There is a face of Israel that many, even among its own population, do not know. A side of Israel that way too many are entirely unaware of.
It is a face that successive Israeli governments have been either hesitant to promote or unreservedly opposed to making it accessible to all Israelis and to the Jewish people at large. You will find this face of Israel in our heartland. In Yehuda and Shomron (Judea and Samaria).
There is a disconnect from the heartland on the part of Israel’s leadership that cannot be attributed to United States pressure for a two state solution, or to exaggerated fears of world isolation. Nor is this disconnect a reflexive reaction to the deceitful resolutions of the UN or to actions such as UNESCO’s efforts, in collaboration with the “Palestinian” Arabs, to rewrite history evidenced by its 2010 declaration that the Tomb of the Hebrew Patriarchs in Hebron and Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem are “an integral part of the occupied Palestinian territories”.
Indeed, the disconnect came first and it is this disconnect that, in fact, invites international pressure, enables fear mongering and directs UNESCO’s most recent draft resolution which ignores Jewish ties to its holiest site of the Temple Mount and the Kotel (Western Wall) in Jerusalem’s Old City. UNESCO refers to the areas respectively as al-Aksa Mosque/al-Haram al Sharif and as al-Buraq Plaza.
When successive Israeli governments follow a policy of detachment from Judea and Samaria it is no wonder that Israel cannot command respect toward its legitimate rights. It is no wonder that Israel’s very existence is in question. Certainly, by rebuffing our biblical land, by not recognizing the miracle of its liberation after 2000 years of exile, by battling against its own people who wish to build on their own land, by choosing to use the anti-Israel and fallacious terminology of “West Bank’ over its proper name of Judea and Samaria, and by excluding our heritage that is entwined with our heartland from the educational system, it has resulted in half the population rejecting the heartland outright while decisively contributing to our people’s ignorance of their history and to what is at the core of our genesis as a Jewish nation in the land of Israel.
The willful policy of detachment to the heartland is gravely flawed with far reaching consequences. Israel’s detachment policy is precisely what has led to UNESCO’s declarations, which are a fundamental function in their scheme to de-Judaize the land of Israel and appropriate the Jewish nation’s history. Why should any foreign body or country recognize our legitimate rights to our very own heartland when successive Israeli governments, since the liberation of Judea and Samaria in a defensive war in 1967, have not embraced the cradle of our heritage?
But this isn’t about UNESCO. This is about Israel’s culpability in the foreign usurpation of our national and religious heritage. And what a horrible and devastating shame that is for our people. Not only from a cultural, religious and national perspective, but from a unifying standpoint as well. Such policies have only caused divisiveness among our people, pitting one section of the population against the other.
I found it sadly laughable when Dore Gold, Director General of Israel’s Foreign Ministry blasted UNESCO’s draft resolution that recognized Jerusalem’s Old City as a Muslim site, stating that it “deliberately ignores the historical connection between the Jewish people and their ancient capitol.” But who is it really that is ignoring our connection to the Temple Mount?
UNESCO is simply following the lead of the Israeli government’s policy which, despite a Supreme Court decision to the contrary, forbids Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount and restricts Jewish presence as well. What right does Dore Gold have to admonish UNESCO when the government he serves refuses to allow its own people the same rights as the Arab Muslims have to worship freely – And on this, the holiest site in Judaism?
Why should UNESCO or any foreign body respect our connection to the Temple Mount when the government of Israel does not? Why did the Israeli government, in the aftermath of the Six Day War in 1967, allow General Moshe Dayan to hand over the key to the Temple Mount to the Jordanian Wakf? And in light of the Wakf refusing to recognize freedom of worship to all on this holy site, and in light of evidence that the Mosque is utilized to store arms to be used against Jewish citizens and the IDF, and in light of the numerous terrorist attacks incited by Imams from the Mosque on Temple Mount as well as staged from the Temple Mount onto Jewish worshipers at the Kotel, why isn’t this heinous and foolish decision by Moshe Dayan overturned?
What gives Dore Gold the right to blast UNESCO when the government he serves abets this natural conclusion? Dore Gold accuses UNESCO of distorting history, and stated that its distortion is “totally disconnected from reality on the ground.” Really? How is UNESCO’s resolution “disconnected from reality on the ground” when it is clearly based on the reality on the ground? After all, who maintains de facto control over the Temple Mount?
Since only Muslims are allowed to pray there by order of the Wakf, indeed, UNESCO’s resolution is very much in line with the “facts on the ground.”
If the Director General of Israel’s foreign Ministry wants the world body to honor the Jewish nation’s connection to the land of Israel, then he should look first to the conduct of his own government.
The Israeli government must grant freedom of worship on the Temple Mount to all sectors of Israeli society. There is certainly something amiss having to clarify that this freedom should extend to the Jewish population as well.
The Israeli government should, at the same time, subsidize mandatory educational overnight trips for all Israeli high school students to Judea and Samaria.
The people of Israel must know their land, their roots and their history. They must see it, they must feel it, they must be enlightened as to where they come from. They deserve to know. Our youth have a right to know. And this initiative will serve to unite our people as well. Because when they meet the people of Judea and Samaria, they will realize that far from harming the State of Israel the residents of Israel’s heartland dedicate their lives to live on the frontlines in order to protect our land and our people.
Our youth should no longer be deprived from knowing that courage, self-sacrifice, faith, love of our people and love of our land are firmly rooted and nurtured in these sacred hills, where not one grain of sand is taken for granted. And where the connection to the land is so strong that every place one treads, it is with a deep sense of our history, almost four thousand years embedded in our soil, and in our souls. It is the face of a people who are one with the Land. Grant our youth the benefit of the truth. Let them be proud and inspired. Or, at the very least, allow them to form an educated opinion, one based on knowledge and awareness, free from fear-filled politics and biased leftist indoctrination that divides rather than unites.
