WhatsappThe youth of Israel want sovereignty in Judea & Samaria!
Last week the sovereignty movement, led by Nadia Matar and Yehudit Katzover, held a youth conference and the youth turnout was amazing. The conference was held at Bar-Ilan University, the same place Israeli PM Netanyahu announced his support for the two-state solution after pressure from President Obama. How fitting that the youth of Israel are now calling for Israeli sovereignty in Judea & Samaria, negating the two-state solution, from that same place.
52 years after Israel liberated Judea & Samaria in the defensive six-day war of 1967, Israel still has yet to act as the sovereign in our ancestral lands.
For over 100 years the Arabs have used continuous violence against Jews here in our homeland. The world has always assumed that it is a conflict over “land”. Hence, we have always been offered various two-state solutions that the Arabs continuously declined to accept and instead responded with violence.
These Israeli youth understand the truth and they are smarter than most of the world politicians. Our conflict is not over land. The Arabs use violence against us because they want to destroy the only Jewish state. If they truly were interested in having their own state alongside Israel, they could have had one years ago.
There is only one way forward, for Israel to finally apply sovereignty in Judea and Samaria and these youth get it.
Thanks to Nadia Matar & Yehudit Katsover sovereignty is now a mainstream issue in Israeli society. It is only a matter of time before it happens!
Recent News
Before the elections a few months ago, even Israeli PM Netanyahu stated that he will begin to apply sovereignty in Judea and Samaria: “Yes, I’ll apply sovereignty. I don’t separate the large [settlement] blocs from the isolated points (settlements – ed.).”
Even US Ambassador David Friedman recently publicly expressed support for Israel to apply Israeli law in Judea and Samaria when he told the The New York Times in an interview: “Under certain circumstances, I think Israel has the right to retain some, but unlikely all, of the West Bank.”
Assistant Foreign Minister at the Conference
Tzippy Hotovely, Israel’s assistant Foreign Minister, was a guest of honor at the conference. She was quite clear about the direction for Isreal and sovereignty: “I promise you that we’ll do everything not to miss the historic hour (to apply sovereignty),” said the deputy minister.
“You’re probably saying, ‘Why say ‘part?’ We want everything!’ But first of all, I want to tell you something about the word ‘annexation.’ We’re present at the ‘Youth Sovereignty’ conference because the correct terminology is actually ‘sovereignty.’ We’re not annexing the territories of a foreign country, we contain sovereignty over the land of our forefathers that we returned to after 3,000 years.”
What is Sovereignty in Judea & Samaria?
From the movement’s website:
Until now, the successive governments of Israel have refrained from resolving to apply Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria. As a result, the legal fabric of the area has been damaged, meaning, Israeli law is not fully applied and the Jewish residents live under military rule and a patchwork of regulations based on a combination of Ottoman law, British law, international law and Israeli law.
Moreover, in the absence of Israeli sovereignty, the Arab hope to establish another Arab state in these areas remains extant. Israeli hesitancy in the matter of sovereignty, in contrast to Arab resoluteness, is seen by the world as an Israeli admission that indeed, Israel has no right over the territory. This contradicts international law and is against the historic, Biblical right recognized by both the Western world and the Arab world.
The continued existence of the hope for an Arab state (in Judea and Samaria is only the first step) provides a tailwind for terror that seeks to push Israel off of its land and establish an Arab state on its ruins. Full Israeli sovereignty will also serve as a basis for the enforcement of Israeli laws by the relevant security and enforcement agencies, and will provide an unequivocal statement as to who is the exclusive sovereign in the territory.
As stated in the paragraph on “meaning”, the meaning does not only relate to rights, but also to responsibilities. As such, sovereign Israel must ensure the civil welfare of the residents in the territory (and their legal status is a separate issue). In providing a comfortable life to the citizens, another motive that greases the wheels of terror will be removed. And when it becomes clear in a practical way that Israeli sovereignty benefits the people living in the territory, objections to Israeli sovereignty will be removed.
