A large gathering participated in a meeting last week to celebrate two years since the settlement of “Ramat Arbel” against the background of border tension in the Lower Galilee, under the aegis of Minister of Aliya and Immigrant Absorption Ofir Sofer, Minister of Communications Shlomo Karhi, and Members of the Knesset Eli Dalal and Ariel Kallner from the Likud party, as well as Knesset Member Simcha Rothman from the Religious Zionist Party, Daniella Weiss, the Chairwoman of the Nahala Settlement Movement, alongside Rabbis, public figures, and pioneer families, citizens of Ramat Arbel, who are settling the Galilee.
The event's main attraction was the Perron family, who made Aliya from the United States five years ago and settled in Ramat Arbel. They shared their exciting story and explained what led them to choose Galilee as their new home.
“Every Jew in all the world must come and settle here in Galilee,” the family members declared to the audience's cheers. Minister Sofer responded warmly to their story and blessed the family for their decision and contribution to the continuing settlement of Galilee. In the Nahala Movement, they said
“Precisely in these days of the war, we raise the flag of settlement and Zionism and raise a call for the establishment of many new settlements throughout the Galilee.”
The head of the Nahala Movement, Daniela Weiss, approached Minister Sofer, the Minister of Aliya and Immigrant Absorption, and asked him to enlist pioneers from the
Galilee and approve its absorption of immigrants and their settlement, and undertake to bring this message to Jews in the ‘diaspora and urge them to make aliya to Israel and join the Zionist endeavor.
Lital Slonim, a director of the Nahala movement, added: “After twenty-five years, during which no new settlements were established in the Galilee, the Nahala Movement leads the Ramat Arbel as a pilot for additional new settlements to be established in the Galilee to preserve the national lands and cultivate the Galilee.
The Nahala movement reported: “Especially in these days of war, we are raising the flag of settlement and Zionism and calling for many new settlements all over the Galilee to preserve the national lands of Israel and cultivate the Galilee, the Nahala Movement announced. This is a precedent that will allow the government to protect the homeland from a hostile Arab takeover during the planning of the permanent sites.” The head of the Nahala Movement, Daniela Weiss, strengthened the pioneering core and said that “the renewal of settlement in the Galilee is a national necessity. This was not in the public discourse until the family's core mounted the Arbel plateau. Our mission as a nation is to settle the Galilee, and now, with the war raging in the north, the Israeli government must establish settlements right here and prove sovereignty over the space, and the same is true for the Gaza Strip. Real security is not slogans and cameras, and real security is children playing in the street without fear," she concluded.
Communications Minister Dr. Shlomo Karhi said: "I was excited to participate in the second anniversary of the settlement of Ramat Arbel in the Galilee and to meet the inspiring youth and young families. The Jewishness of the country is not a thing of the past but an imperative for all of us in the Negev, in the Galilee, in Judah and Samaria, and all parts of our good country."
He added: "The Nachala movement is doing holy work in leading the settlement in the entire Land of Israel, and with God's help next year, all the obstacles will be removed, and we will visit a settled and flourishing settlement, and as it is said in this week's Haftar: 'And let the eagle be for the plain and the ridges for the valley.'"
MK Simcha Rothman stated: “Events of the past year reminded us all that the struggle to establish the state of Israel is not yet over. If we once thought that the ‘Nahala’ is something that belongs to Judah and Samaria and, perhaps to the Gaza Strip, the understanding that both our enemies and we regard our settlement all over the country as a settlement in the positive sense of the word from our point of view and the negative sense from theirs, the land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel and the reminder of that is felt by us all.
"We must understand that there will be a breach between Yama and Kedma and Tzafona and Kedma. In a year, you will complain about family overcrowding. In Eviatar, it took three years, which means that here, it will happen a year from now. The event is behind us, perhaps six months,” he said.
The Member of the Knesset, Ariel Kallner, said: “Ramat Arbel is an important message to reinforce Jewish settlement in the Galilee and another important milestone in promoting settlement in the Negev. I want to thank the Government, the Knesset, the families, the activists, and all those who worked and are working for its realization. I am full of hope that we will soon renew security in the north and the south and reinforce settlement throughout the land of Israel. Several families currently live in Ramat Arbel, with teenagers who are developing and expanding the place. Following the success of today's event in Ramat Arbel, the youth gathered and decided to establish a new settlement nucleus called 'I’m here' which set a goal to establish another settlement in the Galilee."