Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Kolot_JewVoice: We’re Being Robbed! - by Batya Medad

We’re Being Robbed! - by Batya Medad
by EduPlanet Rectorate (daniEl I. Ginerman) - Wednesday, 9 November 2005, 01:55 PM
 We’re Being Robbed! by Batya Medad
Wednesday, November 9, 2005
posted to http://www.theraphi.com/medad/wbr.html

Just as we were trying to figure out which communities in Judea and Samaria are, G-d forbid, next in line for extinction and destruction, we were shocked to discover that Mount Zion, including David’s Tomb is being offered to the descendents of the Crusaders, the same guys who brought us the Inquisition more than half a millennium ago.

If you haven’t yet heard, and Israel’s President Katzav claims to be in the dark about this scandal, even though the government is planning on using him to sign the contract. Yes, I’m calling it a contract, rather than an agreement, since it’s a business deal involving millions, tens of millions of Euros, which are worth more than dollars. Honestly, it is possible that Katzav knows nothing about it. In Israel, the president is a figurehead to be wheeled out to smile and shake hands at formal occasions.

Katzav, a “traditional Jew,” keeps a kippah handy in his pocket for religious needs, and besides a ready smile, he seems pretty robotic to me. He succeeded Ezer Weitzman, his polar opposite in personality and life-style. That’s one of the reasons, probably the main reason he was elected.

It’s strange that even though Katzav’s office professes ignorance and the mainstream newspapers are at best playing it down and even worse most are ignoring it, a group of Anglos have had little trouble discovering the details. Sharon Katz’s Voices Magazine will be running an article on the subject.

Investigations have shown that the scheme was hatched by Avraham Poraz, of the anti-religious Shinui Party, when he was the Minister of the Interior. He promised to facilitate the deal during a visit to Rome over a year ago. The Shinui Party is no longer a member of the coalition. Previous Israeli officials, such as Rabbi Benny Elon of the National Union and former Minister of Tourism did everything to veto it.

The deal to give away Mount Zion to the Catholic Church has been totally ignored by the Hebrew press. Not even the religious Jewish papers have written about it. Every time I mention it to neighbors they are in shock and can’t figure out why they have been kept in the dark.

Not a peep has been heard from the politicians. It seems like all the activity is from some bloggers and emailers in English. From the amount of letters coming in to our computer, you’d think it was the biggest issue in the country, but unfortunately it’s not true. Nobody else seems to know anything.

I can’t believe that nobody cares.

Even if the area in question hadn’t been the location of a yeshiva, The Diaspora Yeshiva, for over thirty five years, it’s still of great religious and historical importance for the Jewish People. It shouldn’t be given, sold or leased to any other religion. It‘s a travesty of justice. Why are the civil rights of Jews always ignored?

On Friday I was the demonstration outside of the President’s Residence against his signing the agreement. We were a very small group, and only one politician showed, Jerusalem City Councilwoman, Mina Fenton. She seems to be the only person in the municipality showing any interest, and she had more information, and it was bad news.

It’s like living in the Theatre of the Absurd. Giving the Catholic Church such a holy Jewish Landmark endangers our existence.

Our disengaged government is out to destroy the country, G-d forbid. Let’s get to work. We have a country to save.

*****
Batya Medad, special to TheRaphi.com, and her husband made aliyah from New York in 1970 two months after their wedding. They have five children and two granddaughters and have lived in Shiloh since 1981. Batya hitchhikes to and from Beit El, where she teaches English in the Yeshiva High School B´nai Binyamin. Author's Website

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