Puneet Varma (Editor)

Jewish secessionism in Israel

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Since the declaration of Israel's independence from the United Kingdom in 1948, there have been a number of proposals or bids for the establishment of other independent Jewish states besides that of the government and territory of Israel. These proposals have often arisen in protest or grievance against the government for various contemporary reasons.

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  • In 1984, the State of Yeruham was declared by then-mayor of Yeruham Baruch Elmakias to protest against protest the neglect, unemployment and isolation of the development towns in the Negev in comparison to other cities in Israel. The plan never took off.
  • The State of Judea was declared in 1989 by Michael Ben-Horin, a conservative religious settler in the West Bank. The proposed secession reentered Israeli discussions during the height of the unilateral disengagement plan in Gaza under the Sharon government.
  • The State of Tel Aviv (or Gush Dan State) has frequently been proposed, although such a secession tends to be proposed in jest or derision against the political and cultural difference of Tel Aviv and the Gush Dan region from the rest of Israel (akin to such terms as the People's Republic of San Francisco).
  • Russian/ex-Soviet autonomy - Dmitri Sliveniak, a Soviet Ukrainian-born intellectual and resident of Kiryat Arba, wrote to Israeli journal Mirror (Russian: Зеркало) a "Russian manifesto" containing his idea for providing migrants from the former Soviet Union an autonomous region in Israel in which to live; he based this on his opinion that relations between migrants from the former Soviet Union and other Israelis, both migrant and native-born, had broken down.
  • In 2005, an Independent Jewish Authority in the Gaza Beach was declared by Jewish resident of Shirat HaYam and military historian Aryeh Yitzhaki on the eve of the unilateral disengagement plan. He called himself The Temporary Chairman "until the election of the 2,500 citizens" in his new country. He followed through with his claim by sending an appeal for recognition to the United Nations and the Red Cross. Four days later, when the Israel Defense Forces and Israeli Police came to evacuate Shirat Hayam, he defended this self-proclaimed country alone with an M-16 after ascending the roof of his home. It was not widely publicized that the entire Israeli Defence Forces nationwide was immediately put on a high state of alert in apprehension that Yitzhaki's threats would be followed similarly elsewhere. The event ended after a few hours with the storming of the rooftop of the house, the surrender of Yitzhaki and the forceful evacuation of all in the compound.
  • In 2000, a group of intellectuals issued a manifesto for the creation of a separate New Israel which would be decidedly more secular than the Israeli status quo. This proposal lost currency following the beginning of the Second Intifada in 2002.
  • In 1952, Eli Avivi established the micronation of Akhzivland on the coastline near Akhziv and the Lebanese border.

    • Autonomous movements

  • In September 2011, a group of settlers established The Jewish Authority at Nofim in the West Bank as a proposed stay-behind self-defense and governance authority for West Bank settlers in the case of Israeli military withdrawal and the ceding of the territory to an independent Palestinian government. This is similar, in function, to the Serbian Assembly in North Kosovo, which does not recognize the authority of the Kosovar government.
  • In April 2013, a prominent Haredi newspaper called for the establishment of an autonomous zone in Israel for Haredi Jews. The proposal was a reaction to proposed budget cuts for Haredi institutions being considered by the Thirty-third government of Israel. The newspaper attacked the government for collaborating with the secularist Yesh Atid party and "the high courts that are sustained by a left-wing anti-Semitic funded media", as well as expressing frustration with civil marriage and the ease of conversion to Judaism in Israel. According to the newspaper, autonomy would mean "independent administrative rule for internal matters without sovereign political status, with legal and financial independence and police, but without an army or foreign policy" and that "there will no need to waste funds on things like sports budgets, delusional culture, prisons or rehabilitation facilities."
  • In August 2013, a Haredi community leader, Dudi Hilbershlag, proposed the same idea.

    • References

    Jewish secessionism in Israel Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA