Hundreds of left-wing Israelis and international activists residents on Friday, 18 Sivan, marched with the villagers of Susya, in a solidarity march against the planned demolition of the village and deportation of its residents. The event was organized by the Combatants for Peace movement and the local village youth committee, in commemoration of the ‘Naksa Day’, marking the 1967 war and the beginning of the “occupation” of Yehuda and Shomron.
Upon arrival of the activists at Susya, villagers greeted the participants, and they separated into three groups who visited families and were told of the kinds of hardships placed upon them by the settlers and the Israeli military. The march started around noon, with people holding signs saying: “There is Another Way”, “Save Susya”, and “Stop the Occupation”. During the march and the protest they chanted: “End the occupation! No more settlements! Two states – Two peoples!”.
At the protest, MK (Hadash) Dov Khenin said: “There is no better place to commemorate the Naksa Day than Susya. Its story tells, in a nutshell, the entire story of the occupation.”
He added “They tell the residents: you have no place in the world. This path of dispossession and deportation is obviously meant to prevent Palestinians from having a future. But the truth is it also prevents a real future for Israelis. The battle against it is not only a battle of solidarity and justice, but also our own battle for our future.”
“We are here today to show how the Israeli military is forcing people out of their homes, and to stand against the injustice that is being done by the occupation.”, explained Hafez Hureini, Beersheva /Hebron Palestinian coordinator of Combatants for Peace.
Shai Eluk, Beersheva /Hebron Israeli coordinator of Combatants for Peace said at the demonstration: “Three years ago I was here as a soldier, serving in the southern Hebron region. Shortly after I got here, I realized I had to talk to the villagers I met, and ask them about their lives. When I understood the situation, I approached my commander, telling him that I was unable to continue serving in the West Bank, since my presence here supports the violence and the occupation.”
Protestors explains Susya, which is located in Area C in south Hebron, where the Southern group of CfP operates, has been in existence for more than a century. This month the Supreme Court allowed the Civil Administration to destroy the village, which will lead once again to deportation of the villagers, even before the master plan has been submitted. The deportation will leave hundreds of families homeless during the summer months, without a solution and in a situation where they will be refugees on their own land and have nowhere to go. Susya is one village, but the threat to it is the story of many villages in Palestine, where lives are threatened on a daily basis by the occupation. This is a broad trend of trying to push the Palestinians into Area A, which makes up a minor part of the West Bank. We must resist the dangerous precedent of the deportation of Susya residents.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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9 Responses
Yet ironically, the only concession that Israel can make that will bring peace would involve a return to the 1914 borders (meaning the border between Islamic control and non-Muslim control), leaving only an autonomous Jewish non-sovereign entity within an Islamic state. While this is what the early zionists agreed to, and it probably would be acceptable to most hareidim, it would be a disaster to the Israeli secular left since the social implications of an Islamic state would be totally incompatible with their secular lifestyles. It’s always possible for the hareidim, and even the religious zionists, to “cut a deal” that allows Jews to live as Torah Jews in Eretz Yisrael but without ruling over the Arabs, but such a deal would never be acceptable to the hilonim, and especially those with “left” views on social matters (the details of which we are allowed to explicitly discuss here).
This cuts the ground out from Obama’s recent interview. It is completely possible to be a Jew and an anti-Semite.
Bnei Yisroel has always been characterised as rachmonim and gomlei chasodim. We have no right to throw anyone out of their home.
You have got to be kidding me
The PURPOSE of this post on Yeshivaworld is…….
(is there an explanation from the Israeli government??????????)
These loony lefties should move to Gaza.
Although the event is, arguably, newsworthy, this is *not* a news report. YWN has simply published a press release from the organizers of the event. Five minutes with Google would have provided some independent fact checking. What were you guys thinking when you published this?
TheMir – no right to throw anyone out of their home? It’s an issur d’orita to allow them to have a home here in the first place!
Besides that, maybe you missed cheder the all the times the your Chumash Rebbe covered 7 entire nations Hashem told us to kick out of Eretz Yisrael or go to war with if they don’t voluntarily leave.
To #1 super-akuperman: you keep on repeating your mantra about “going back” to something that doesn’t exist anymore. I assure you I am as opposed as you are to the medinah. But, it’s necessary to wake up and smell the coffee. In 5755/2015, the geo-political situation is not what it was 100 years ago. Now, it’s ISIS, Al Qaeda, and who knows who else are waiting in the wings. You really ought to realize that they would not be inclined to make any kind of deals with any Chareidi communities that might want to someone “co-exist” under their sovereignty. Truth to tell, no existing Arab state, party or organization would be willing to consider such as option either. It might have been a route to consider in 1914 or so. Today, it’s passe. It’s possible Reb Yoilish mi’Satmer zt”l might have held such a position even nowadays. But no one knows for sure, and we cannot ask him. Not one of the Gedolei Harabbonim shlit”a hold to try to join some Arab state, entity, whatever. Frankly, today, trying to placate the Arabs is the equivalent of trying to placate the Nazis during the Holocaust. The only method that worked during those dark days was the concept conceived by Rav M.B. Weismandel zt”l — bribery. And even that worked only in the short term. Do you think you can bribe the Arabs to stop wanting to kill Jews??
There are no other entities to which we can “go back.” Not the Ottomans, not the Abbasids, not the Omayyads, not the Byzantines, not the Roman Empire. All we can do is spread more yiddishkeit, more kiruv, more light, hoping and davening that those steps will indeed bring Moshiach Tzidkeinu be’meheira be’yomeinu.