The Founding Governmental Decisions on Shiloh

 Thank you Wikileaks (via JL):-

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Is Yael Stein Wrong?

Here is Yael Stein in Haaretz:

Israel suspended land registration in the West Bank, declared some 1 million dunams (more than 247,000 acres) as “state land” and allocated them nearly in their entirety to the settlements...That declaration was based on a skewed interpretation of the law and carried out in violation of the basic tenets of due process. Moreover, even if this were in fact public land, it was meant for the Palestinians, not the settlers, who were not supposed to be there: The entire settlement enterprise is prohibited and constitutes a war crime – a point that Hayut ignored...the subordination of the lives of the Palestinians to the needs of the settlers.

Ms. Stein 

Photo: Tony Cross

is the director of research at B’Tselem.

Article 6 of the League of Nations Mandate decision reads:

The Administration of Palestine, while ensuring that the rights and position of other sections of the population are not prejudiced, shall facilitate Jewish immigration under suitable conditions and shall encourage, in co-operation with the Jewish agency referred to in Article 4, close settlement by Jews on the land, including State lands and waste lands not required for public purposes.

That decision's preamble reads:

...the Mandatory should be responsible for putting into effect the declaration originally made on November 2nd, 1917, by the Government of His Britannic Majesty, and adopted by the said Powers, in favor of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish peopler...recognition has thereby been given to the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country;

In addition, Article 11 reads:

The Administration of Palestine shall take all necessary measures to safeguard the interests of the community in connection with the development of the country, and...shall have full power to provide for public ownership or control of any of the natural resources of the country ...It shall introduce a land system appropriate to the needs of the country, having regard, among other things, to the desirability of promoting the close settlement and intensive cultivation of the land.

Now, I ask you, is Stein correct in her assertion?

Or is she wrong?

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Yes, Re-Settlement is a Term

Between February 13-15 this year, this Conference will take place:

"Abandoned Settlements: Discontinuity and Identity"

It will be held at the Center for Advanced Studies, LMU Munich, Seestraße 13, Munich, Germany.

I note the explanation:

Human settlements are changeable and are being changed. The processes that come into play here are manifold: abandonment, interruption, relocation, shrinking, growth, change of status, re-naming and re-settlement. 

I guess I am also a resettler.

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Sir Archibald Sinclair on Jewish Settlement

I quote Article 6 of the League of Nations Mandate decision quite often.

It reads, in full:

The Administration of Palestine, while ensuring that the rights and position of other sections of the population are not prejudiced, shall facilitate Jewish immigration under suitable conditions and shall encourage, in co-operation with the Jewish agency referred to in Article 4, close settlement by Jews on the land, including State lands and waste lands not required for public purposes.

Someone else quite was taken with it.

Sir Archibald Sinclair:

Article 6 of the Mandate says that the Government will encourage the close settlement of Jews on the lands, including State lands and waste lands not required for public purposes. Why is not that Article more extensively and whole-heartedly carried out? 

That was from a speech of his in Parliament on March 24, 1936. 

Note: this is a corrected version.

I like what Winston Churchill, a close friend of Sinclair, said when he spoke to the Peel Commission in 1937 and told them

he had always believed that the intention of the Balfour Declaration was that Palestine might in the course of time become “an overwhelmingly Jewish State.” During the Second World War, although most of his Cabinet colleagues rejected this idea, Churchill clung to it and on many occasions intervened with senior Cabinet Ministers to prevent “an Arab solution” of the Palestine question being permanently fixed.

On 19 May 1941, in a secret memorandum, he wrote of his hope for the establishment after the war of a “Jewish State of Western Palestine” with not only the fullest rights for immigration and development, but also with provision “for expansion in the desert regions to the southwards which they would gradually reclaim.”

and

Earlier, on 30 January 1908, he wrote in a letter of his sympathy with the “ultimate goal” of the Jewish people. As he explained in his letter: 

“Jerusalem must be the only ultimate goal. When it will be achieved it is vain to prophesy: but that it will some day be achieved is one of the few certainties of the future.”

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When YESHA Comes to the Super Bowl

Here:

Watch for it (at 12 secs.)

____________

P.S.

