Using the model of civil activism, which brought about the application of sovereignty on the Golan Heights, Yehudit Katsover presents the phases of the civil campaign for sovereignty in Judea and Samaria. The Sovereignty Youth Hanuka Seminar.
In the opening lectures of the Sovereignty Youth Hanukah Seminar, Yehudit Katsover, co-chairwoman of the Sovereignty Movement, presented to the dozens of participants the essence and significance of the application of sovereignty over Judea and Samaria as well as the civil ways in which it is possible to lead to the application of sovereignty.
The model that Katsover presented for the promotion of sovereignty in the civil arena is the model that led to sovereignty in the Golan Heights, one of whose leaders eventually became General Director of the Office of Prime Minister Rabin, Shimon Sheves.
During her remarks she cited from an article published by strategic advisor Moshe Klughaft, who said that because sovereignty had been applied over part of the Golan Heights decades ago, the slaughter that might have occurred in our time decades later, after Syria was taken over by terrorists, was prevented. If Syria still had total control of the Golan Heights, it might have meant a tremendous disaster for Israel.
Katsover analyzed the steps taken by Sheves to promote the process of sovereignty over the Golan Heights. From the position of opposition to the Begin government, he built broad public consciousness that convinced the government and its leader that the process was indeed possible. The steps that Sheves took included the physical signing up of hundreds of thousands of citizens, formulating a position in the opposition to favor the process, having 79 members of Knesset sign a petition calling for sovereignty, citizens and youths demonstrating at city intersections calling for sovereignty on the Heights. All of these things led, ultimately, to passing the legislation in three readings on the same day.
The application of sovereignty in the Golan Heights was met with condemnation and a great deal of outrage in the American administration, which took diplomatic and security measures against Israel, but this did not deter the Israeli government from completing it. Katsover comments that the American policy of that time strongly resembles the American policy of today toward Israel, regarding its conduct in Judea and Samaria.
Yehudit Katsover designed what she calls “the Guide to the Application of Sovereignty” based on these steps, which Sheves led, along with other public figures. Using this Guide, it is possible to promote similar steps in Judea and Samaria.
The campaign must be everywhere, in every yeshiva, every studio, every intersection”, said Katsover, who views wearing Sovereignty Movement shirts and sweatshirts as an integral part of the process, to which can be added the distribution of hasbara materials to create a growing discourse on sovereignty and its importance. The lobby in Knesset is part of this although the key difficulty stems from the mobilization of the opposition to the move. The youths who listened to Katsover, argued that the way to reach the opposition is through hasbara that proves that the first step of sovereignty in the Jordan Valley began with them, with public figures such as Yigal Alon, even if it was only partial.
Later in her remarks, Katsover conversed with the seminar participants on the best way to coordinate the sovereignty campaign in the present new reality, of post-October seventh, of the renewed Trump administration and the increase of anti-Semitism throughout the world, three parameters of dramatic influence that demand expedited promotion of the vision of sovereignty over the entire Land of Israel, and not partially.