"Unto your seed have I given this land" (Bereishis 15:18).
The boundaries that Hashem promised to Avraham Avinu were not subject to the approval of foreign ministers, and they are not subject to it now.
Last week, the United Kingdom, joined by Canada, France, Norway, and Australia, announced a new round of sanctions targeting Jews who live in and build up Yehudah and Shomron. The measures, presented to the British Parliament by Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, impose asset freezes, travel bans, and director disqualifications on six entities and one individual.
The named targets include The Farms Association, Ahavat Gilad, Ari Yshag, Artzenu, Shivat Zion Lerigvey Admata, Eyal Hari Yehuda Company Ltd., and Itamar Yehuda Levi. The same governments declared that Jewish communities in Yehudah and Shomron are "illegal under international law," and for the first time, the UK issued formal guidance instructing British businesses to avoid all economic activity in those communities.
Make no mistake. This is barely disguised antisemitism.
The language of this antisemitic move made on their part is carefully chosen. The sanctions are dressed up as a response to "violence," wrapped in the vocabulary of human rights and "coordinated international action."
Of course it is forbidden to commit violence against Palestinian Arabs. Every human being was created b’Tzelem Elokim, in the Divine Image. But those that do so are a miniscule number, a fact that has been proven conclusively. And they are punished.
Strip away the packaging, and what remains is a coalition of European and Commonwealth governments asserting that Jews have no right to live, work, build, or do business in the heartland of Eretz Yisrael - in Hevron, in Beit El, in Shilo, in the very places where our Avot walked and where our Nevi'im prophesied.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar named it correctly. He called the steps "disgraceful" and identified their true essence: an attempt to impose a political verdict on the right of Jews to settle in the Land of Israel, camouflaged as a measure against violence. He pointed out the glaring hypocrisy - that these same governments have failed catastrophically to confront the rampant antisemitism within their own borders, and that anti-Israel policies of this kind only feed that antisemitism further.
He noted, too, that not one of these governments has lifted a finger against the Palestinian Authority's "pay-for-slay" salaries to terrorists or against the Arab incitement that actually drives bloodshed.
Consider the asymmetry. Five Western governments coordinate sanctions, humanitarian millions, and donor conferences around the supposed crimes of Jews planting roots in their ancestral land. Meanwhile the PA pays pensions to murderers in proportion to the number of Jews they kill, and these same foreign ministries announce ten million pounds in assistance to that very Authority. The moral inversion is total. The violence they claim to oppose flows in one direction, and they have aimed their weapons in the other.
The deeper falsehood is the premise itself - that any part of Eretz Yisroel is "occupied territory" to be bargained away or declared off-limits. All of Eretz Yisroel belongs to Klal Yisroel. It was given by the Ribono Shel Olam, not granted by treaty, not contingent on the recognition of nations.
"He declared to His people the power of His works, in giving them the heritage of the nations" (Tehillim 111:6). Rashi, citing the Midrash, explains that this opening of the Torah with the account of Creation exists precisely so that when the nations accuse Israel of being robbers for taking the land, the answer stands ready: the entire earth belongs to Hashem, and He gives it to whoever He sees fit. He gave it to us. A coalition of governments declaring otherwise does not change the deed. It only reveals where they stand.
This new campaign demands a concrete response.
When foreign powers issue formal guidance telling their citizens to boycott Jewish businesses in Yehudah and Shomron, the answer of Klal Yisroel cannot be silence or quiet discomfort. The answer must be the opposite of what they intend. We must actively support the businesses, the farms, the vintners, and the enterprises of Yehudah and Shomron. Every product purchased from these communities, every order placed, every investment made, is a direct repudiation of a boycott built on the premise that Jews are trespassers in their own homeland.
The wine of the Shomron, the produce of the Judean hills, the goods manufactured in these towns - these are not contraband. They are the fruit of the land Hashem promised, cultivated by Jews returning to it. Seeking them out is not merely commerce; it is a statement. It declares that the determination of foreign ministries carries no moral weight against the eternal claim of Am Yisroel to Eretz Yisroel.
The nations have spoken. They have told their merchants to shun the Jew of Yehudah and Shomron. Let our response be heard just as clearly. The land is ours, given by the One Who fashioned it. And those who build upon it deserve not our hesitation, but our full and unembarrassed support.
It is not only a nice thing to do, but it is highly likely a chiyuv - an obligation. There is a halakha that amirah l’nachri on Shabbos, normally forbidden, is permitted in order to acquire land in all of Eretz Yisrael. One can ask a nachri to write the document on Shabbos itself to perform this Mitzvah. Certainly, we should be counteracting this gzeirah.
One should ask his or her own Rav or Posaik, but the greatness of this mitzvah is reflected throughout Chazal and the poskim. The Gemara in Sotah (14a) explains that Moshe Rabbeinu yearned to enter the land, underscoring how precious the land was to the greatest of all prophets. The Rambam (Hilchos Melachim 5:9-12), even according to those who hold he does not count yishuv ha'aretz among the 613, writes at length of the prohibition against leaving the land and praises the Chachamim who would kiss its stones and roll in its dust.
The Pischei Teshuvah (Even HaEzer 75) and other poskim discuss the practical halakhic ramifications, including a spouse's ability to compel relocation to the land. Yishuv Eretz Yisrael is a foundational expression of the covenant between Hashem and Klal Yisroel - a mitzvah bound up with the very purpose for which the land was given.
Klal Yisrael needs to mobilize in reaction. A coordinated campaign of those organizations affiliated with Christian congregations should create a campaign to reach out to help support businesses in these locations. Lists of businesses should be made of what can be supported. Special tax statuses should be made.
If Chazal permitted amira l’akum here - then the least we can do is assist those who are doing it.
The author can be reached at yairhoffman2@gmail.com