The Sovereignty Movement parts from one of its oldest friends, a friend of the Settlement enterprise, who accompanied the movement’s activities since its first days, from his understanding of the depth of the vision and the commitment to it.
With deep sorrow, the Sovereignty Movement bids farewell to the artist of photography and documentation, Gershon Elinson, z”l, who was one of the creators of the revolution in documenting the upswing of Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria, the Jordan Valley and Gaza, who passed on before his time.
Our movement notes Gershon’s contribution to the movement from its first days and throughout its years of activities in conferences, marches, demonstrations on the ground and many other of the events of the Sovereignty Movement and Sovereignty Youth.
“Gershon was a true friend of the movement and its activists, a true partner in the idea, the vision and its realization”, says the Sovereignty Movement, emphasizing that he was one of the first to understand the value of historical documentation along with the activities and as an integral part of it.
Gershon used his talent for identifying the small and great historical moments and documenting them with the camera’s lens to strengthen the settlement and bolster the vision of sovereignty, from his deep understanding of the importance of documentation for future generations and to disseminate the idea and spread the awareness of activities among the general Israeli public”.
The movement’s co-chairwomen, Yehudit Katsover and Nadia Matar, say: “Gershon, z”l, saw the sovereignty revolution as a direct continuation of the settlement movement in Judea and Samaria, which he accompanied throughout the decades along the paths that were leveled and paved by the steps of pioneers and their supporters, clinging first to the barren land that eventually became a village and another village and yet another. He came, at any time of day, with his humility and his quiet smile, to places and locations that became icons in the chronicles of Jewish settlement”.
Here are a few moments captured by Gershon, z”l’s camera during the Sovereignty Movement’s activities: