With Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declaring that “There will be no Jews in Gaza by 2005” many Jewish residents of Yesha (Judea, Samaria and Gaza) are fed up with being labelled “obstacles to peace” in the press.
A group of Yesha residents has decided to bypass the traditional public relations methods aimed at getting a message across to the media, opting instead to document the ups and downs of life in Yesha in full view of anyone in the world with an internet connection - at www.YeshaSpeaksOut.org.
Blogs – a contraction of the word ‘web-log’- are increasingly becoming the source of first-hand information for places, ideas and communities not given sufficient coverage by traditional media sources. “The best way to describe it is to say it is a 21st century diary. Blogs are primarily informal ‘logs’, stream-of-consciousness records of the author's experiences, thoughts and feelings, which they publicly share on the web,” says Yoel Ben-Avraham, the founder of 'Yesha Speaks Out', a blog intended to show Jews and non-Jews throughout the world what life in Judea, Samaria and Gaza is really like for the Jews who have chosen to settle there.
Ben-Avraham says it was the 1993 Oslo Accords that made him realize the importance of getting the message out through alternative sources of communication. “Since the beginning of the 'Oslo Process' there has been a real need to counteract the negative effects of hostile media, both Israeli and foreign, that effectively delegitimized the Yesha settlement movement,” says Ben-Avraham. “When both government agencies and world media systematically distort every quote, every fact, to create the perception of wrongdoing and malicious intent in everything we as Jewish residents of Yesha do, there is a need to counteract this campaign.”
Since 1993, Ben-Avraham has lobbied various organizations connected with Jewish settlements to invest time, energy and financial resources into exploiting the Internet's potential as a communication tool. “If the conventional channels of communicating your message are barred to you, you of necessity must seek out unconventional channels,” says Ben-Avraham.
In recent years, the advent of blogging technology – which enables real time web publishing without knowledge of technical HTML code – has made the implementation of Ben-Avraham’s plan eminently do-able. “In the ‘early days’ of the Internet until perhaps as late as two or three years ago, it would have required a significant investment in people and resources to create a site similar to Yesha Speaks Out. It is the maturation of technology that makes it possible to create a multifaceted site capable of publishing material by dozens of contributors for a modest investment.”
“The idea of an avenue where dozens of individuals throughout Yesha share their personal thoughts and feelings with a potential worldwide readership is a dream come true,” says Ben-Avraham.
Yoel Ben-Avraham, a father to six, made Aliyah (immigrated to Israel) at the age of 21 after converting to Judaism. He lives in the Samarian community of Shilo with his wife Sharon and six children – one of whom serves as an officer in the Paratroopers.
Prior to his conversion, Ben-Avraham worked as a photo journalist for a Canadian press syndicate. He now works as an Information Technology and Technical Training professional with clients in Canada, the United States and Israel. In the past number of years he has participated in a unique program providing occupational retraining for Hareidi-Religious Torah scholars interested in entering the Israeli software industry. His most recent initiative is an attempt to establish a framework which would permit unemployed Israeli software engineers to provide services to off-shore clients via the Internet.
Recent events have caused Ben-Avraham to become even more motivated to create a comprehensive blog which would provide ‘the real story’ straight from the Jews of Yesha. “Several times over the past couple of months,” recalls Ben-Avraham, “I have been astonished to discover that those individuals whom we would have thought were our natural allies - Orthodox Jews with extensive yeshiva learning, rabbis and religious school principals - would actually openly challenge whether the effort should be on helping Yesha residents remain in Yesha, or suggesting that perhaps the emphasis should be to help them leave Yesha. If these are the ‘leaders’ of their communities and the people who influence the opinions of others, we are in serious trouble,” says Ben-Avraham.
“As I scratched the surface, and had more in-depth discussions with these ‘leaders’ and the members of their congregations, it became so blatantly apparent that they had no meaningful contact with the residents of Yesha. Even when they participate in ‘Missions to Israel’, for the most part they meet government approved contacts, that as we know today, do not have the best interests of Yesha on their personal or political agenda. That is when the idea of creating an Internet service that would permit people “in the field” to communicate directly with potential allies abroad was transformed from personal pipe dream to communal necessity in my eyes,” says Ben-Avraham.
Ben-Avraham cites the experiences of those who went door-to-door visiting Likud members prior to the recent Likud referendum as the model Yesha Speaks Out hopes to emulate. “It is simply an attempt to ‘visit’ Jews and non-Jews around the world, and help them feel empathy with our goals and current reality,” says Ben-Avraham.
Yesha Speaks Out features a growing list of contributors hailing from throughout Judea, Samaria and Gaza. Sharon Katz of Gush Etzion describes visiting ‘hilltop communities’ in the Shomron (Samaria). “I left the Five Towns, having lived the Great American Dream, to live the Greater Jewish Dream and add my family's seven links to the chain of destiny of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel living by the Torah of Israel,” writes Katz. “Since then I have traveled throughout the country writing the stories whose facts are not important enough for CNN or the New York Times, but whose feelings when put together formed the real soul of our nation.”
