167447

Link to article in Walla news (Hebrew):
http://news.walla.co.il/?w=//1639382

Link to article in Haarets (Hebrew):
http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/spages/1147450.html

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Women For Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green)
POB 7352, Jerusalem 91072, Israel
Tel: 972-2-624-9887 Fax: 972-2-624-5380
mailto:wfit2@womeningreen.org
http://www.womeningreen.org

The Testing Ground of Shdema

By Timna Katz
November 2009

History: Past and Present

Shdema is an abandoned Israeli army base built in 1967 on the remains of a Jordanian army base. It is five minutes south of Jerusalem's southern neighborhood of Har Homa and five minutes north of eastern Gush Etzion.

Going further back, the Shdema area was densely populated by Jews during the First Temple period and resettled again during the Second Temple period.

Despite the scant archaeological attention the area has received, remains of Jewish settlement have been identified from the Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, and Mameluke periods. The Hasmoneans waged their final victorious battle there.

Shdema's fate since Oslo is typical: designated as Area C, under full Israeli sovereignty, the IDF nonetheless began to abandon Shdema together with other army camps in Judea and Samaria despite the security disaster brought on by the Oslo Accords. Massive and politically directed illegal Arab building proliferates throughout Judea and Samaria, while Jewish growth is frozen. Recently, the double standard has become even more flagrant. The nearby municipality of Beit Sahur has illegally built a sports and entertainment center on Shdema lands with funding provided by European agencies and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

In April 2008, a group of individuals led by Women in Green halted the total destruction of the base and determined to maintain a Jewish presence there to prevent a complete Arab take-over of the strategic hill overlooking the Jerusalem-Gush Etzion highway. The Committee for a Jewish Shdema was formed, and since then, Shdema has become a vibrant cultural center with weekly events and holiday festivities. The Committee, with the support of Women in Green, has plans to build an educational and cultural campus at the site that will foster Jewish and Zionist values and goals.

The Oslo vs. Shdema Paradigm

The lesson of Oslo is tragic but profound. Oslo turned the "peace process" into the country's supreme value and goal. To keep this process going, the Israeli leadership was prepared to sacrifice almost every Jewish and Zionist truth. It exchanged the old values and ideals for a realpolitik that served the enemy's narrative and goals. Even when the results of Oslo proved to be the polar opposites of its intended goals -- war instead of peace, increased Arab rejectionism instead of increased Arab acceptance, international isolation instead of international normalization - Israel continued down the same disastrous path. The one and only justification against total capitulation to Arab demands that Israel mustered was the 'security' card:
Israel can't immediately relinquish all of Yesha because she has no choice but to defend herself against 'terrorism'.

While the damage of the above approach has been great, its bankruptcy has become so evident that even current leaders who continue to dance to the Oslo tune have started to pay lip service to the old values and truths: that the Land of Israel belongs to the Jewish People and Jews cannot be 'occupiers' in the Biblical heartland and cradle of their civilization. However, it's not enough to pay lip service to those truths: if the Jewish People won't physically live those truths, it is now abundantly clear that we'll lose our land - all of it.

That is where we stand today and that is the message behind the struggle for Shdema: the current government continues to follow the Oslo paradigm, even while knowing that it is untenable. The Jewish majority are becoming increasingly frustrated by leaders who talk the post-Olso talk but won't walk the post-Oslo walk. Shdema has become a testing ground of these tensions and the opposing forces rumbling beneath Israel's surface.

Thus the struggle to keep Shdema Jewish has not only been supported by the local populace, idealistic youth, and right-wing politicians, it has also received support from elements in the army and the political center. Meanwhile, however, the status quo maintains its hold and the Arabs continue to build illegally while a Jewish government ties Jewish hands.

A Tipping Point?

Positive change is occurring, though the evidence of it - whether in the Jewish cultural awakening within secular Israel or in the supporting visit of the Knesset speaker to Shdema - doesn't yet indicate what its eventual force or impact will be. Unfortunately, destructive counter-forces maintain their momentum and time is running out. We of the Committee for a Jewish Shdema believe that Shdema will be a testing ground for this nascent change and hope that you will help us in making it happen. God willing, if we all act now and act forcefully, we can reverse the fatal Oslo tide and unleash the tremendous positive energies inherent in the Jewish return to Zion.


*Timna Katz, resident of Neve Daniel in Gush Etzion, is a member of the Committee for a Jewish Shdema and Women in Green

===============
Women For Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green)
POB 7352, Jerusalem 91072, Israel
Tel: 972-2-624-9887 Fax: 972-2-624-5380
mailto:wfit2@womeningreen.org
http://www.womeningreen.org