The Sovereignty movement mourns the passing of Eretz Israel warrior and lover, one of the leaders of the movement, the late Geula Cohen. We pledge to continue her legacy and spirit.
The Sovereignty Movement expresses its deep sorrow on the passing of Israel Prize winner, fighter and lover of the Land of Israel, former Member of Knesset Geula Cohen, obm, who was one of the leaders of the movement’s philosophical team.
The co-chairwomen of the movement, Yehudit Katsover and Nadia Matar, state that the Land of Israel has lost an important symbol of the struggle for its territorial integrity and sovereignty.
“Geula was a wholehearted supporter of the Sovereignty Movement and its ideological and practical path. She hosted the movement’s philosophical forum in her house even when her age had become a factor”.
“Geula Cohen, who led the passing of legislation for sovereignty over Jerusalem as a member of Knesset, required us, in the name of love for the Land of Israel to continue to strive ceaselessly for Israel’s sovereignty over its land and to prepare the ideological and practical infrastructure for the historic moment when, as she foresaw, a great political gap would open and the way would be clear to promote the vision until its implementation. We will continue to act according to her path and her ideological legacy; we will continue to keep our commitment, our pledge to the Greater, sovereign Land of Israel”, say Katsover and Matar.
In honor of the late Geula Cohen, the editor of the Sovereignty website and Journal site presents here the main points of the interview that she gave in 2013 for the first issue of the Sovereignty Journal:
“Every day that passes without the application of sovereignty promotes the establishment of a Palestinian state”, Geula Cohen stated. “The correct and appropriate solution is Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria”.
“The path to this goal does not pass only through conferences but with parliamentary preparation while awaiting the appropriate historic opportunity to pass the sovereignty law. There must be a group of Knesset members who will submit the law and with the right opportunity, raise it and pass it in the Knesset. This requires parliamentary work”.
“At this point there is no group defined in Knesset with this goal. This must be its defined goal. This goal must be promoted and raised in Knesset even if it falls again and again”, she said, recounting the days when she passed the law for the Golan Heights and Jerusalem. Even then, the process went through after failures and rejections until the time was right:
We must prepare the infrastructure and raise the matter on the agenda every day, because you never know when the time will be right for a law such as this or any other. When I tried to pass the law of Jerusalem I went from one member of Knesset to another to be prepared for the right political time.
As long as there are leaders such as Yehudit Katsover and Nadia Matar the subject is never absent from the agenda. They stand vigil and I see them watching for the historic gap in order to raise the subject on the agenda. But this is not enough. Work must also be done inside the Knesset and we have MK Orit Struk from Hevron in the Knesset, who operates from the inside”.
In Geula Cohen’s opinion, an examination of the structure of the Knesset these days shows that it is this political reality that makes the task easier than ever before. She believes that members of Knesset can create a majority to pass the sovereignty law and turn it into absolute fact that will obligate Netanyahu. “Politics is taking advantage of opportunities. There are times when something that was not possible yesterday are possible today. The world didn’t want a Jewish state either. So? If the members of Knesset can attain a majority it will become a fact”.