Netanyahu at Ariel University last night:

The danger to the world is not that we are constructing neighborhoods in our capital, Jerusalem...or builds a university here in Ariel...We remain faithful to our homeland.  We will continue to protect our citizens, to develop our state and to build in our land.  With God's help, we'll bild and succeed.

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Jewish Settlements Not Exaggerated

From the Journal of Jewish Studies:

Were there 204 settlements in Galilee at the time of Josephus Flavius?

by Chaim Ben David,

2011, Volume: 62, Issue: 1, 21-36 pp.

Abstract: Josephus Flavius notes that there are 204 cities and villages in Galilee. Is the number of settlements in Galilee that Josephus cites reliable, or does it belong to the series of figures that most scholars believe is exaggerated? To examine this issue, the article will first define the boundaries of Galilee at the time of Josephus and deal with the secondary question of whether this also included Gaulanitis. Then three different methods will be used to determine the veracity of this statement, counting (1) the number of settlements from the Ottoman period, (2) the number of settlements in the Late Roman period according to rabbinic literature, and (3) the number of settlements at the time of Josephus according to archaeological surveys. The evidence suggests that Josephus’ number of 204 settlements is probably not far from the actual number of settlements that existed in Galilee and Gaulanitis prior to the first Jewish revolt.

Was there a Peace Now Settlement Watch Team then, too?

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"Settling" in Syria

Don't get excited. From an academic study on a period of 80 years ago:

The idea of promoting Jewish settlement in Syria and Lebanon was considered from the time of the creation of the French Mandate in these countries. The Zionist leadership saw in it the potential for enlarging the Jewish National Home in Palestine, and from the 1930s non-Zionists saw it as an outlet for persecuted Jews in Nazi Germany. This study examines these plans, their development and ultimate demise. While earlier studies have generally been limited to discussing the Zionist aspect, the present study also addresses both non-Zionist and non-Jewish factors, particularly the French mandatory authorities, and is largely based on documentation found in the Archives du Ministere des Affaires Etrangeres in Paris and Nantes. The French authorities debated the possibility of authorizing Jewish entry into Syria and Lebanon. Jewish immigration was perceived as capable of offering a solution to the deep economic crisis in which both countries found themselves. On the other hand, grave concerns were articulated that such actions would lead to Moslem rioting, spurred by fears of potential Jewish domination. Jewish hopes for local Christian support only intensified these feelings. Jewish settlement ceased to be a reality and became a symbol instead. As for the French, they were convinced that Jewish immigration would act as a Trojan horse, serving British aspirations to acquire hegemony in the entire Near East. The French made no distinction between Zionists and non-Zionists in their attitude towards the Jews. They simply believed that the future creation of a Jewish state was a fact, and therefore that additional territories in Syria and Lebanon would become a vital need for it. The French, therefore, ultimately adopted an intransigent position against Jewish immigration.

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The Temple Mount Gets Blown Up or, A Novel Approach to the Revenants of Yesha

I guess the Temple Mount gets blown up - again:

Again?

Well, I have noted that over the past decade there have been a dozen novels that have a Temple Mount theme; Chabon's novel that has the Mount being blown up; and a second Chabon novel that mentions the Temple Mount.

So, here is from an interview with Joan Leegent, author of the new novel:

Wherever You Go is an engrossing novel...The writing style is contemporary. The storytelling is solid. And the prose moves along so gently that you’ll forget you’re even reading a book...Wherever You Go follows the emotional journeys of three protagonists. (More about them in a moment). Their journeys, all quests for redemption in one form or another, take them to Israel. And Joan Leegant’s descriptions of that place had me longing to catch the next flight to Tel Aviv! Through her characters we’re able experience different facets of this amazing and troubled country – West Bank settlements; the Jewish radicalism/extremism at the fringe of Israeli society; the complicated relationship between Jewish Americans & Israelis; the religious and the secular citizens of Jerusalem, desirous of peace. It’s an engrossing portrait of a country as described by the people who live & visit there. And when I had the opportunity to ask Joan Leegant a few questions: Israel was at the top of my list.

tolmsted: All three main characters find a home & solace in Israel, regardless of their level of commitment to religion and not always with good results...Can you talk about the role of Israel in the book and in your character’s lives? Part of me wants to ask what Israel represents (maybe I am asking that), but the idea and actuality of the country of Israel is so loaded with meaning and expectations it’s hard to imagine it representing anything other than itself.

