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Women in Green Marks its 25th Anniversary. This is how it all began.
The Women in Green movement marked its 25th anniversary in Gush Etzion.
It began as a grass-roots movement protesting against concessions and
withdrawals from parts of the Land and today it leads the discourse of
sovereignty in the arenas of politics and policy.
Last Friday, approximately 150 citizens and public figures active in
the settlement enterprise, both leaders and supporters, gathered at
the Oz veGaon nature preserve in Gush Etzion to mark the 25th
anniversary of the founding of the Women in Green movement and the
public activities of its leaders, Yehudit Katsover and Nadia Matar.
Link to movie with English subtitles:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irIUnhfOKlA&feature=youtu.be Link to photos by Gershon Ellinson
http://womeningreen.org.il/25years/ The attendees saluted the movement, which had started out as a protest
movement against the Oslo Accords, and in recent years has been
leading the discourse over the vision of full Israeli sovereignty over
Judea and Samaria.
Rare photographs were displayed at the facility where the gathering
was held, documenting the years of the movement's activities including
vigils and demonstrations, the establishment of outposts and the
Jewish concept of turning entire tracts of land into populated
neighborhoods and communities. Many of those who attended the
gathering commemorating the movement and its leaders even found
themselves in these photographs from the past, which documented their
activism in protest demonstrations against the Oslo Accords and in
favor of strengthening the settlement enterprise in the Land of
Israel.
Nadia Matar was the first speaker at the event, dedicating the entire
event to her mother-in-law, Ruth Matar, who, together with her husband
Michael, founded the movement, together with other women who were
residents of Jerusalem.
"Ruth taught all of us that we must not be silent and that when a Jew
is in distress, you leave everything else aside and mobilize to help
him; she taught us not be afraid to tell the truth and that loyalty is
the highest virtue - loyalty to the People, to the Torah, to the Land
and to the family".
Matar described the movement's activities as having two parts: "avoid
evil" and "do good": Up until the expulsion from Gush Katif, the
"avoid evil" part dominated. It was a period of intensive activity to
guard the honor of the People and the Land, and during this period
weekly protest demonstrations were held, there was a radio program on
Arutz 7, there were activities in support of IDF soldiers,
demonstrations against Machsom Watch and their activities against the
IDF, obtaining hundreds of thousands of signatures against the Oslo
Accords and more. The "do good" part, which took place after the
expulsion from Gush Katif and Yehudit Katsover's joining the
leadership of the movement, focused on creating a positive vision by
renouncing and rejecting the Oslo ideas. This was the phase of
clinging to the Land and the launching of the campaign to lead the
vision of sovereignty as the Right's policy and plan. "We were not the
first to speak about it, but we were the first who set out on a
hasbara campaign about it", she noted.
Matar's partner in leading Women in Green, Yehudit Katsover, continued
in the same vein as Matar, saying "The goal is to guard the honor of
the Land of Israel and there is no doubt that Women in Green has
succeeded in raising consciousness about guarding the Land of Israel's
interests", adding: "Imagine what would have been without the protests
and demonstrations by Women in Green, which raised consciousness about
the Land of Israel…".
When she spoke, Katsover told of the days that she joined the
movement, about 13 years ago, immediately after the expulsion from
Gush Katif, when she became impressed by the activities of the
movement's founders and activists, activities that were motivated by
pure ideology and not politics.
About the decision to hold an event marking the 25th year of the
movement, she said: "I thought that it was important to show the story
of the people who went out into the streets and the public squares and
cried with pain for the Land of Israel. We could not let it pass
without some kind of commemoration", she said, and told of the boxes
that had accumulated in preparation for the event, with an enormous
amount of material documenting the activities over the years.
Katsover continues, adding that despite her years of her joint
leadership of the movement together with her friend and associate,
Nadia Matar, she was unaware and surprised at the extent of the
movement's activities in the years before she joined it, as was
revealed by the photographic documentation that she saw. "I too, like
many of those who came to the event, am amazed by the movement's
extensive activity on behalf of the Land of Israel, that was carried
out with such dedication, fearlessness and humility. We are proud to
be partners in this movement".
After Katsover spoke, a short film was screened for the attendees to
the event about Eddy Driben, obm, "one of the first Jews who settled
in Kiryat Arba-Hevron, who was a special sort of character with a lot
of natural national pride", in Katsover's words, whose character was
similar to that of Ari Fuld, Hy"d, who was murdered just a few weeks
ago at Gush Etzion Junction by a terrorist: "Ari, Hy"d, was a partner
to our activities", said Katsover, "he photographed and documented our
activities out of a sense of total solidarity. May his memory
stimulate a continuation of blessed, wide range of activity on behalf
of the People and the Land".
Katsover and Matar expressed their thanks to those who came to the
event, to the movement's activists for their volunteerism in various
tasks, to donors from Israel and from abroad and among others, they
noted the activists who have passed on over the years. "Without you
and without them, none of this would have happened", they said.
The head of Gush Etzion Council, Shlomo Ne'eman, was also among the
speakers at the event and he spoke of how he first became acquainted
with the activities of Women in Green, a short time after he came on
aliya to Israel. Ne'eman brought up the fact that the name of the
movement is similar to the name of a leftist movement, Women in Black,
noting that while black is not a color, but rather the lack of light
and the lack of color, Green is the color of life, "Women in Green is
life itself", said Ne'eman.
Katsover and Matar sum up the entire event with words of gratitude to
the attendees: "Many tasks still remain to be done, both in the realm
of hasbara and in the practical realm and the political realm to
promote the vision of sovereignty, which is the main thrust of our
movement. The many supporters who came to celebrate the 25th
anniversary of the movement's founding with us imbue us with spirit
and confidence and with this spirit and confidence the People will
bring about the change of direction that will restore the entire
country to the most basic values of Zionism, the values of love for
the entire Land, clinging to it and sovereignty over it".
=============================================
Women For Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green)
POB 7352, Jerusalem 91072, Israel
mailto:
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