Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely spoke with new Jewish immigrants from France today at the biblical Cave of Machpela in Hevron, urging all French Jewry to move to Israel amidst the backdrop of the current "struggle between civilizations," tying together the present with the past amidst the historic, and physical, backdrop of the cave.
"In 1968, the Jewish settlement was renewed afresh in the City of our Forefathers [ie. Hevron, where the Jewish forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are buried], launching the settlement enterprise is all of Judea and Samaria. This place is a symbol of deep Jewish roots going back 4,000 years, but it is also a symbol of the great tragedy of 1929, during which a thriving Jewish community was destroyed.
Hotovely was referring to the Hevron Massacre of 1929, during which Arabs brutally massacred over 130 Jews living in Hevron, putting an end to the Jewish presence in Hevron that had existed for centuries.
Hotovely noted that "there was no 'occupation' in 1929 - and the State of Israel wasn't around yet, but the struggle between the civilization of the Islam of the [virulently anti-Semitic Mufti Haj Amin al Husseini, who had incited the 1929 massacre] and the civilization of the Jews already had begun back then."
She concluded that "Anyone who wants to remember and understand why we are in this Land comes to this place. To the wonderful community that has immigrated from France: the State of Israel is waiting for all of the glorious Jewry of France to immigrate. The bureaucratic issues can be solved, but the State needs you here in the home of the Jewish nation."