Gush Emunim

Gush Emunim (Hebrew: גוש אמונים, Block [of the] faithful) was an Israeli political movement. The movement sprang out of the conquests of the Six-Day War in 1967, though it was not formally established as an organization until 1974, in the wake of the Yom Kippur War. It encouraged Jewish settlement of the land God allotted for the Jews in the book of Deuteronomy.

Political affiliations

Gush Emunim was closely associated with, and highly influential in, the National Religious Party (NRP), the party which is identified with religious Zionism. These days they refer to themselves —and are referred to by the Israeli media as— Ne'emanei Eretz Yisrael נאמני ארץ ישראל (Hebrew: "Those who are loyal/faithful to the land of Israel").

History

In 1968, a group of future Gush Emunim members led by Rabbi Moshe Levinger founded the settlement Kiryat Arba on the outskirts of Hebron. In 1974, following the shock of the Yom Kippur War, the organization was founded more formally, by students of the younger Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook, who remained its leader until his death in 1982. In late 1974, an affiliated group named Garin Elon Moreh, led by Rabbi Menachem Felix and Benjamin (Beni) Katzover, attempted to establish a settlement on the ruins of the Sebastia train station dating from the Ottoman period. After seven attempts and six removals from the site by the army, an agreement was reached. According to the agreement, the Israeli government allowed 25 families to settle in the Kadum army camp southwest of Nablus/Shechem. The Sebastia agreement was a turning point which opened up the Samariato Jewish settlement. The small caravan site with 25 families eventually became the municipality of Kedumim, one of the major settlements in Judea and Samaria. The Kadum army camp settlement model was copied over the years in Beit El, Shavei Shomron and other settlements.

Ideology

Gush Emunim beliefs are based heavily on the teachings of Rabbi Abraham Kook and his son, Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook. The two rabbis taught that secular Zionists, through their conquests of Eretz Israel, had unwittingly brought about the beginning of the "messianic age", which would end in the coming of the Jewish messiah. Gush Emunim supporters believe that the coming of the messiah can be hastened through Jewish settlement on land they believe God has allotted to the Jewish people as outlined in the Hebrew Bible. In light of the mass eviction of Jews from Gaza, the violent eviction of Jews from Amonah, and numerous other similar events on a relatively smaller scale, in more recent years, many members of this community have been having second thoughts about this ideology. See here.

See also

• Israeli settlements
• Moledet
• Orthodox Judaism
• Tzvi Yehuda Kook
• Gush Emunim Underground
• Moshe Levinger
• Menachem Froman

External links

• For the Land and the Lord: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel by Ian Lustick, 1988.
• Confessions of a Confused Religious Zionist