Summary
The Movement to Halt the Retreat in Sinai, formed in spring 1981 by Tehiya and Yesha activists and rabbis to stop the evacuation of Yamit and the Sinai withdrawal — or, failing that, to make the clash traumatic enough to inhibit any future evacuation of settlements (For the Land and the Lord: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel, Chapter 3, lines 2950-3200).
Details
- The first groups to mobilize were Yamit businessmen and farmers, whose opposition dissolved amid negotiations over government relocation and compensation packages, which one early estimate put at approximately $530 million in total (For the Land and the Lord: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel, Chapter 3, lines 2950-3050; Chapter 3 notes, lines 3560-3624).
- Its leading roles were taken by Gush activists fearful that evacuating Sinai settlements for peace would set a dangerous precedent for the West Bank and Gaza, and by rabbis committed to the principle that Yamit was an integral part of the Land of Israel whose abandonment would severely interrupt redemption (For the Land and the Lord: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel, Chapter 3, lines 3000-3100).
- Hundreds of West Bank settlers infiltrated Yamit, a countrywide petition campaign fell short of its declared one million signatures, and a March 1982 rally at the Western Wall drew more than 40,000 demonstrators; in the weeks before April 22, 1982 only several thousand supporters, mostly yeshiva students, could be concentrated in Yamit, and the evacuation was completed by unarmed soldiers without serious injury (For the Land and the Lord: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel, Chapter 3, lines 3000-3150).
- Its public appeals obscured the spiritual and redemptive ideology that motivated most of its leadership, focusing instead on security dangers, undependable Egyptian and American guarantees, and Zionist pioneering values (For the Land and the Lord: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel, Chapter 3, lines 3050-3150).
- Its failure, six weeks after Tzvi Yehuda Kook’s death and six weeks before the Lebanon War, precipitated a severe crisis of confidence within Gush Emunim and split the movement’s conclusions between political and cultural outreach and direct action and violence (For the Land and the Lord: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel, Chapter 3, lines 3100-3250).
Related pages
For the Land and the Lord: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel, Gush Emunim, Yamit, Tehiya, Yesha