It is young but extremely energetic: The Sovereignty Youth Movement has big dreams and performs activities in the entire country to promote the vision of Jewish sovereignty in the north, south and in Judea and Samaria. “We are training the next generation of leadership”
You are already familiar with the B’nei Akiva, Ezra and Ariel youth movements. You may have missed this youth movement, but you really should get to know them: Please meet the Sovereignty Youth. It seems that below the surface for several years now, a unique youth movement has been at work, and as its name indicates, it recruits young people to promote sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.
It is a exemplary youth movement and its activities include almost all the characteristics of an Israeli youth movement: weekly activities, team meetings, district coordinators, summer camps, seminars, etc. The goal: to apply Jewish sovereignty over the entire Land of Israel.
The Sovereignty Youth Movement, which acts within the framework of the Sovereignty Movement, was established about seven years ago, after the destruction of the Nativ Ha’avot neighborhood in the town of Elazar, in Gush Etzion. The youths who came to the place to fight the evil decree, appealed to the co-chairwomen of the Sovereignty Movement, Yehudit Katsover and nadia Matar, saying that they are tired of coming only to events of evacuation. They wanted to find the deep solution and they wanted to have an influence. It was a short way from there to establishing the Sovereignty youth Movement.
Oz Za’ira: “In the past, members of Knesset would tell us: What a nice vision you have, and now, they are already talking about actually implementing it in reality. This is a drastic change”
“We are not like B’nei Akiva – we are more focused on working on the consciousness and influencing historic developments. There are field activities where we go out to the streets with hasbara material, so we are a sort of NGO. But certainly , we integrate with the other youth movements. Two years ago, the Ariel Passover trek, which was held jointly with the Sovereignty youth Movement, was entirely dedicated to sovereignty in the Jordan Valley. Most of the members are also counselors, activists and even youth coordinators in other youth movements. I was a counselor for two years in B’nei Akiva and there is no conflict.”
The Sovereignty Youth’s ongoing activism is divided into three parts: “there are field activities, which are divided by region: north, south, center and Jerusalem. Regional coordinators are responsible to produce the activities, set up booths in the field and explain to people in the street about the idea of sovereignty. Of course, even beforehand, we explain the idea to the youths themselves, give them the basis to better understand sovereignty.”
In addition to this, there are Internet activities. “We understand that everyone is in the media these days, so we invest in hasbara videos, comments, posts and so forth. We constantly work to flood the media with the subject of sovereignty.”
The third leg of activity is the parliamentary.
“We try as much as possible to come to the Knesset, to speak with members of Knesset, to meet with them, to create connections with them.”
Together with the movement’s ongoing activity, there are fixed events, especially the yearly Sovereignty Youth Conference.
Every year, ministers, members of Knesset and hundreds of youths come to the Conference. There are also several seminars during the year, with the goal, besides sovereignty, of developing the next generation of national leadership, to develop them and turn them into leaders.”
Let’s talk about the bottom line. Do you believe that it will actually happen? Have your activities accomplished something?
“We understand that processes take time and do not happen in one day. It’s not a matter of one event and everything is done. You can see an example of this in the Judicial Reform, which tried to accomplish it all at once. It didn’t work. You can see that little by little, in the polls and in conversations with members of Knesset, the discourse is changing. In the past, members of Knesset would tell us: What a nice vision you have and now they are already talking about implementing it in reality. This is a drastic change. For example, the first conference that we did, only eight members of Knesset supported it. After the conference several members of Knesset who saw the resonance in the media, phoned us and said: Why didn’t you invite us? What is sovereignty, anyway? Come and let’s talk”.
You were a B’nei Akiva counselor and everyone is busy with their own volunteer work. How do you find time for it?
“The youth today is very high-quality youth and it is looking for ways to spend its time well. Rav Drukman used to say that when he wanted something to happen, he would go and ask the busiest person he knew, because that was the person who would make it happen. Serious people are busy people, they are people who like to do things and look for things to do. Thank G-d, our members want to do more and more. It does not harm their studies, their matriculation exams, B’nei Akiva or their lives. People love this, it’s fun for them, and they are very eager to do things. The more activity, the more connected they become and the more they like it and they know how to combine and synchronize things.”
The movement is still young: there are about two hundred active members in Sovereignty Youth, scattered throughout the country and many more who are supporters and come to the yearly conference. “The goal is for every activity to come to the most central spots in the area. “For instance, the northern district works one time in Haifa, another time in Beit She’an, etc. The southern district works in Be’er Sheva, Yeroham, etc. We work according to districts, less according to branches. There are no counselors – we work with coordinators. There is a field coordinator, a media coordinator and parliamentary coordinators”.
Would you say that you are waiting for the day when it will be possible to close down the movement, because there will already be sovereignty, or will you find a new goal?
“I believe that we will need to work on improvement until the messianic age. Sovereignty is just one step. This simple and basic understanding, of erasing the vision of a Palestinian state, is the first step of the repair. We must first of all defeat our enemies. Then we need to make sure that sovereignty will actually be implemented. The true vision is the holy temple, the Messiah, the undivided Land of Israel.
Noam Amir: “In the beginning, no one knew what sovereignty was. Over the years, after years of hasbara activities, people tell us: Ah, sovereignty, I know, you’ve already told me about it”
“We believe in processes. Sovereignty is the first, important step on the way. The vision is that there will be a better future here, that we will be able to live and develop in real peace. As long as people are afraid of threats or there are people who can’t sleep, I have not finished my work. Sovereignty is also governance. When it is peaceful here and when there is a better future here, we will be able to say that we have done our work. This is our goal, until, with G-d’s help, the Holy Temple will be rebuilt.”
Putting up Signs
Noam Amir, coordinator of the northern district in Sovereignty youth, lives in Acre. He joined the movement about five years ago, following his brother, who was a member in the movement. “I understood that the lack of sovereignty is a problem that is connected not only to those who live in Judea and Samaria, but that anyone who lives in the Land must understand and learn about the problem and how to repair it”, he notes. As a resident of Acre, he experiences this firsthand. “Many Arabs live in Acre. There is friction between Jews and Arabs, there is a problem of sovereignty in the Old City and the center of the city”.
Amir and another coordinator direct weekly activities each time in a different city in the north. “From the area of Benyamina, Beit She’an and northward, we have an activity every two weeks. We walk through the streets of the city or open a booth in a mall and explain sovereignty to people to raise consciousness and explain its importance”.
How does this have an impact? The people who live in Beit She’an are not the ones who decide whether or not there will be sovereignty.
“That’s right, but when they understand that the situation in Judea and Samaria is relevant for them, because in the end, that is where terror attacks in the entire Land originate, and therefore we must be sovereign there, in the next elections, they will vote for someone who will promote sovereignty. In the beginning no one knew what sovereignty is. Over the years, the more hasbara activities that we did, the more people told us: Ah, sovereignty, I know, you’ve already explained it to me. It is very important”.
Do you believe that ultimately, there will be sovereignty in Judea and Samaria?
It is still a bit far off, but I hope that it will happen, especially now, with President Trump supporting the idea. We have backing from the United States and I very much hope that in the near future, we will manage to begin to move the process forward.