Shine - Migron is not an outpost

Dr. Chaim Shine..
Israel Hayom..
22 January '12..



High atop a hill in the land given to the tribe of Benjamin, just where Saul's army once prepared for war with the Philistines, the outpost of Migron was built in 1999. Fifty families climbed up the steep hill, overlooking Nablus and Jerusalem, to deliver the historic homeland of the Jewish people. What they did, as Zionists and pioneers, was reminiscent of the glory days of the early Zionist settlement movement.

This rocky hill, uninhabited since the days of Saul and David and whose soil has not been cultivated -- even sheep and cows have not grazed it -- became the home of Jewish settlers. The homeland once again proved that it was waiting with eternal patience for the return of its sons. Women and children carried the weight of the entire nation on their gentle shoulders.

In caravans, on difficult terrain, in freezing winter weather and sweltering summer heat, an amazing kernel emerged representing a generation of truth that feels an allegiance to the state of Israel and its military. Among Migron's 50 families are career soldiers serving in elite combat units, sons and grandsons of Israeli heroes who gave their lives to protect the country from terrorists.

At the beginning of the century, Israel's government supported the settlement enterprise. Labor party ministers helped build infrastructure, city plans were drafted and the land was owned by the government. In 2004, when the delusional and unrealistic disengagement plan was being formulated (ultimately culminating in the evacuation of all Gaza settlements and a handful of West Bank settlements), the settlement enterprise was halted.

Though Palestinian ownership of the land has not been established, the evacuation orders have already been issued. The State Prosecutor's Office has turned land that was never claimed by anyone into private land. I am convinced that had the same criteria been applied to the lands settled in the early days of Zionism and the establishment of Israel, legal proceedings would still be underway on the matter of Ramat Aviv, Raanana, Ramat Hasharon and many neighborhoods in Jerusalem.



True, Jewish settlements should not be built on private land, with or without government support. But in order for land to be classified as private, proof of ownership must be presented, and no such proof has been provided for most of the land on which Migron was built.

The battle over Migron is not about ownership of so-called Palestinian lands. It is a purely political battle against Jewish settlement in the parts of the country Israel captured during the 1967 Six-Day War. It is a shame that the ministers tasked with resolving the Migron issue have been drawn into a legal battle instead of realizing that evacuating Migron would be the first step toward the destruction of many Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. It is part of the Left's bid to take Israel back to its pre-1967 borders.

The citizens of Israel have already paid the price of the 2005 disengagement from Gaza. To evacuate Migron would be to repeat the same mistake. The courts are in place to serve society and the state, not the other way around. The laws are not a national compromise, nor are they a recipe for achieving political goals.

Migron is not an outpost. The word “outpost” implies a temporary status. Migron is the Jews' permanent hold on their homeland.

Link:http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=1239

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