Homesh First is a

grassroots A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region or community as the basis for a political or economic movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from the local level to effect change at t ...

organization attempting to rebuild and resettle the Jewish community and

Israeli settlement Israeli settlements, or Israeli colonies, are civilian communities inhabited by Israeli citizens, overwhelmingly of Jewish ethnicity, built on lands occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. The international community considers Israeli se ...

Homesh Homesh ( he, חֹמֶשׁ, חומש) was an Israeli settlement in the West Bank along Route 60, illegally built over private Palestinian land. The settlement was under the administrative jurisdiction of the Shomron Regional Council. In 2005, the ...

in Samaria.Our Jerusalem.com
March 25, 2007 ''IDF and Police Invited to Rectify Disengagement Misdeeds'' by Ezra HaLevi of Arutz Sheva

History

Homesh First was formed after the homes of the Jewish residents of Homesh were razed and Jewish community was evicted as part of

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

's disengagement in August 2005. The

Christian Science Monitor Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι� ...

quoted

Yossi Dagan Yossi Dagan ( he, יוסי דגן) is an Israeli activist and politician who has been the head of the Shomron Regional Council since August 2015. Dagan grew up in the Israeli towns of Bnei Brak and Pardes Katz. When he was in the tenth grade, h ...

, the future leader of Homesh First, warning that by these actions, "You'll be creating a terror state that would threaten most of the country with Qassam issiles"

Civil disobedience campaigns

Homesh First organized the 2007

Yom Ha'atzmaut Independence Day ( he, יום העצמאות ''Yom Ha'atzmaut'', lit. "Day of Independence") is the national day of Israel, commemorating the Israeli Declaration of Independence in 1948. The day is marked by official and unofficial ceremonies ...

march to Homesh. This march attracted several thousand people. For the 2007 observance of

Sukkot or ("Booths, Tabernacles") , observedby = Jews, Samaritans, a few Protestant denominations, Messianic Jews, Semitic Neopagans , type = Jewish, Samaritan , begins = 15th day of Tishrei , ends = 21st day of Tishre ...

, Homesh First has announced that it was organizing, "a mass

pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...

to the site of the former West Bank settlement of Homesh." The Israel Defense Forces and the Israeli police have evacuated Homesh First activists from Homesh on many occasions. Homesh Firsters flee into nearby hills and caves to wait for the security forces to leave and at other times they obediently leave only to return later.

Homesh Knesset caucus

In August 2007, a 10-member Homesh

Knesset The Knesset ( he, הַכְּנֶסֶת ; "gathering" or "assembly") is the unicameral legislature of Israel. As the supreme state body, the Knesset is sovereign and thus has complete control of the entirety of the Israeli government (with ...

caucus met for the first time. This group is headed by MK

Aryeh Eldad Aryeh Eldad, M.D. ( he, אריה אלדד, born 1 May 1950) is an Israeli physician, politician and former medical officer. Eldad is a professor of medicine, and was head of the plastic surgery and burns unit at the Hadassah Medical Center. He w ...

. The caucus's mandate is to work to promote the reestablishment of Homesh - as a first step towards the return to all the places from which Jews were expelled during the Disengagement Plan of 2005. The group will work to build the legitimacy of the Homesh First group and support the resettlement of northwestern

Shomron Samaria (; he, שֹׁמְרוֹן, translit=Šōmrōn, ar, السامرة, translit=as-Sāmirah) is the historic and biblical name used for the central region of Palestine, bordered by Judea to the south and Galilee to the north. The first ...

. Yossi Dagan, the leader of Homesh First, said that this achievement is a "significant milestone towards the return to Homesh." In September 2007, the Knesset's Homesh caucus canceled their planned trip to Homesh due to the army having banned reporters from joining them. MK Arye Eldad argued with the

IDF IDF or idf may refer to: Defence forces * Irish Defence Forces * Israel Defense Forces *Iceland Defense Force, of the US Armed Forces, 1951-2006 * Indian Defence Force, a part-time force, 1917 Organizations * Israeli Diving Federation * Interac ...

in an attempt to enter Homesh with reporters. He was accompanied by MK

Uri Ariel Uri Yehuda Ariel ( he, אורי אריאל, born 22 December 1952) is an Israeli politician who formerly served as a member of the Knesset for The Jewish Home (within which he chaired the Tkuma faction), and as Minister of Agriculture and Rural ...

and MK

Yuli-Yoel Edelstein Yuli-Yoel Edelstein ( he, יוּלִי־יוֹאֵל אֵדֶלְשְטֵיין, russian: Ю́лий Ю́рьевич Эдельште́йн, link=no, uk, Ю́лій Ю́рійович Едельште́йн, born 5 August 1958) is an Israeli ...

. These three MKs are from the 10 member caucus created in August. The three had planned to visit Homesh to visit with dozens of grassroots activists from Homesh First who are camped out at Homesh.Jpost
17 September 2007 ''MK lobby protests press ban on Homesh'' By Tovah Lazaroff

Footnotes

External links

IDF permits MKs to enter ex-W. Bank settlement, but not the media

Police Evict Dozens from Homesh During Holiday

MK lobby protests press ban on Homesh
{Dead link, date=July 2018 , bot=InternetArchiveBot , fix-attempted=yes

Israeli disengagement from Gaza Civil disobedience Zionist organizations

History

Civil disobedience campaigns

Homesh Knesset caucus

See also

Footnotes

External links