JUDEA, Israel – Amid the war in Gaza, clashes have also taken place in the region known as the West Bank – the biblical areas of Judea and Samaria – including violent protests and exchanges of gunfire during raids Israeli arrests.
Despite concerns about the region, a Christian organization has pledged to stand with Israeli settlers no matter what.
HaYovel operates in the hills of the biblical heartland of Israel. Aside from biblical history, the region is also rife with conflict.
While much of the world believes Jewish communities are undermining the “peace process,” a group of Americans have been living in Samaria since 2004.
HaYovel founder Tommy Waller said: “Our family came here 20 years ago. We came here to support the Jews in their return, in their biblical mandate, their prophetic mandate. And we are happy to serve them.
HaYovel volunteers say they simply support Jewish settlers who have a right to be here based on biblical history. Today, the threats to their existence are greater than ever.
“October 7 gave us a wake-up call. I think it gave a wake-up call to all of Israel,” Waller said. “But here, for us, this is the first time we’ve seen a multi-front war since 1973. There are no communities here. So our goal here is to serve these communities that are vulnerable. Ultimately ultimately, they are vulnerable… And I think that the Christian world must understand that.
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CBN News visited the gate that leads from Israel to the city of Nablus, an Israeli city administered by the Palestinians under the Oslo Accords. There are three zones: Zone A, Zone B and Zone C. Zone A is an area where Israelis are not allowed to go. It is governed by the Palestinian Authority.
It is illegal for Israeli citizens to enter this area. For what? Because an Israeli who walks through that gate is going to be killed. Now Arabs can pass through this gate and access areas controlled by Israel without problem. And besides, tens of thousands of them do it every day to go to work.
But at the moment, they cannot go to work because of the events of October 7. And this shows that, economically, the Arabs are suffering very badly from what Hamas perpetrated against the Jewish people on October 7.
Joshua Waller, production director of HaYovel, said: “The whole idea of the apartheid state is just a load of nonsense. This is left-wing propaganda trying to steal this biblical land from Israel. And the signs that you mention, these big red signs, there are no signs. No place in all of Israel says Arabs are not allowed. It simply doesn’t exist. As an Israeli in this area, you would not be able to go to the neighboring Arab village. Jews are not allowed. On the other hand, the A Jewish colony behind me, just a Jewish colony? Yes. We built all these apartment buildings. The Arabs, they hired Arabs to come and build these communities.
With tensions already high and Palestinian Authority leaders calling for a repeat of the events of October 7 here, global calls for Hamas are putting the population at risk.
TO HAVE: Hamas terrorist leader goes on TV, vows to annihilate Israel, repeat October 7 massacre
Joshua said: “Unfortunately, this has been going on for a long time and people are just unaware that these radical Islamists here in these surrounding villages in Judea and Samaria have been very active for a long time. We have Gaza in the south, Hezbollah comes from Syria and Lebanon. These are the three fronts that most of us are familiar with. »
“The fourth front here in Judea and Samaria is actually a secret front. People don’t understand. To the south, on the Gaza border, they have technologically advanced barriers between them. Here, where I am, we have 500 Jewish families. I live in a small Jewish community, a community perched here, called ‘settlements’ on the news, surrounded by 250,000 Arabs. And there is no barrier between me and them.”
And this seems acceptable to the families of these communities, because they simply want to live in peace on the land given to their ancestors.
“There is one Jewish nation. It’s just plain and simple. There are 22 Arab states. There are 50 Muslim-majority countries. Let’s just say that Jews have one country and they can live there in security, even from a diplomatic point of view. Can we just believe this is good?” asked Tommy.
“If the Jews are here, we are here. We think this is an opportunity, maybe one of the first opportunities for Christians in 2,000 years. We have to stand. There has never been a line so clear. The evil has never been so clear. It has been so clear to us. And so it’s not even a question for anyone in our family. We stand with the Jewish people.
