The Women in Green movement marked its 25th anniversary in Gush Etzion.
It began as a grass-roots movement protesting against concessions and withdrawals from parts of the Land and today it leads the discourse of sovereignty in the arenas of politics and policy.
Last Friday, approximately 150 citizens and public figures active in the settlement enterprise, both leaders and supporters, gathered at the Oz veGaon nature preserve in Gush Etzion to mark the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Women in Green movement and the public activities of its leaders, Yehudit Katsover and Nadia Matar.
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The attendees saluted the movement, which had started out as a protest movement against the Oslo Accords, and in recent years has been leading the discourse over the vision of full Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.
Rare photographs were displayed at the facility where the gathering was held, documenting the years of the movement’s activities including vigils and demonstrations, the establishment of outposts and the Jewish concept of turning entire tracts of land into populated neighborhoods and communities. Many of those who attended the gathering commemorating the movement and its leaders even found themselves in these photographs from the past, which documented their activism in protest demonstrations against the Oslo Accords and in favor of strengthening the settlement enterprise in the Land of Israel.
Nadia Matar was the first speaker at the event, dedicating the entire event to her mother-in-law, Ruth Matar, who, together with her husband Michael, founded the movement, together with other women who were residents of Jerusalem.
“Ruth taught all of us that we must not be silent and that when a Jew is in distress, you leave everything else aside and mobilize to help him; she taught us not be afraid to tell the truth and that loyalty is the highest virtue – loyalty to the People, to the Torah, to the Land and to the family”.
Matar described the movement’s activities as having two parts: “avoid evil” and “do good”: Up until the expulsion from Gush Katif, the “avoid evil” part dominated. It was a period of intensive activity to guard the honor of the People and the Land, and during this period weekly protest demonstrations were held, there was a radio program on Arutz 7, there were activities in support of IDF soldiers, demonstrations against Machsom Watch and their activities against the IDF, obtaining hundreds of thousands of signatures against the Oslo Accords and more. The “do good” part, which took place after the expulsion from Gush Katif and Yehudit Katsover’s joining the leadership of the movement, focused on creating a positive vision by renouncing and rejecting the Oslo ideas. This was the phase of clinging to the Land and the launching of the campaign to lead the vision of sovereignty as the Right’s policy and plan. “We were not the first to speak about it, but we were the first who set out on a hasbara campaign about it”, she noted.
Matar’s partner in leading Women in Green, Yehudit Katsover, continued in the same vein as Matar, saying “The goal is to guard the honor of the Land of Israel and there is no doubt that Women in Green has succeeded in raising consciousness about guarding the Land of Israel’s interests”, adding: “Imagine what would have been without the protests and demonstrations by Women in Green, which raised consciousness about the Land of Israel…”.
When she spoke, Katsover told of the days that she joined the movement, about 13 years ago, immediately after the expulsion from Gush Katif, when she became impressed by the activities of the movement’s founders and activists, activities that were motivated by pure ideology and not politics
. About the decision to hold an event marking the 25th year of the movement, she said: “I thought that it was important to show the story of the people who went out into the streets and the public squares and cried with pain for the Land of Israel. We could not let it pass without some kind of commemoration”, she said, and told of the boxes that had accumulated in preparation for the event, with an enormous amount of material documenting the activities over the years.
Katsover continues, adding that despite her years of her joint leadership of the movement together with her friend and associate, Nadia Matar, she was unaware and surprised at the extent of the movement’s activities in the years before she joined it, as was revealed by the photographic documentation that she saw. “I too, like many of those who came to the event, am amazed by the movement’s extensive activity on behalf of the Land of Israel, that was carried out with such dedication, fearlessness and humility. We are proud to be partners in this movement”.
After Katsover spoke, a short film was screened for the attendees to the event about Eddy Driben, obm, “one of the first Jews who settled in Kiryat Arba-Hevron, who was a special sort of character with a lot of natural national pride”, in Katsover’s words, whose character was similar to that of Ari Fuld, Hy”d, who was murdered just a few weeks ago at Gush Etzion Junction by a terrorist: “Ari, Hy”d, was a partner to our activities”, said Katsover, “he photographed and documented our activities out of a sense of total solidarity. May his memory stimulate a continuation of blessed, wide range of activity on behalf of the People and the Land”.
Katsover and Matar expressed their thanks to those who came to the event, to the movement’s activists for their volunteerism in various tasks, to donors from Israel and from abroad and among others, they noted the activists who have passed on over the years. “Without you and without them, none of this would have happened”, they said.
The head of Gush Etzion Council, Shlomo Ne’eman, was also among the speakers at the event and he spoke of how he first became acquainted with the activities of Women in Green, a short time after he came on aliya to Israel. Ne’eman brought up the fact that the name of the movement is similar to the name of a leftist movement, Women in Black, noting that while black is not a color, but rather the lack of light and the lack of color, Green is the color of life, “Women in Green is life itself”, said Ne’eman.
Katsover and Matar sum up the entire event with words of gratitude to the attendees: “Many tasks still remain to be done, both in the realm of hasbara and in the practical realm and the political realm to promote the vision of sovereignty, which is the main thrust of our movement. The many supporters who came to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the movement’s founding with us imbue us with spirit and confidence and with this spirit and confidence the People will bring about the change of direction that will restore the entire country to the most basic values of Zionism, the values of love for the entire Land, clinging to it and sovereignty over it”.