Fw: [Freemanlist] IDF to Destroy Homes in Gush Etzion + Rejects FundingFrom Pat Robertson
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Subject: [Freemanlist] IDF to Destroy Homes in Gush Etzion + Rejects FundingFrom Pat Robertson
FREEMAN CENTER BROADCAST- January 11, 2006
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Please read the first two chapters of my SF novel to see where current Israeli policy is headed. We must change directi! on. First elect a strong Jewish/Zionist government, and then act decisively to protect the security and survival of Israel.
IDF Attempts to Destroy Homes in Gush Etzion 'Settlement Bloc'
IsraelNationalNews.com-January 11, 2006 / 11 Tevet 5766
Without warning, a small community in t! he consensus region of Gush Etzion has become the center of the government's demolition efforts. Demolition forces face unexpected opposition.
Residents of the community of Sde Boaz, twenty minutes south of Jerusalem, received less that 24 hours' notice that the Civil Administration, on orders from the government, planned to destroy a newly built house, the foundations of a large home and a large stable that were built over the summer.
Border police, accompanied by a bulldozer and Civil Administration officials arrived at the small community of Sde Boaz early Wednesday morning, but were met by friends of the residents and Land of Israel activists, who stopped them in their tracks.
The forces succeeded in bulldozing a large stable, which Sde Boaz residents had built over the summer for their horses and donkeys. When the border and civil forces tried to bulldoze the home, protesters surrounded the building and declared that they would! not budge. Civil Administration officials, who had claimed that the home was not populated and could therefore be destroyed without approval from a senior officer, entered the home to find a comfortable bachelor's "pad," replete with breakfast lying on the kitchen table.
They then turned their attention to the foundations of a home, built by a recently married resident of the community who serves as a company commander in the IDF reserves. Hundreds of local residents who had flocked to the community through fields and vineyards (police blocked the main access road) stood atop the foundations and refused to move, locking arms. Police responded with severe violence, but were soon ordered to stand down after commanders noticed the large number of press photographers on the scene.
Sde Boaz is a unique community. It is an environmentally friendly, agricultural community established by religious and non-observant Jews who sought to create an example of what the State of! Israel can aspire to be a home where Jews from diverse backgrounds and outlooks can come together to build and assist one another.
The community is also unique in that it is built entirely through Avoda Ivrit, Jewish Labor. The residents not only refuse to exploit local Palestinian workers for cheap, and often shoddy, building, but believe that the reconnection of the Jewish people with their land after a 2,000 year estrangement necessitates getting one's hands dirty with its soil. Though the place is populated by professionals a medical student, a doctor of physics, a dentist, a veterinarian, a security guard, three teachers, an auto mechanic, an organic farmer and two journalists most of the residents engage in agricultural projects on the side. Fields of wheat, chickpeas, clover (for the animals), peas, chard and beets, as well as olive and fruit orchards surround the community.
Even before its establishment, over three years ago, the founders would t! rek to the future site and work the state lands situated there, keeping them from being claimed by Arab squatters, who receive stipends from the Palestinian Authority to plant far and wide. Agricultural activity is a way of acquiring land under Ottoman and British Mandate law, which are still applied in Judea and Samaria.
Sde Boaz is located less than a mile north of Neve Daniel and Efrat, the heart of the Gush Etzion settlement bloc. According to the Sharon regime, US President George W. Bush guaranteed Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that Gush Etzion would remain in Jewish hands, in return for the destruction of Jewish towns in Gaza. The community sits on a high point between the Efrat/Neve Daniel bloc and the city of Betar Illit, with a view of the entire region. After residents move in, the IDF situated an advanced surveillance camera there which can see clear to Tel Aviv and the coastal plain, even at night.
Residents were divided on the extent of active oppositio! n to the destruction, but outside activists soon flooded the small community, rendering their preference for organized opposition moot as crowds blocked the bulldozers, singing and dancing in the rain and hail, with guitars and hot tea.
"This isn't just one person's little home and this isn't just our community's small building this is a Jewish home, built completely by Jews on land that was paid for before the State was even founded, by Jews around the world who donated money to purchase land in Israel through the Jewish National Fund," a Sde Boaz spokesperson told the media. "Such a thing cannot be destroyed due to an arbitrary piece of paper declaring it 'illegal.' "
"The Jewish people must wake up to the fact that they have been lied to. The so-called settlement blocs were talked about merely in order to ease us in to the fact that we are being forced to retreat by non-democratic forces, no matter how many times we reject them at the ballot box."
Another r! esident, a reporter for the weekly Makor Rishon, said that the local Palestinians have been building terraces and digging wells under the nose of the Civil Administration for years. He added that there has been a steep increase in illegal building activity in recent months, funded by the Palestinian Authority and Saudi Arabia, in hopes of slicing Gush Etzion in half and inducing the Supreme Court to influence the route of the Partition Wall.
Without warning, a small community in t! he consensus region of Gush Etzion has become the center of the government's demolition efforts. Demolition forces face unexpected opposition.
Residents of the community of Sde Boaz, twenty minutes south of Jerusalem, received less that 24 hours' notice that the Civil Administration, on orders from the government, planned to destroy a newly built house, the foundations of a large home and a large stable that were built over the summer.
Border police, accompanied by a bulldozer and Civil Administration officials arrived at the small community of Sde Boaz early Wednesday morning, but were met by friends of the residents and Land of Israel activists, who stopped them in their tracks.
The forces succeeded in bulldozing a large stable, which Sde Boaz residents had built over the summer for their horses and donkeys. When the border and civil forces tried to bulldoze the home, protesters surrounded the building and declared that they would! not budge. Civil Administration officials, who had claimed that the home was not populated and could therefore be destroyed without approval from a senior officer, entered the home to find a comfortable bachelor's "pad," replete with breakfast lying on the kitchen table.
