Many ministers, members of Knesset and public figures participated in the Fifth Sovereignty Youth Conference entitled: “Sovereignty over the Jordan Valley First.” There is a new, fresh momentum for the push to realize the vision.
About a thousand youths from all parts of the Land, members and friends of the Sovereignty Youth Movement, participated in the Fifth Sovereignty Youth Conference that was held (June 8th) in Jerusalem led by Yehudit Katsover and Nadia Matar, the co-chairwomen of the Sovereignty Movement.
The event began with a screening of a video by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during one of the recent election campaigns promising to apply Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley.
The moderator of the event, comedian and actor Noam Jacobson, noted the weekly Torah portion, the portion of Shelah Lecha, in his opening remarks and stated that the conference was simply “a demonstration of support for Yehoshua bin Nun and Caleb bin Yefuneh, the two spies who thought and spoke differently, reinforcing their cry of “'We should go up at once, and possess it” (Numbers 13:30) and “The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceeding good land...” (Numbers 14:7).
The first speakers were Yehudit Katsover and Nadia Matar, co-chairwomen of the Sovereignty Movement, which is leading the struggle to apply sovereignty over Judea and Samaria. The future generation of politicians, judges, economists and communications people are right here, began Yehudit Katsover, and each one of you will act within his or her own role on behalf of the Whole Land of Israel.
We have not Completed the Six Day War
“The People of Israel has changed the world and will continue to change the world by fulfilling its destiny, which is possible only in the Land of Israel. For this, we need leaders who are aware of the great mission, and these leaders are here right now”, said Katsover, explaining the meaning of sovereignty as taking responsibility for the territory, applying Israeli law and removing the military rule over Judea and Samaria. “We accomplished the first phase in the War of Independence and the Six Day War, but we have not completed the battle. After the war we went to the area and built towns. Now the time has come to apply Israeli sovereignty over them and over the entire territory, which will give us a political sovereign imprimatur.”
“Our hesitancy weakens us. The enemies see that we are not sure of our accomplishments and ability to rule, and they punish us with terror, in the UN and in the Hague. As long as there is no sovereignty the Arab hope exists for a state of their own in the Land of Israel”, said Katsover, stating: “Just as we succeeded in the Golan Heights and Jerusalem, we shall succeed in the Jordan Valley as well. The Jordan Valley first. We can change things, with your help.”
Katsover’s partner in leading the Sovereignty Movement, Nadia Matar, also stated that “The application of sovereignty will complete the Six Day War and will say clearly that the Land of Israel is ours. We will cope with all the challenges that sovereignty will place before us because any other alternative endangers the future of Israel as a Jewish state and in this room, there is the energy and power to correct the situation.”
Every minute of apathy causes us to lose another hill or field in Judea and Samaria
Continuing her remarks, she enumerated the practical benefits of sovereignty to restore governance, strengthen security, increase economic investments, bring down the cost of housing, build additional cities for absorbing immigrants, etc.
After these words, Matar added an urgent call: “This is an emergency. Every moment that we feel like everything is fine, each minute, we lose another hill and another field in Judea and Samaria, the Negev and the Galilee. The Arab enemy is funded by millions of dollars of Israel-haters and never stops its efforts to take over our Land. This is the reason that it is important to join the Sovereignty Movement. This is a mobilization order to rescue the Land of Israel. In ’48, the youth mobilized for the war over the Land, hung banners, spread information, endangered themselves and helped the fighters. Today, to rescue the Land of Israel means mobilizing for the Sovereignty Movement.”
“We will act to apply sovereignty in the Jordan Valley, which is the State of Israel’s eastern defensive wall”, she said, calling on the youths to set out and spread the vision of sovereignty “In every educational institution, in the streets, in the social media and everywhere. We have a promise from the Master of the World that sovereignty will happen. “We should go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it“.