Some write about politics, while others write about the ins and outs of daily life in parts of the Land of Israel that their own relatives are afraid to visit. 32-year-old Yishai Harkohav, a bookkeeper originally from Montreal, Canada, writes about daily life in the Binyamin-region community of Ateret with his five children.
Gershon Perlman from Gush Katif tackles an accusation that struck a nerve with the veteran Gush Katif resident – now told he will be expelled from his home within the year. “Soldiers are dying to protect you,” Perlman says he’s been told. “Am I to go straight home and look in the mirror and see myself as an irresponsible adventurer causing needless death at best, or maybe an accomplice in murder at worse? Does my every breath bring about sorrow, when my daughter goes to kindergarten, does every flower she pick along the way account for another soldiers life?” Perlman, undeterred launches into an eloquent discussion touching upon life in general and life in the Land of Israel in particular – asking his unseen audience: “When will they ever learn?”
Some of Yesha’s ‘celebrities’ have also joined the “blogosphere” through Yesha Speaks Out. Anita Tucker of the Gush Katif community of Netzer Hazani has begun to contribute sporadically. Tucker, known affectionately as "The Granny of Gaza," has raised children and grandchildren in Gush Katif and grows organic celery. Tucker’s message to those who ask her year after year about plans to expel her and her children from their homes is: "Look, you come to me every year. Come again next year and we'll have this same discussion and I'll invite you to my house for coffee. I have lived her for 3 generations, 30 years. I don't think anyone can move me from my land. When we came, these were barren sand dunes. The local Arabs welcomed us and said: 'Take them. We don't want them.' So, we did."
Bat Zion Ben-Jaminson of the Village of Bat Ayin, nestled in the Judean hills of Gush Etzion writes about the ins and outs of organic farming outside her hillside home. Shoshana Tsivya Fox of Kiryat Arba writes about the joys and sorrows of everyday life in the heartland of Israel. “Back in America,” writes Fox, “when did I ever have a meditative moment? Coming from New York, I can hardly remember a time when there was just Mother Nature and myself quietly enjoying each other’s company. When did I ever feel that wonderful sunshine warming my face? Here, laundry time is my solitude time. First, I take my wet basket of clothing and go to my backyard. Then, I take a moment to feel the nice warm breeze in the daytime or the lovely cool air in the evening. I’ll admire my fabulous view of the Hebron Hills and I always emit a grateful, ‘Ah, Baruch HaShem [thank God –ed.] for the Land of Israel.”
The list of contributors to Yesha Speaks Out keeps growing, as does the daily number of visitors to the site. Ben-Avraham has plans in the works as well for producing an online compendium of all Yesha’s communities as well as every known archeological site of Jewish or biblical importance in Judea, Samaria and Gaza.
A group of Yesha residents has decided to bypass the traditional public relations methods aimed at getting a message across to the media, opting instead to document the ups and downs of life in Yesha in full view of anyone in the world with an internet connection - at www.YeshaSpeaksOut.org.
Blogs – a contraction of the word ‘web-log’- are increasingly becoming the source of first-hand information for places, ideas and communities not given sufficient coverage by traditional media sources. “The best way to describe it is to say it is a 21st century diary. Blogs are primarily informal ‘logs’, stream-of-consciousness records of the author's experiences, thoughts and feelings, which they publicly share on the web,” says Yoel Ben-Avraham, the founder of 'Yesha Speaks Out', a blog intended to show Jews and non-Jews throughout the world what life in Judea, Samaria and Gaza is really like for the Jews who have chosen to settle there.
Ben-Avraham says it was the 1993 Oslo Accords that made him realize the importance of getting the message out through alternative sources of communication. “Since the beginning of the 'Oslo Process' there has been a real need to counteract the negative effects of hostile media, both Israeli and foreign, that effectively delegitimized the Yesha settlement movement,” says Ben-Avraham. “When both government agencies and world media systematically distort every quote, every fact, to create the perception of wrongdoing and malicious intent in everything we as Jewish residents of Yesha do, there is a need to counteract this campaign.”
Since 1993, Ben-Avraham has lobbied various organizations connected with Jewish settlements to invest time, energy and financial resources into exploiting the Internet's potential as a communication tool. “If the conventional channels of communicating your message are barred to you, you of necessity must seek out unconventional channels,” says Ben-Avraham.
In recent years, the advent of blogging technology – which enables real time web publishing without knowledge of technical HTML code – has made the implementation of Ben-Avraham’s plan eminently do-able. “In the ‘early days’ of the Internet until perhaps as late as two or three years ago, it would have required a significant investment in people and resources to create a site similar to Yesha Speaks Out. It is the maturation of technology that makes it possible to create a multifaceted site capable of publishing material by dozens of contributors for a modest investment.”
“The idea of an avenue where dozens of individuals throughout Yesha share their personal thoughts and feelings with a potential worldwide readership is a dream come true,” says Ben-Avraham.
Yoel Ben-Avraham, a father to six, made Aliyah (immigrated to Israel) at the age of 21 after converting to Judaism. He lives in the Samarian community of Shilo with his wife Sharon and six children – one of whom serves as an officer in the Paratroopers.
