Parliament Members Visit YESHA

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.

 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

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

Dani Dayan addressing the IAF Parliamentarians
at the Psagot Winery



Yaakov Berg, addressing the IAF Parliamentarians
at the Psagot Winery

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.

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.

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. 

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. 

 

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 

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.