Gush Etzion celebrations

The Etzion Block was the birthplace of the Jewish Settlement movement. Here our spiritual, religious and political identity was shaped. Here we created cultural values of national and universal significance and exemplified to the world the values of the eternal Book of Books.

Three times in modern history, Jewish residents of the Etzion block have been forcefully exiled: After the Arab pogroms of 1929; after the Arab pogroms of 1936; and on the fourth day of the Jewish month of Iyar, 5708, a day before the establishment of the State of Israel. Each time, the people kept faith throughout their dispersion and never ceased to pray and hope for their return to it and for the restoration in it of their political freedom.

Impelled by this historic and traditional attachment, second and third generations strove in every successive generation to re-establish themselves in their ancient homeland. In recent decades they returned en masse.

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There is no such thing as an illegal outpost

Ariel Sharon instructed our youth to "charge the hilltops". The State allowed water and electricity link-ups, provided infrastructure and roads, encouraged the settlement of the outposts with grants and financial incentives. There is no such thing as an illegal outpost. Some were erected with the State turning a blind eye, some were authorized behind closed doors with a wink or a handshake. But there is no such thing as an illegal outpost.

It is true that Ariel Sharon, as Prime Minister, adopted President Bush's Road Map, and that one of the clauses in the agreement (out of 38 clauses) is that the government of Israel will dismantle settlement outposts erected since March 2001. It is also true that the Road Map is "Performance Based". The very first clause of the Road Map, to be carried out at the outset of Phase I, has yet to be met. It reads: "Palestinian leadership issues unequivocal statement reiterating Israel’s right to exist in peace and security and calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire to end armed activity and all acts of violence against Israelis anywhere. All official Palestinian institutions end incitement against Israel."

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