Justice Minister Yariv Levin sent greetings to the conference, in which he praised the youth for its ideological commitment to the Land of Israel. “The Land of Israel belongs to the People of Israel, it always has belonged and will always belong to the People of Israel”, he said, expressing confidence that the struggle to apply Israeli law in Judea and Samaria will also yield practical results.
Minister of Settlement Orit Struk, also sent words of greeting to the participants of the conference, emphasizing the importance of the youth for leadership, being the ones who carry the battle in the right direction of sovereignty with determination and pride.
“The Jordan Valley is the most important place, since it is the place that locks our eastern border”, she said, recalling the decision that was made when the present coalition was established, to place on its agenda and in its founding principles, the pursuit of sovereignty as a goal to be promoted whenever it became possible to do so politically. “In order for us to be able to realize the vision, it is important that we continue with unabated energy and courage.”
The Key to Abolishing the idea of a Palestinian State
As part of the words of praise sent by Minister of Transportation Miri Regev to the co-chairwomen of the Sovereignty Movement Yehudit Katsover and Nadia Matar for leading the conference, she emphasized the importance of the Valley to Israel’s security and strategic policy, adding the commitment to continue to stride toward sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.
Minister of Culture and Sport Miki Zohar also related in his remarks to the importance of the Jordan Valley as a strategic area of the first order, as he defined it, adding with emphasis that the key to abolishing the idea of a Palestinian state is sovereignty in the Jordan Valley.
One of the key speakers in the conference was head of Jordan Valley Council David Elhayani, who called on the youth not to allow the fully right-wing government to miss the opportunity to apply sovereignty over the Jordan Valley. “This government has no excuse if it does not carry out the necessary step. We are in an existential war in which the Arabs are taking over more area and establishing more facts on the ground every day and every hour.”
Elhayani mentioned that a little more than 41 years ago Menahem Begin’s government approved the law of sovereignty over the Golan Heights with a majority that included members of the opposition in one day. “With the current government, won’t we have enough votes to apply sovereignty over the Valley?”, he asked, mentioning Netanyahu’s promise of several years to the People of Israel that he would apply sovereignty over the Valley. In the situation where the importance of the Valley, which enjoys such a broad national consensus, is so clear, there is no objection to it in the Zionist left either and for that reason as well, he is convinced, support for applying sovereignty over the Valley would come: “It is a strategic asset that we must preserve at all costs. Even under leftist governments it was clear that we must not surrender the Valley.”
“They told us that we are dependent on the Americans and the Europeans, but we didn’t come to the Land because of the Americans, we didn’t come here from every place the world because of the Europeans, but because this is our Land and our homeland and we are the only ones who will determine our clear borders. This time, we must not miss the opportunity. We had the same concerns before applying sovereignty over the Golan Heights. The government must even now set this as a goal for significant hasbara activity to the world in which we will make clear that settlement in the Jordan Valley is the guarantee of our security.”
After words of thanks to Nadia Matar and Yehudit Katsover “for turning the topic into their life’s mission and working tirelessly toward the goal”, Elhayani addressed the hundreds of youths participating in the conference thus: “Continue your persistence. You are the ones who will hold the banner.”
Sovereignty is the Solution - not the Problem
CEO of YESHA Council Shira Liebman also made remarks, in which she expressed her excitement over the sight of hundreds of youths who chose to dedicate their time to come to Jerusalem from all parts of the Land and exercise sovereignty practically, with their own feet.
“Sovereignty is step-by-step, year-by-year work, as Nadia and Yehudit do it, with their great faith. A little more de facto sovereignty and a little more de facto sovereignty until there will be complete sovereignty”, she said, mentioning that recently, the number of residents in Judea and Samaria has passed a half million residents. “Sovereignty is the solution and not the problem. When there is sovereignty, building will be allowed, which will provide a solution for housing costs and the housing crisis”, she stated, calling on the youth to become energized by the conference in order to continue to spread the light of sovereignty every place they go “and thanks to your determination we will do it.”