Joan Leegant: You’re correct that Israel itself is almost a character in the book; the  story could not have taken place anywhere else. One major element of the novel  is religious extremism, in particular Jewish religious extremism. This is a huge issue in Israel today, commanding headlines in fact this week due to some incidents involving religious extremists. Israel is also central to each of the three main characters’ lives and quests, though they are all Americans who find themselves in Jerusalem for different  reasons. Yona Stern has come to make amends with her sister who is a radical West Bank settler fiercely committed to the settler movement. So Yona’s experience of Israel in the novel is given largely through the lens of the settlement issue. Mark Greenglass is a more overtly devout man who, when the book opens, is enduring a crisis of religious faith. For him, Israel is the place that enabled him to embrace that faith most fully in the first place...For Aaron Blinder, a year-abroad drop-out who struggles in school
and is a failure in his father’s eyes, Israel is the place where he plays out his
need for approval and acceptance, for a sense of self-worth and belonging. He does this by aligning himself with violent radical settlers, to tragic ends.

And here are two of the three protaganists, as described by a reviewer:

For Yona Stern, she struggles with rebuilding the relationship with her sister Dena for the last 12 years while rebuilding the issue of trust that has dissolved between them. Yona cheated on her sister with her boyfriend at the time, who confessed he didn't really love Dena for the last year and instead has fallen for her. Riddled with guilt, he ultimately confesses to Dena and ends the relationship thinking that they will now fall in love. The only problem is that Yona doesn't love him and never did.

Now she finds herself trying to finally reconcile the gap that has come between them in her section of the book and it seems that Dena only wishes to punish her sister through her actions while she allows her to visit by barely speaking to her, and for the most part staying so busy they don't have time to be alone.

...Aaron Builder is a unique individual who is trying to make sure that the Jewish people are not forced out of Israel by their Arab neighbors. He will join whatever cause is necessary to make sure that the rising hostilities against Israel will not eliminate the country he has come to love.

Is there a film in the making?

Here's the official site's excerpt and you'' notice on page 9 that the precautioary blast to check if a suspect object is a bomb is mistakeningly described as "an earsplitting explosion"and "a thunderous boom". Obviously, she has never heard one. Tsk-tsk.

And the "settlement" is...Kiryat Arba. A typical Jewish community.

Creative license, I presume.

^

Transjordan?

Jewish settlement in Transjordan?

Dr. Stephen S. Wise of New York, addressing today's session of the Eighteenth World Zionist Congress, launched a sharp attack on Dr. Chaim Weizmann, former president of the World Zionist Organization, and on the policies of the Zionist Laborite party. Shouts and exclamations from the Laborite section frequently interrupted Dr. Wise as he appealed to the congress to elect only such leaders to the organization's administration as do not oppose the idea of a Jewish state in Palestine and support the demand for a Jewish majority on both sides of the Jordan River...Rabbi Wise declared himself bewildered by Dr. Weizmann's criticism of constructive negotiations for the opening of Transjordania to Jewish settlement, especially as voiced by Dr. Weizmann in his speeches at the American Zionist convention in Chicago in July. The negotiations have been conducted by members of the Palestine Executive of the Jewish Agency with friendly Transjordan Arab leaders...Dr. Wise freely praised Emanuel Neumann, American member of the executive, and the late Dr. Chaim Arlosoroff, for their conduct of negotiations leading to the opening of the spacious Transjordan area to Jewish effort.

That was from August 29, 1933. And Wise was a Reform Rabbi.

And this:

...in May 1937, Ben-Gurion had a meeting with some colleagues amongst whom was included Pinhas Rutenberg. Rutenberg was a Russo-Jewish electrical engineer and founder and director of the Palestine Electric Company, who had set up a hydro-electric power station in Transjordan to harness the waters of the upper Jordan and the Yarmuk rivers...At this meeting on 5 May, it was concluded that “We see need...to pressure the British Government” on the possibility of Jewish settlement in Transjordan...