Prior to his conversion, Ben-Avraham worked as a photo journalist for a Canadian press syndicate. He now works as an Information Technology and Technical Training professional with clients in Canada, the United States and Israel. In the past number of years he has participated in a unique program providing occupational retraining for Hareidi-Religious Torah scholars interested in entering the Israeli software industry. His most recent initiative is an attempt to establish a framework which would permit unemployed Israeli software engineers to provide services to off-shore clients via the Internet.
Recent events have caused Ben-Avraham to become even more motivated to create a comprehensive blog which would provide ‘the real story’ straight from the Jews of Yesha. “Several times over the past couple of months,” recalls Ben-Avraham, “I have been astonished to discover that those individuals whom we would have thought were our natural allies - Orthodox Jews with extensive yeshiva learning, rabbis and religious school principals - would actually openly challenge whether the effort should be on helping Yesha residents remain in Yesha, or suggesting that perhaps the emphasis should be to help them leave Yesha. If these are the ‘leaders’ of their communities and the people who influence the opinions of others, we are in serious trouble,” says Ben-Avraham.
“As I scratched the surface, and had more in-depth discussions with these ‘leaders’ and the members of their congregations, it became so blatantly apparent that they had no meaningful contact with the residents of Yesha. Even when they participate in ‘Missions to Israel’, for the most part they meet government approved contacts, that as we know today, do not have the best interests of Yesha on their personal or political agenda. That is when the idea of creating an Internet service that would permit people “in the field” to communicate directly with potential allies abroad was transformed from personal pipe dream to communal necessity in my eyes,” says Ben-Avraham.
Ben-Avraham cites the experiences of those who went door-to-door visiting Likud members prior to the recent Likud referendum as the model Yesha Speaks Out hopes to emulate. “It is simply an attempt to ‘visit’ Jews and non-Jews around the world, and help them feel empathy with our goals and current reality,” says Ben-Avraham.
Yesha Speaks Out features a growing list of contributors hailing from throughout Judea, Samaria and Gaza. Sharon Katz of Gush Etzion describes visiting ‘hilltop communities’ in the Shomron (Samaria). “I left the Five Towns, having lived the Great American Dream, to live the Greater Jewish Dream and add my family's seven links to the chain of destiny of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel living by the Torah of Israel,” writes Katz. “Since then I have traveled throughout the country writing the stories whose facts are not important enough for CNN or the New York Times, but whose feelings when put together formed the real soul of our nation.”
Some write about politics, while others write about the ins and outs of daily life in parts of the Land of Israel that their own relatives are afraid to visit. 32-year-old Yishai Harkohav, a bookkeeper originally from Montreal, Canada, writes about daily life in the Binyamin-region community of Ateret with his five children.
Gershon Perlman from Gush Katif tackles an accusation that struck a nerve with the veteran Gush Katif resident – now told he will be expelled from his home within the year. “Soldiers are dying to protect you,” Perlman says he’s been told. “Am I to go straight home and look in the mirror and see myself as an irresponsible adventurer causing needless death at best, or maybe an accomplice in murder at worse? Does my every breath bring about sorrow, when my daughter goes to kindergarten, does every flower she pick along the way account for another soldiers life?” Perlman, undeterred launches into an eloquent discussion touching upon life in general and life in the Land of Israel in particular – asking his unseen audience: “When will they ever learn?”
Some of Yesha’s ‘celebrities’ have also joined the “blogosphere” through Yesha Speaks Out. Anita Tucker of the Gush Katif community of Netzer Hazani has begun to contribute sporadically. Tucker, known affectionately as "The Granny of Gaza," has raised children and grandchildren in Gush Katif and grows organic celery. Tucker’s message to those who ask her year after year about plans to expel her and her children from their homes is: "Look, you come to me every year. Come again next year and we'll have this same discussion and I'll invite you to my house for coffee. I have lived her for 3 generations, 30 years. I don't think anyone can move me from my land. When we came, these were barren sand dunes. The local Arabs welcomed us and said: 'Take them. We don't want them.' So, we did."
Bat Zion Ben-Jaminson of the Village of Bat Ayin, nestled in the Judean hills of Gush Etzion writes about the ins and outs of organic farming outside her hillside home. Shoshana Tsivya Fox of Kiryat Arba writes about the joys and sorrows of everyday life in the heartland of Israel. “Back in America,” writes Fox, “when did I ever have a meditative moment? Coming from New York, I can hardly remember a time when there was just Mother Nature and myself quietly enjoying each other’s company. When did I ever feel that wonderful sunshine warming my face? Here, laundry time is my solitude time. First, I take my wet basket of clothing and go to my backyard. Then, I take a moment to feel the nice warm breeze in the daytime or the lovely cool air in the evening. I’ll admire my fabulous view of the Hebron Hills and I always emit a grateful, ‘Ah, Baruch HaShem [thank God –ed.] for the Land of Israel.”
The list of contributors to Yesha Speaks Out keeps growing, as does the daily number of visitors to the site. Ben-Avraham has plans in the works as well for producing an online compendium of all Yesha’s communities as well as every known archeological site of Jewish or biblical importance in Judea, Samaria and Gaza.