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Last Updated: Jul 2nd, 2006 - 21:49:49 |
More than 400 young hikers left from the Samaria community of Elon Moreh Sunday morning, walking on foot in the direction of Tapuach.
The young people, enjoying their summer vacation, hailed from communities across Judea and Samaria, as well as from Haifa, Rechovot, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Posters had been put up and distributed in schools by the grassroots Youth for the Land of Israel movement in the final days before the summer break.
The posters read: “Like Abraham our father, who walked the length and breadth of the land; like our fathers who walked from Shechem to Hevron and from Jerusalem to Beit El; like King David who walked the fields of Bethlehem; like Rabbi Akiva and his students who walked throughout Judea; like Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai and his students, lovers of the Galilee; like the students of the Vilna Gaon and the Baal Shem Tov who saturated the land with their blood, tears and love – against the strangulation policies, we will take to the roads on a Land of Israel hike.”
By Sunday afternoon, the marchers reached Tel Aroma, opposite the Itamar mountain ridge and enjoyed the view of the region from above
“We finally feel like we are conquering the land,” one of the organizers, Sheva Ratzon, told Arutz-7. “We don’t need to ask anyone where to place our feet.”
The youth group has strengthened and spread its influence in schools on both sides of the Green Line. “There are those of us who are no longer youths who want to spread this enthusiasm and this fearlessness among adults as well,” Land of Israel Faithful spokesperson Datia Yitzchaki told Arutz-7. “We are breaking out of the paradigm of hiding behind concrete walls. The youth are going back to hiking through the mountains and the fields, and reminding our community and all of Israel that every retreat behind cement walls – like we saw in Kerem Shalom and we see at Netiv HaAsara – leads only to tragedy.
“Our public, which suffered a great blow this past summer, cannot sit back and say 'we are tired' (a reference to a phrase used often in recent months by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert). We must lift the flag back up and counter the feeling of hopelessness and defeat being sown by the heads of the government. We have concentrated on reopening roads that have been closed to Jews, such as the Wallerstein Road and the Jerusalem-Tekoa road. We intend, through our feet, so show that the land is ours.”
Monday, with sunrise, the hikers will continue once again, from the Tapuach Junction, past Eli and Shilo, toward the hilltop communities in the Shvut Rachel region, in northern Binyamin. They will be joined by less-rugged hikers as they pass the larger communities and a festive ceremony will be held at the Kol Zion (Voice of Zion) outpost.
Though planned before his murder, the march is dedicated to the memory of Eliyahu Asheri, the 18-year-old Itamar resident kidnapped and murdered by Arab terrorists last week.
Marchers listened on transistor radios to media reports that Arab fields had been vandalized, allegedly by them. Outraged, they contacted the news agencies and were told that Arabs had made the allegations. They said that there had not even been any friction with local Arabs during the course of the march, and now plan to bring charges against at least one of the media agencies that chose to continue to broadcast the allegations even after they received the facts from participants.
The hikers informed the IDF of their plans but did not request security from the army, opting to hire private security guards and rely on volunteers. “Had we requested assistance from the army they would want to surround us with barbed wire and have us walk along the roads and communities,” Yitzchaki said, “but that is exactly the world view we are trying to change.”
© Copyright 5764, 5765 by author and Tsel Harim
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