Gaza militants invoke God to defy pullout
-15/08/05
With only hours remaining before Israeli troops remove the remaining remnants of 8,500 Jewish settlers in the Gaza strip, from which PM Ariel Sharon’s government is withdrawing for security reasons, militants are invoking God to defy the pullout.
On Monday, settlers in the largest of 21 settlements, Neve Dekalim, used makeshift barricades to stop the military issuing eviction orders to end what the United Nations and international law declares to be an illegal occupation – one that began 38 years ago with the 1967 six-day war between Israel, Egypt and Syria.
Some 6,000 anti-pullout activists from across Israel have joined, and in some cases have taken the place of, Gaza settlers. Although Zionism is a secular creed, many of them argue that the land is part of the inheritance God gave to the Jews. They have been supported in this claim by groups such as the International Christian Zionist Center.
Many Zionists contend that an eternal covenant with Abraham and his descendants (Genesis 12, 15) means that modern Israel should have undivided political sovereignty over all the land from the Nile in Egypt to the Euphrates, in what is now Iraq.
However scripture scholars point out that Abraham is depicted as “father of many nations”, not one, and that his descendants are Jews, Arabs and Christians together. Indeed the mother of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, was an Egyptian. Hagar produced descendants with Abraham and she also received a covenant: “I will increase your descendants so that they will be too many to count”. Genesis 25 says that these descendants were Arabs.
Commentators also draw a distinction between ‘settler ideology’ and devout religious practice, pointing out that the prophetic writings in the Hebrew scriptures demand respect for human life, a vision of peace and hesed (loving kindness) above all else. A minority of strongly Orthodox Jews have opposed the expansion of the modern state of Israel by force, saying that it pre-empts the word of God.
Meanwhile, Christian Zionists, who have been influential in mobilising opinion in the US against land rights for Palestinians, are reported to be divided about the Gaza pullout. A handful of activists have joined protests against the withdrawal. But Malcolm Hedding, director of the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem, has declared that “we can’t be more interested in land recovery than in spiritual restoration.”
In a TV broadcast to the nation, Israeli PM Ariel Sharon said that the Gaza pullout was in the best interests of the country’s security. He also acknowledged the dire situation of 1.3 million Palestinians on the coastal strip.
Declared Sharon: “We cannot hold on to Gaza forever. More than a million Palestinians live there and double their number with each generation. They live in uniquely crowded conditions in refugee camps, in poverty and despair, in hotbeds of rising hatred with no hope on the horizon.”
Palestinian representatives have welcomed the withdrawal from Gaza, but point out that even without settlements the area will still be occupied because of enforced isolation by sea, land and air. Many also believe that the wider aim is to secure Israel’s hold on the majority of the West Bank, where 230,000 settlers and 2.4 million Palestinians live. The International Court of Justice has also declared this an illegal occupation.
Gaza militants invoke God to defy pullout
-15/08/05
With only hours remaining before Israeli troops remove the remaining remnants of 8,500 Jewish settlers in the Gaza strip, from which PM Ariel Sharon’s government is withdrawing for security reasons, militants are invoking God to defy the pullout.
On Monday, settlers in the largest of 21 settlements, Neve Dekalim, used makeshift barricades to stop the military issuing eviction orders to end what the United Nations and international law declares to be an illegal occupation – one that began 38 years ago with the 1967 six-day war between Israel, Egypt and Syria.
Some 6,000 anti-pullout activists from across Israel have joined, and in some cases have taken the place of, Gaza settlers. Although Zionism is a secular creed, many of them argue that the land is part of the inheritance God gave to the Jews. They have been supported in this claim by groups such as the International Christian Zionist Center.
Many Zionists contend that an eternal covenant with Abraham and his descendants (Genesis 12, 15) means that modern Israel should have undivided political sovereignty over all the land from the Nile in Egypt to the Euphrates, in what is now Iraq.
However scripture scholars point out that Abraham is depicted as “father of many nations”, not one, and that his descendants are Jews, Arabs and Christians together. Indeed the mother of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, was an Egyptian. Hagar produced descendants with Abraham and she also received a covenant: “I will increase your descendants so that they will be too many to count”. Genesis 25 says that these descendants were Arabs.
Commentators also draw a distinction between ‘settler ideology’ and devout religious practice, pointing out that the prophetic writings in the Hebrew scriptures demand respect for human life, a vision of peace and hesed (loving kindness) above all else. A minority of strongly Orthodox Jews have opposed the expansion of the modern state of Israel by force, saying that it pre-empts the word of God.
Meanwhile, Christian Zionists, who have been influential in mobilising opinion in the US against land rights for Palestinians, are reported to be divided about the Gaza pullout. A handful of activists have joined protests against the withdrawal. But Malcolm Hedding, director of the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem, has declared that “we can’t be more interested in land recovery than in spiritual restoration.”
In a TV broadcast to the nation, Israeli PM Ariel Sharon said that the Gaza pullout was in the best interests of the country’s security. He also acknowledged the dire situation of 1.3 million Palestinians on the coastal strip.
Declared Sharon: “We cannot hold on to Gaza forever. More than a million Palestinians live there and double their number with each generation. They live in uniquely crowded conditions in refugee camps, in poverty and despair, in hotbeds of rising hatred with no hope on the horizon.”
Palestinian representatives have welcomed the withdrawal from Gaza, but point out that even without settlements the area will still be occupied because of enforced isolation by sea, land and air. Many also believe that the wider aim is to secure Israel’s hold on the majority of the West Bank, where 230,000 settlers and 2.4 million Palestinians live. The International Court of Justice has also declared this an illegal occupation.