They then turned their attention to the foundations of a home, built by a recently married resident of the community who serves as a company commander in the IDF reserves. Hundreds of local residents who had flocked to the community through fields and vineyards (police blocked the main access road) stood atop the foundations and refused to move, locking arms. Police responded with severe violence, but were soon ordered to stand down after commanders noticed the large number of press photographers on the scene.
Sde Boaz is a unique community. It is an environmentally friendly, agricultural community established by religious and non-observant Jews who sought to create an example of what the State of! Israel can aspire to be a home where Jews from diverse backgrounds and outlooks can come together to build and assist one another.
The community is also unique in that it is built entirely through Avoda Ivrit, Jewish Labor. The residents not only refuse to exploit local Palestinian workers for cheap, and often shoddy, building, but believe that the reconnection of the Jewish people with their land after a 2,000 year estrangement necessitates getting one's hands dirty with its soil. Though the place is populated by professionals a medical student, a doctor of physics, a dentist, a veterinarian, a security guard, three teachers, an auto mechanic, an organic farmer and two journalists most of the residents engage in agricultural projects on the side. Fields of wheat, chickpeas, clover (for the animals), peas, chard and beets, as well as olive and fruit orchards surround the community.
Even before its establishment, over three years ago, the founders would t! rek to the future site and work the state lands situated there, keeping them from being claimed by Arab squatters, who receive stipends from the Palestinian Authority to plant far and wide. Agricultural activity is a way of acquiring land under Ottoman and British Mandate law, which are still applied in Judea and Samaria.
Sde Boaz is located less than a mile north of Neve Daniel and Efrat, the heart of the Gush Etzion settlement bloc. According to the Sharon regime, US President George W. Bush guaranteed Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that Gush Etzion would remain in Jewish hands, in return for the destruction of Jewish towns in Gaza. The community sits on a high point between the Efrat/Neve Daniel bloc and the city of Betar Illit, with a view of the entire region. After residents move in, the IDF situated an advanced surveillance camera there which can see clear to Tel Aviv and the coastal plain, even at night.
Residents were divided on the extent of active oppositio! n to the destruction, but outside activists soon flooded the small community, rendering their preference for organized opposition moot as crowds blocked the bulldozers, singing and dancing in the rain and hail, with guitars and hot tea.
"This isn't just one person's little home and this isn't just our community's small building this is a Jewish home, built completely by Jews on land that was paid for before the State was even founded, by Jews around the world who donated money to purchase land in Israel through the Jewish National Fund," a Sde Boaz spokesperson told the media. "Such a thing cannot be destroyed due to an arbitrary piece of paper declaring it 'illegal.' "
"The Jewish people must wake up to the fact that they have been lied to. The so-called settlement blocs were talked about merely in order to ease us in to the fact that we are being forced to retreat by non-democratic forces, no matter how many times we reject them at the ballot box."
Another r! esident, a reporter for the weekly Makor Rishon, said that the local Palestinians have been building terraces and digging wells under the nose of the Civil Administration for years. He added that there has been a steep increase in illegal building activity in recent months, funded by the Palestinian Authority and Saudi Arabia, in hopes of slicing Gush Etzion in half and inducing the Supreme Court to influence the route of the Partition Wall.
==================================
Israel rejects Pat Robertson funding
Or how to cut off your nose to spite your face
Evangelical preacher Pat Robertson
Israel rejects Pat Robertson funding
Tourism Minister Avraham Hirchson has shunned US evangelical leader Pat Robertson shortly before the two wer! e to sign a major funding deal for the Galilee Christian Heritage Center after Robertson suggested that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke was a punishment from God for the Gaza Strip withdrawal, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
"The minister has very strong views on this and cannot accept what was said," Tourism Ministry spokesman Ido Hartuv said. "We reconsidered the deal and realized that we cannot sign with Robertson or anyone who supports his views."
Hartuv stressed that this was an attack on Robertson and his comments rather than a rejection of the evangelical community as a whole, which has become a target group for Israeli tourism in 2006.
Robertson lost favor with the ministry when he said on his popular 700 Club TV show that "God considers the land to be his
For any prime minister of Israel who decides he is going to carve it up and give it away he says, 'No, this is mine.'"
The charismatic broadcaster led a group of evangelical Christians who ! have agreed to raise more than $50 million to build the Heritage Center on a 14-dunam plot of land on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.
Hirchson, who has been a close ally of Sharon throughout the disengagement period and was among the first Likud members to defect with him to form Kadima, was scheduled to sign the agreement with Robertson committing the government to provide the land and infrastructure for the project and the evangelicals the funding.
While Hirchson pulled the plug on Robertson, the project is going ahead as planned and looking for alternative avenues of finance.
"Many people are enthusiastic about the project," said Uri Dagul, who voluntarily heads the steering committee overseeing the project. "We initiated the project before Robertson was on board, and we will continue without him."
Dagul did not dismiss the possibility of working with Robertson if the evangelist issued an appropriate apology.
A spokesman for Robertson coul! d not be reached in time for this report. A reaction to the outcry following his comments posted on his Web site Thursday fell short of issuing an apology, attempting to further explain his stance.
The government presented its plans for the heritage center and biblical garden in May saying it expected the center to bring an additional 750,000 visitors to the country annually.
Dagul said that the allocation of land was expected to be complete within the next six weeks, after which a nonprofit organization needed to be registered before it got the go ahead.
Dagul predicted that construction would start in 2007 and that it would take three to four years to complete.
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