Member of Knesset Avihai Boaron, one of the leaders and organizers of the large right-wing demonstration, was received by the conference participants with calls of “The People demand judicial reform” and with the song, “64 Mandates”. He addressed the youths in the audience: “The youth is like arrows in the hands of a hero. We follow you, the youth, and you are the ones who will run forward, you are the ones who know the truth and bring everyone along behind you.”
In his remarks, Member of Knesset Boaron stated that the struggle for correcting the judicial system is a struggle about how to do it, while the more fundamental struggle is over the goal. The situation in Israel is that the court has become the body that determines the goal instead of only determining how to achieve it.
Don’t Confuse us with Empty Slogans
“When we want to apply sovereignty in the Jordan Valley and Judea and Samaria, the jurists will say that international law does not allow it and they will confuse us with empty slogans. They will try to mislead us, but we will answer them by saying that the Land of Israel belongs to the People of Israel according to the Torah of Israel”, said Boaron, adding: “The youths have the resourcefulness without politics and the complicated calculations, without planning when and why. The youths have a very important role. With great wisdom, Nadia and Yehudit have entrusted the task to you, because the youths are the only ones who can navigate the direction and be the spearhead toward the longed-for sovereignty.”
Boaron mentioned his past as one of the founders of Amona and he said that lately, they acquired dozens of dunams for building in Amihai, the settlement of the displaced people of Amona, and with these dunams another 1300 housing units are planned, and a special meeting was held on this yesterday in the Housing Ministry. “Dream of sovereignty and do everything you can to bring it about, go out to the farms, the young towns, to the open spaces and establish outposts in the entire Land of Israel and we will all quickly see the redemption of the Land.”
Among the attendees to the conference were also former members of Sovereignty Youth who came to encourage the young members of the movement. Yair Buchnik, who led Sovereignty Youth at its inception, told of the movement’s first steps, in the days when the idea had just arisen and no one believed that an ideological movement would reach such dimensions, but after five years of activity, conferences, seminars and hasbara booths in all parts of the Land, the movement’s impact and the change in consciousness that it generates became clear.
Co-chair of the lobby for implementation of sovereignty over the Jordan Valley, Member of Knesset Yosef Taieb of the Shas party, expressed his excitement at the mobilization of hundreds of youths to promote the vision. “The country’s fate is not in the hands of politicians, but in the hands of the youth, the future generations of the State of Israel”, he said, encouraging “everyone who works for Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria and the Jordan Valley, in his words.
Member of Knesset Taieb told his personal story as someone who immigrated to the Land only at the age of 17 after dreaming of settling in the Land of the forefathers. “Everyone in the diaspora dreams of being in the Land of Israel, but also dreams of seeing Israeli law over all parts of the Land of Israel, as the Master of the World promised us”, he said, expressing the hope to see permanent, multiple-story buildings instead of temporary caravans throughout Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley. It is the permanent residents and security that will secure the calm and serenity in which future generations will live, he said.
“We have the lobby, but this is only a milestone marking our commitment to persist in every way possible and at all times to work toward the time when we will see tall buildings in the Valley and Samaria”, said Taieb, emphasizing that in the discourse of sovereignty, “We do not deal with politics, but with settling the Land. This is what our fathers dreamed of in Morocco and in Poland. They left everything they had there and came here to settle, to see a strong and stable Israel.”
Taieb expressed the hope that members of the lobby and the camp’s public representatives will be worthy of the task. “This is only the beginning. We will need your strength to back us up and exert pressure on the coalition, the government and in decisions that are made by the Prime Minister so that we will see Israeli sovereignty over all parts of the Land.”
If the Present Government does not Advance Sovereignty, it will be a Great Loss for Generations
Member of Knesset Taieb’s partner in leading the lobby, Member of Knesset Dan Illouz, was prevented from coming to the conference due to a political engagement abroad. He sent his video greeting, described the intense work with the sovereignty Movement to bring about the realization of sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and emphasized that “Sovereignty in the Valley is only the beginning of sovereignty over all parts of the Land of Israel.”
