Thursday, December 08, 2005
Safe Passage?
Yes, I'm all in favor of "safe passage," that's safe passage for Jews in Eretz Yisrael. The "safe passage" being requested of Israel is for Arabs to travel freely from Gaza to Ramallah, Shechem and other cities throughout The Land of Israel. In actuality, they already have more freedom of movement than Jews do.
Yes, that's true. Many roads are Judenrein, that's the Nazi term for an area empty of Jews. As a Jewish Israeli I am restricted in my traveling. I can't take the most convenient or direct road. I can only go on some of the roads, those which have some sort of "army presence" along with Arabs.
To give you an example, I work in a school in Beit El. Some of the students in our students live close by according to the map, but since terrorism increased during the Ehud Barak reign, they now have to travel a round-about way that takes at least four times as long, and many families found other schools.
South of Jerusalem, in the Hebron hills is a yishuv called Negahot. In its early years many people worked and studied in nearby Hebron-Kiryat Arba. Then the Israeli government decided to "give" the Arabs the convenient road the Negahot people had been taking. Suddenly Hebron-Kiryat Arba was a long distance away, and the entire educational, commercial and social network had to change. Many families were forced to leave, and now Kiryat Gat, a polar opposite of Hebron-Kiryat Arba, is their nearby city.
The roads we travel on are filled with Arab vehicles. They are not exclusively Jewish roads. I "tremp, hitchhike on our roads, and I have to be very careful about which cars to enter. In addition, periodically there are terror attacks by Arab terrorists.
"We don't have "safe passage."
Yes, that's true. Many roads are Judenrein, that's the Nazi term for an area empty of Jews. As a Jewish Israeli I am restricted in my traveling. I can't take the most convenient or direct road. I can only go on some of the roads, those which have some sort of "army presence" along with Arabs.
To give you an example, I work in a school in Beit El. Some of the students in our students live close by according to the map, but since terrorism increased during the Ehud Barak reign, they now have to travel a round-about way that takes at least four times as long, and many families found other schools.
South of Jerusalem, in the Hebron hills is a yishuv called Negahot. In its early years many people worked and studied in nearby Hebron-Kiryat Arba. Then the Israeli government decided to "give" the Arabs the convenient road the Negahot people had been taking. Suddenly Hebron-Kiryat Arba was a long distance away, and the entire educational, commercial and social network had to change. Many families were forced to leave, and now Kiryat Gat, a polar opposite of Hebron-Kiryat Arba, is their nearby city.
The roads we travel on are filled with Arab vehicles. They are not exclusively Jewish roads. I "tremp, hitchhike on our roads, and I have to be very careful about which cars to enter. In addition, periodically there are terror attacks by Arab terrorists.
"We don't have "safe passage."
