JERUSALEM (VINnews) — A new community was established this week in the Arad Valley, initiated by 20 families of reserve soldiers who returned from the fighting and decided to fight for the Negev. “This is now the mission of the people of Israel, and we need the people of Israel,” they said, according to a report in Arutz Sheva.
The Arad Valley is a desert region connecting the city of Arad to the southern Hebron Hills. Twenty families of reserve soldiers, with about fifty children, moved to the new community as a Zionist response to the events of Simchat Torah last year and the massacre of October 7.
The settlement was established in cooperation with the “New Guard” association and at the urging and encouragement of Arad Mayor Yair Maayan, who assisted in the settlement process. The families are now preparing for the winter and working on building the infrastructure for the settlement. “We started everything from scratch, and right now our mission is to stay in the area and hold onto the land,” they say.
The new settlement will halt the Bedouin encroachments between the areas of Arad and the southern Hebron Hills, where there has been a significant Bedouin land grabs, threatening Israeli control in the Negev. “The Negev is the most important national mission today. If we don’t want to lose our hold on the land, we must act now,” says Moshe Monteng, one of the members of the new settlement group.
The settlement, named Oz Yehonatan, was established in memory of Lt. Colonel Yonatan Steinberg, who was killed in action on Simchat Torah morning (October 7) during a clash with terrorists while on his way to protect the residents of Ofakim. The members of the settlement group chose to honor his memory by naming the new settlement after him.
Shvut, one of the women from the 20 families who moved to the land this week, says: “We are here with total dedication because we understand that this is the mission of the people of Israel right now. Now we need the people of Israel to help us so that we can meet the financial costs of establishing this settlement, which is critical to the future of the State of Israel. Otherwise, it won’t happen.”
No comments:
Post a Comment