The Nahalal Conference

Monday, Feb. 14, 2005, 7 pm, at Nalalal

In view of the rampant insanity of uprooting Zionist pioneers we cannot remain silent.

We, members of Kibbutzim and Moshavim throughout Israel from the pioneering settlement movements that brought about the miracle of Zionist revival, of our people returning to its land and soil, call on every person with a human and national conscience to come and raise a Zionist national voice of sanity against the illegal and immoral attempt to uproot and destroy the Gush Katif region and the settlements of northern Samaria.

Against unfeeling forces of evil, against people with no Zionist values, against an insane dictator who is dragging our people into civil war, we shall reaffirm the Zionist values that brought about the establishment of the State of Israel, the national home of the Jewish people.

“It is not a foreign country that we took for ourselves, nor do we rule what belongs to others. Nay, it is the land of our forefathers that was conquered unjustly by our enemies some time ago, and we, when the opportunity came, took back our fathers’ land” (Letter of Simon the Hasmonean to king Antiochos in Damascus).

This is our ancient homeland. We established the State of Israel on the basis of our historical right to it, not due to the charity of others. Our enemies, who have been waging war against us since the beginning of the Zionist movement, will not be satisfied with this or that part of the land. Their ultimate aim is to expel us from the entire country.

We know that in smoke-filled rooms plans are already being made to abandon and uproot the residents of the Jordan Valley and the Golan Heights. The international border station being constructed far from the eyes of the public in the north of the Jordan Valley near Mechola provides positive proof of the storm which is about to engulf the entire Zionist enterprise.

The people of Israel have already decided in favor of remaining in Gush Katif in three democratic campaigns:

In the first democratic campaign, the parliamentary elections, Ariel Sharon received a majority of the vote because he promised that “Netsarim is no less vital than Tel-Aviv”. Mitsna demanded that settlements be uprooted and destroyed, and he lost the election. The majority voted for a continuation of settlement activity throughout the Land of Israel. Sharon’s power is derived from the people, for he owes his election to the people.

In the second democratic campaign Sharon, drunk with media fervor and certain of his victory, decided to hold a referendum among members of his own party. In this referendum, which was a model of democratic polling, the supporters of Gush Katif were clearly and unambiguously victorious. Despite his promise that he would respect the result of the referendum, which was just as legitimate as any party primaries or any other process for electing nominees for the Knesset, Sharon reneged on his promise, and like a blind rhinoceros snorted in contempt at his party and continued to trample everything which stood in the way of his plan of destruction.

In the third democratic campaign, when the issue came up for a vote in the cabinet and despite the fact that many Likud ministers betrayed their own voters by ignoring the results of the referendum that was binding on them, still Sharon did not have a majority for his insane plan of destruction and expulsion. And then Sharon struck a fatal blow at the very heart of Israel’s democratic system of government by firing two ministers before the vote, thus creating an artificial and illegal majority for himself. Who needs a cabinet, after all, if you can fire ministers at will and so get a majority?

Israel’s democratic system of government is in danger. It is not only Gush Katif that is at stake. What is about to be destroyed is our democracy and the Zionist values which have been the guidelines of the Zionist movement since its inception.

We, Zionist settlers on the Land of Israel, shall convene in Nahalal, the cradle of the Moshavim movement and a symbol of our renewed hold on the land, and raise our voices against the criminal and immoral destruction of settlements in the Land of Israel. The Nahalal conference will be the first in a series of meetings across the land, attended by settlers on the land who have forged a bond of blood and love with their homeland.

We shall not abandon our comrades from Gush Katif to their fate in this fight against the evil that is being planned against them. We shall be with them in these difficult times, for their struggle is ours as well.

The conference will take place on Monday, Feb. 14, 2005 at 7 pm in Nahalal.

Signs will guide the participants to the conference site near the circle in the center of the village.

All our comrades in the agricultural villages in the Jordan Valley, the Dead Sea shore, the Arava Valley, the Negev, Galilee, the Golan Heights and Gush Katif are cordially invited.

For details and registration to speak, call: 052-2358440.

Translated by: S. Michael Guggenheimer