Summary
Amana, founded in 1976 as Gush Emunim’s own settlement organization, which in spring 1980 announced that for all intents and purposes it was Gush Emunim and could speak on its behalf, and by spring 1983 had ten full-time staff and a budget approaching $2 million (For the Land and the Lord: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel, Chapter 3, lines 2900-3050).
Details
- Amana marked the beginning of Gush Emunim’s transition from a fringe group specializing in protest demonstrations and illegal political events to a broad movement including practical efforts to establish and consolidate viable Jewish settlements (For the Land and the Lord: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel, Chapter 3, lines 2900-3000).
- In the months before the May 1981 elections, sharing Likud’s fear that a Labor victory would revive the Allon Plan, Amana and Yesha cooperated closely with the Likud government to establish as many settlements and seize as much land as possible before the elections (For the Land and the Lord: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel, Chapter 3, lines 2950-3050).
- After the shock of the Yamit evacuation, Gush Emunim formally reconstituted its secretariat but Amana remained; by spring 1983 it had representatives in Europe and the United States as well as ten full-time staff (For the Land and the Lord: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel, Chapter 3, lines 2950-3050).
Related pages
For the Land and the Lord: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel, Gush Emunim, Yesha, Yamit