Illouz presented a three-dimensional map of the Land of Israel that he received from representatives of Sovereignty Youth during the period of primaries and showed, with which he tangibly presented the importance of sovereignty for the State of Israel’s eastern border, which is the Jordan Valley.
“We are a fully right-wing government that must take the subject of sovereignty and advance it. If, by the end of this term of the fully right-wing government, we have not significantly advanced sovereignty it will be a great loss for generations. We will work on it step by step and this conference and the lobby that we established are part of these steps. If there are no results it will be a great loss for generations. We will continue to advance toward the goal of applying sovereignty”, he declared.
In another part of the recorded greetings sent by members of Knesset, Dani Danon defined the conference as true Zionism, emphasizing that sovereignty in the Jordan Valley is just the beginning of a process that will continue to Judea and Samaria.
“They tell us that this is not the right time and that it is not realistic, but this is what they said about establishing the State of Israel as well. We will fight to apply sovereignty in the Jordan Valley and this will happen very soon”, said Danon, commenting that many are already convinced that sovereignty over the Jordan Valley has been in place for quite a while, as it was applied over the Golan Heights, but this goal has not yet been fully realized.
Sovereignty, not mainly for security and the economy. Sovereignty, because The Land is ours
In his remarks of greeting to the co-chairwomen of the Sovereignty Movement, Yehudit Katsover and Nadia Matar, Member of Knesset Tzvi Sukkot noted the commitment to the vision of sovereignty. “The Six Day War was not completed, he said, calling for not being afraid to make a declaration of fulfilling the dream of two thousand years, the dream of Israeli sovereignty over the Land of Israel.
Member of Knesset Ariel Kellner stated, as part of his remarks, that the order of the hour is sovereignty in the Jordan Valley, a step that would block any chance of establishing a Palestinian state, along with many other benefits of sovereignty in this area. “From every point of view, there must be Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley/”
Member of Knesset Moshe Passal noted that the prayer for the establishment of a fully right-wing government has been answered and now it is time to apply sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and then over all of Judea and Samaria.
Hagai Tana, Deputy head of Sovereignty Youth, also spoke, emphasizing that along with the claims that sovereignty is good for security or the economy and housing costs, we must remember that this is not the reason that the People of Israel must have sovereignty over its Land, but because the Land of Israel belongs to the People of Israel, and he calls on the youth to repeat this everywhere they go, in every way they can and with a full voice, in the street and social media.
Former Minister of Agriculture Avraham Katz-Oz of the Labor party, one of the leaders of the settlement in the Jordan Valley, praised the youths with his remarks. I am glad to see so many young people engaging in the subject of sovereignty”, he said, mentioning that “What we have today is not the Complete Land of Israel. The Zionist Congress of 1903 determined the borders and in 1919, submitted to the British government and the League of Nations what is considered our Land of Israel. The map included all of the western Land of Israel, eastern Land of Israel up to the railway line, Aram Naharayim north of the Litani. This is our Land according to our history. There is no dispute about this. The dispute is over which parts cannot be surrendered and will be under our sovereignty.”
Katz-Oz states that it is the Americans who are currently preventing the government from advancing sovereignty over the Jordan Valley. In his opinion, the Americans are asking the Israeli government why it needs sovereignty over the Jordan Valley, where there are no more than 7800 residents today, including Ma’ale Efraim. “Prime ministers after Rabin, Begin and Shamir did not include the Jordan Valley in the framework of the State of Israel’s claim for sovereignty, not Olmert and not Barak. The one who brought back the subject of sovereignty over the Valley was Trump, who presented a plan that was not accepted by the State of Israel.”
