The possibility that a new Jewish city might be built in Judea and Samaria, the historic Jewish heartland, has angered the US and the EU, among others.
Israeli authorities announced Sunday that an area of almost 1,000 unused acres of land in the Gush Etzion region of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) has been declared state land. The classification of the acreage, formerly designated as ‘survey land,’ was changed after investigators proved it was not owned privately by Palestinians. Now that it is officially state land, applications may be made for the building of a new Jewish city in the area near a small neighborhood called Gvaot.
The announcement came less than three months after Jewish teenagers Eyal Yifrach, Gilad Sha’ar and Naftali Frankel were abducted from Gush Etzion and murdered by Hamas terrorists.
‘When They Destroy, We Build’
The government’s decision “paves the way for the new city of Gvaot,” the Gush Etzion Regional Council said in a statement. “The goal of the murderers of those three youths was to sow fear among us, to disrupt our daily lives and to call into doubt our right to the land. Our response is to strengthen settlement.”
Economy Minister Naftali Bennett visited the region on Monday.
A memorial to Gilad Sha’ar and Naftali Frankel at the yeshiva they attended. (Photo: Gershon Elinson/Flash90)
“Building has always been the Zionist response to Arab terrorism,” said Bennett. “For 120 years, since the dawn of Zionism, we have built and the world has not liked this. When they kill, we bring life. When they destroy, we build. Also now, with great patience and determination, we will continue to build our land.”
Gush Etzion, located just south of Jerusalem, holds strategic and historic importance to the Holy Land. In ancient days, Abraham, Isaac, Ruth and the future King David had walked its paths, and the courageous Maccabees and Bar Kochba fighters took refuge in its caves. In the modern era, Jewish residents were forced out by Arabs in the 1920s, and again in the 1930s. Communities were subsequently rebuilt, only to be destroyed in a murderous onslaught by an Arab army during Israel’s 1948 War of Independence. The Arabs, who had been on their way to attack Jerusalem, killed 240 men and women over a five-month period, captured the survivors and razed their villages. Jews returned to the area after Israel won the 1967 Six Day War.
The Zionist Answer to Enemies
Grade One students in Gush Etzion (Photo: Gershon Elinson/Flash90)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu committed Sunday to “continue in keeping with our Zionist heritage, to develop our communities and our cities. I use the word develop, not just rebuild, because we have already started to do that.”
Referring to the recently ended military defensive against Hamas terrorists in Gaza, Netanyahu said, “The Zionist answer to those who seek our lives is not only to rebuff them and overcome them in any campaign, but also to develop our state.”
The European Union and the governments of the US, UK and France have condemned the move and called on the Israeli government to reverse its decision. A number of Israeli lawmakers to the left of center also questioned the move, considering the angry reaction of world leaders.
There is a 45-day period in which the decision may be appealed, according to a government official.
Author: Joanne Hill
Staff Writer, United with Israel