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Dani Dayan along with Parliamentarians from around the world and the
Israel Allies Foundation leadership at the Psagot Winery |
Parliament members from 25 countries spent two
days touring YESHA (Judea & Samaria) as part of the Israel Allies Foundation Jerusalem Chairman's Conference during the
Jewish holiday of Sukkot, in September, 2013. The elected officials came to
learn more about Israel and how the "Israel Grants Guidelines"
adopted by the European Commission would impact the residents of Judea and
Samaria and to determine whether it could even possibly lead to peace. After spending just one day in Judea &
Samaria, they concluded that the EU Guidelines are actually an obstacle to
peace and all signed this document condemning the Guidelines and affirming Israel's right to develop YESHA.
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IAF Parliamentarians MEP Magdi Allam (Italy), MP James Lunney (Canada), MEP Bastiaan Belder
(Netherlands), MEP Roger Helmer (UK), Rep. Doug Lamborn (US), MP Jan Dziedziczak (Poland), and
IAF staff with Miri Maoz Ovadia in the Binyamin region |
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Rabbi Beni Elon of the Israel Allies Foundation,
Yigal Cohen-Orgad Chancellor of Ariel University,
Hananel Dorani Mayor of Kedumim, and
Yigal Dilmoni, deputy CEO of the YESHA Council |
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Dani Dayan addressing the IAF Parliamentarians
at the Psagot Winery |
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Yaakov Berg, addressing the IAF Parliamentarians
at the Psagot Winery |
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Rep. Doug Lamborn (CO-5) with
Ruth Lieberman of YES! To a Strong Israel |
Lawmakers from the US, Canada,
UK, Brazil, Holland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Macedonia, Poland, South Africa,
Guatemala, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia and Uruguay visited with representatives
of numerous communities in YESHA at the Psagot
Winery; were treated to Dani Dayan's overview of the political situation/roadmap to actual peace in
Judea and Samaria as well as engaging addresses from the winery's co-owners,
Yaakov Berg, and (an address in Spanish) from Hannah (and Simon) Falic.
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Miri Maoz Ovadia with the IAF Parliamentarians
at the outlook in Peduel |
The YESHA Council's own, Miri Maoz Ovadia led
the MPs on a tour of the countryside of the Benjamin and Samaria regions (just
north of Jerusalem) as well as the city of Ariel.
They made their way to a strategic outlook in the community of Peduel , which is situated on a strategic bluff overlooking the entire
central coast area of Israel including Ben-Gurion Airport. MK Motti Yogev a former IDF commander of the Judea & Samaria region gave a
stirring description of the security challenges Israel would face should she be
pressured to surrender this land. When a
plane 'buzzed' the crowd on its way to land at Ben Gurion Airport the MPs all
understood the absolute necessity from a security perspective to keep this
territory in Israel's hands and how easy it would be for terrorists to shoot
down a civilian jet thereby holding Israel's lone international airport
hostage.
The following day, the MPs visited Shiloh the original Jewish capital in Israel and home
of the Tabernacle (the portable sanctuary) that for 369 years was the epicenter
of religious observance. The MPs gained the understanding of the historical,
cultural and Biblical connection that this land represents to the Jewish
people. It served as the Jewish capitol in Israel before the establishment of
Jerusalem.
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| Israel Allies Foundation Parliamentarians in Peduel - overlooking the Mediterranean coast |
The MPs then visited the community of Rehelim and the Tura Winery, where they learned about the community's establishment on the
heels of a terrorist attack that claimed the life of a woman by the name of Rachel (Rehelim is the plural form of
Rachel), and how the community has flourished ever since. Winery owner, Vered Ben-Sasson, herself an
immigrant from Holland has built a thriving winery despite numerous attacks by
Palestinian terrorists. Yet through
perseverance, dedication and community-wide support, her business is thriving
and her wines are winning awards throughout the world.
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Professor Eugene Kontorovich addressing the IAF
Parliamentarians at the Tura Winery in Rehelim |
Northwest University Professor Eugene Kontorovich added significant meat to the lunch by
exposing the hypocrisy of the EUs treatment of the Jewish communities of YESHA
as compared to how the EU treats actual 'occupied territories' in other
parts of the world – including within the EU itself, as he explains in the Jerusalem Post. Professor Kontorovich is one of an increasing number of
international legal scholars who have unequivocally determined that the state
of Israel has the strongest legal rights to the region of Judea and
Samaria. Many of the MPs expressed
interest in hosting Professor Kontorovich in their own Parliaments to ensure
that these legal arguments gained visibility in their own country.
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Yehuda Cohen of Keter Plastics addressing the IAF
Parliamentarians outside his factory in Barkan |
Finally the MPs completed their tour by meeting with Yehuda Cohen, General Manager of the Lipski plastics factory where they met Arabs who are employed in one of
many Jewish companies operating in YESHA that employ Arab and Jews. Many of the MPs were visibly moved by the
first-hand reports of Palestinian workers who expressed strong support for
Jewish development in the area and even stronger opposition to Palestinian and
international efforts to boycott, or in any way undermine the presence of
Israeli industry in Judea and Samaria.
Not only do Israeli companies provide well-paying jobs (often times more
than triple comparable jobs within PA administered areas), generous benefit
packages, but also offers opportunities for
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IAF Parliamentarians speaking with Yehuda and Abed
at the Keter factory in Barkan |
merit-based advancement regardless
of ethnicity helped to illustrate to the MPs the type of corporate culture that
they are familiar with in their home country, but is generally not found in the
Middle East outside of Israel. Finally,
the MPs learned about the corporate retreats for employees and their families
which leads to a breakdown of barriers that fosters mutual respect and understanding,
allowing co-workers to socialize with each other's family in a rare expression
of coexistence which has largely been removed from Judea & Samaria since
the commencement of the Oslo Peace Process.
In short the MPs got a glimpse of a working
laboratory of what a peaceful co-existence could look like if the international
community would cease pushing a political solution and instead sought to
encourage improvements in the day to day rights and quality of life for of all
the inhabitants of Judea & Samaria.