“Nice words do not help, actions help”, he said, calling for the necessary steps to change the situation for the Valley. First, we must double the number of residents in the Valley within three years and at the same time exert significant pressure by a public movement on the political system that includes a million citizens calling for sovereignty in the Valley. In addition, there must be a politically aware dialog in this direction, meaning proposals of law, proposals of order, discussions and committees, etc. all of which should focus on the goal of sovereignty over the Jordan Valley. And beyond all of this, the Prime Minister must place for himself the goal of doubling the settlement in the Jordan Valley. “He wants it but he must make an explicit declaration”, says Katz-Oz, calling on the youth to take a significant part in exerting the necessary public pressure needed take these practical steps.
The Call for Sovereignty – a Response to the Sin of the Spies
Rav Lior Lavie from the organization For the Soul, noted during his remarks that the day that the conference was held was the anniversary of the death of Rav Shaul Yisraeli, zt”l 28 years ago. “An outstanding leader who immigrated to the Land requiring an incredible amount of self-sacrifice. His father was exiled to Siberia, his mother was murdered by the Nazis. He came to the Land and was one of the greatest leaders of his generation, a man of faith and a man of halacha. The only thing that kept him from being named Chief Rabbi was politics.”
Although Rav Yisraeli did not live during the years of the sovereignty discourse, claimed Rav Lavie, the fact that he was a man of the Land of Israel, who dealt with the connection between the People and the Land all his life, means that sovereignty was surely a dream for him. According to Rav Lavie, there is no greater correction for the sin of the spies than the arising call for sovereignty.
Head of Beit El Council Shai Alon excited the youth with song and dance. “The People of Israel need you”, he called. “Only you can bring about sovereignty, only you will settle the entire Land of Israel – the Galilee the Negev and the Valley, because this requires dedication to the mission and the values that you were raised on. Not everyone has these tools in his toolbox and you have them along with the joy of life, a sense of mission and love for the Almighty, and people who love the Almighty do not surrender the Land of Israel.”
“Don’t listen to anyone, neither mayors nor members of Knesset. Conquer the Land and live anyplace you can and give nahat to the Almighty, said Alon as he concluded.
We Remember the Past for the Future’s sake
Head of Sovereignty Youth Hod Fisherman emphasized to the youths the greatness of the moment to which they all belong, as they choose not to engage in trivial things but to focus on fulfilling the vision and advancing the idea. “Judaism is not a religion of the past despite the stories of the past and despite the nostalgia for the past. The past is meant to be a basis for the future. In Judaism, we remember the forefathers in order to bring about redemption to their descendants. Judaism combines the past with the future. We use the past in order to bring the future to life, and this is the unique quality of the youth, who are naturally a step and a half ahead of the adults, living and breathing the future.”
During her remarks, Fisherman called to sign up more youths from all parts of the Land to join and take part in the movement’s activities in various channels, each one according to the field that interests him or her. She also declared that it is a privilege to work with Nadia and Yehudit and make history with them.”
A special panel dealt with the ability of the youth to contribute in various fields of life. The panel included Orit Struk, Mark Ettinger, CEO of the NGO Ohr Michael Matanya Schnerb, CEO of the NGO Kol Rina and Neur Zimmerman “The soldiers’ father.” Each of them spoke about the uniqueness of the organization that he/she heads, about the youths’ involvement in activities to bring about significant social changes and later they gave tips to Sovereignty Youth from their own experiences on the promotion and implementation of the vision.
The conference concluded with a talk by Yotam Zimri and Noam Fathi on what is defined as the connection between sovereignty and the media. “There will not be sovereignty in the field before there is sovereignty in the discourse”, the two stated, presenting a great number of examples from written, broadcast and digital media of the left-wing media’s unprincipled conduct and how right-wing media people like them are ignored and isolated.
Fathi and Zimri told the story of how they got involved in the media and how they realized that it was even more problematic than they had imagined; sharing some experiences that showed the hidden and predatory conduct behind the scenes in the media, which fights for “sovereignty over consciousness”, as they defined it.
At the conclusion of the talk by the pair, the participants of the conference gathered to sing Hatikva together and then each went his or her own way, but not before the movement’s coordinators distributed hasbara material in preparation for the next activity, which is expected within the next few months.