...At that time [July 1937], there were already a number of Jewish settlements on the eastern side of the River Jordan. These were situated between the Sea of Galilee and the junction between the Jordan and Yarmuk Rivers. Geographically, these settlements were in Transjordan, but in fact this small area of land was outside the boundaries of Transjordan as they had been fixed in 1922. According to the Peel Commission's recommendations the area of these settlements was to become part of the Arab State and its Jewish inhabitants transferred to the Jewish State. The Zionists made an immediate appeal for this small area to be incorporated within the boundaries of the Jewish State.(87) However, as Ben-Gurion noted in his diary, “In the event of the compulsory transfer being rejected by the Government, we will remain in Transjordan - even if the border suggested by the Commission, north of the Yarmuk-Jordan junction is not rectified.”(88)

And from this book, Nazism, the Jews, and American Zionism, 1933-1948 By Aaron Berman,

And from the book, King Abdullah, Britain and the Making of Jordan By Mary Christina Wilson:

^

British Policy

And who would one of those "representatives" be?

Jewish Communities, No; Palestinian communities, Yes?

You all know that I refuse to use the term "Jewish settlement" to describe my home and the other 150+ cities, towns, villages and communities in Yesha.

So look at this, instead of village we get:-

2 Israelis rescued after entering Palestinian community

Two Israelis who entered a Palestinian community east of Bethlehem were detained by Palestinian security forces and were removed unharmed in coordination with Israeli authorities.

An Aspect of the Migron Case

...[the] scenario seemingly resembles the case of Elon Moreh, which was built on the private lands of the village of Rujeib. The Supreme Court did not believe the government's argument that security needs dictated the takeover of this private land. The court ruled that settlement needs did not justify the appropriation of private property. As a result, Rujeib was voluntarily evacuated, the concept of settlements on state lands was applied and Elon Moreh was established in its current location. Eventually, settlers acquired plots of land from Rujeib; today they constitute, together with the adjacent state lands, the community of Itamar and its outposts. A similar thing also happened at Mitzpe Kramim, which was relocated in 1999 (under the terms of the first outpost agreement) and later reestablished in the place it was evacuated from.

Source

The New Migron-Shall-Not-Be-Moved Poster

Signed by Rabbis Dov Lior, Zalman Melamed Michale Hershkowitz with Rabbis Shalom Gold, Chaim Shteiner and David Hai Cohen.

It calls for Migron to stay put and all soldiers and policemen to refuse to participate in any evacuation operation.

Gee, Another Jewish Settlement

No, not in "occupied" territory.

In Wharton, Texas.

Wharton, the county seat of Wharton County, is on the east bank of the lower Colorado River, forty-five miles from the Gulf of Mexico.

Read on:-

The Tee Pee Motel here with its 10 adobe wigwams was up and running again after being closed for 23 years, and Bob Phillips, the Texas Country Reporter, was on it, barreling in with his television crew in his Ford Explorer daubed in the billowing red, white and blue of the Texas flag.

Mr. Phillips fortified himself with barbecue and prepared to zero in on questions concerning the how and why of the reopening of the Tee Pee Motel near Houston after 23 years.

There were pressing questions. Who would buy a rundown 1942 motor court for $60,000 and put $1.6 million into renovating it? And did Geronimo’s great-grandson really show up recently in this old Jewish settlement town(*), birthplace of Dan Rather and Horton Foote, to stay there?

Source


(*)

Congregation Shearith Israel was a Jewish Texan kehilla in Wharton, Texas. This rural Texan kehilla held Jewish services for over 100 years (1899-2002).

Jewish immigrants, arriving as early as the 1850s, established additional businesses and began the Congregation Shearith Israel, the only synagogue in a three-county area. A first synagogue building was erected on S. Rusk Street in 1921. Although centered in the town of Wharton, the community has members in two counties adjacent to Wharton County and the towns of Bay City, El Campo, Edna, East Bernard, Palacios and Boling. The community has over a century of Jewish history and held for many years, the Shearith Israel annual barbecue. This event would be attended by many from the three county area. The present synagogue, holder of an historic landmark, was built in 1956 on Old Lane City Road. A Jewish cemetery was established on N. Alabama Rd. in 1937. The synagogue received an historical marker in 1988. The synagogue held its last service, led by Rabbi Jerome Cohen, in 2002. Worship services began in about 1899.