Planting US Jewish Activism Over The Green Line

Abe Selig
JPost
13 August 09

When most American college students decide to spend a summer connecting with Israel, they climb Masada, float in the Dead Sea or spend a night out indulging in Tel Aviv's abundant nightlife.

But for participants in a small new volunteer program initiated by the Zionist Freedom Alliance - a "revolutionary" group that promotes Zionism on US campuses as an indigenous, not biblical or political movement - connecting with Israel means defying international pressure that all construction east of the Green Line come to a halt, and heading deep into the West Bank to show solidarity with the Jewish communities there.

"We are working to strengthen Israel's hold on this land because the Jewish people has every legal, moral and historic right to this land," Zionist Freedom Alliance head Yehuda HaKohen said on Tuesday, as he supervised about a dozen program participants planting a vineyard on a hilltop near the Har Bracha settlement, just outside Nablus.

"For us the main issue is justice. When we come here to build and plant and support local residents, we are not simply taking a political stance on Israeli policy. We are resisting an historic crime from being perpetrated against our nation."

But for the Zionist Freedom Alliance, the experience is also meant to instill the sense of an active role in Jewish history - not unlike Taglit-birthright or other summer programs that bring young American Jews to Israel in search of a genuine connection with the country. The alliance just takes it a step further. By day, participants labor with their hands, and at night, they learn how to better defend Israel on campus back home.

"We educate our activists to view themselves as participants in history - as characters in the story of the Jewish people," HaKohen said. "It's not enough to merely learn about past heroes like Herzl and Trumpeldor, we should aspire to be those heroes in this generation. We want our students to see themselves as the future Zionist heroes that young people will learn about in their history class 30 years from now."

As such, the alliance sent out e-mails and Facebook messages last week, inviting young people to "volunteer for six days on a hilltop in the Shomron," and "help build a new Jewish community in Israel's heartland."

With the cooperation of the Shomron Liason Office, headed by David Ha'ivri, who made aliya with his family from the US at age 11, the group was given access to places like Yitzhar, Shalhevet Yam, Kfar Tapuach and Shavei Shomron - ground zero for the current round of international pressure on Israeli settlement policy, and according to the Zionist Freedom Alliance, prime locations to allow the volunteers the kind of experience they are looking for.
(Continue)
.