The world is full of chaos right now. Afghanistan has been overrun by the Taliban, a terrorist organization which Hamas has already rushed to congratulate. Since the United States so suddenly abandoned the country that they have spent the last 20 years defending and training, the question for Israel is whether or not they should continue to count on America for support.
Also, please pray for the Christians in Afghanistan who are facing horrendous persecution from the Taliban right now. Some have already lost their lives, and many more are facing death.
In Israel, the Jerusalem fires which were threatening to burn out of control have finally been extinguished. Devastatingly, 5,000 acres of Jerusalem’s forests were burned, thousands of residents were evacuated, and multiple homes destroyed.
In the meantime, a long-time vineyard in Samaria is about to be uprooted. “A vineyard,” you might ask? “What’s the big deal?” Let me explain.
There is a law in Israel called the “disruptive use order,” which basically means that if an Arab comes forward to claim that a Jew invaded his land, then the Jewish tenant must be evicted. Because of the ridiculousness of this law (since anyone could claim ownership to any land he wanted without bringing proof), the law has not seen use for a number of years. High Court Justice Edmund Levy has also highly criticized the law.
Achiya Farm Industries in Shiloh were recently targeted with the “disruptive use order” for 170 dunams of their land (42.5 acres). The court system ruled that the Arab that brought the claim did not bring sufficient proof of ownership to have any legitimate claim to the property. For some reason, however, the courts also ruled that the disruptive use order should go through. This means that even though no one has brought proof of ownership to the Achiya Farm Industries’ land, the property has now been designated to be uprooted and bull-dozed.
Since the Achiya Farm realized that they were not getting anywhere, they began negotiating with the court system to ask for enough time to take in this year’s harvest, find other appropriate land, and wait until after the Shmittah (seventh year of rest) so that they could replant the 170 dunams elsewhere.
It just became apparent that the demolition of the land will go through as early as next week. The order could not have come at a worse time as the grape harvest is just about to start. If the vineyards are destroyed before the grapes can be harvested, the Achiya Farm Industries may lose half of this year’s produce, which will equal nearly half of their income.
It gets even worse. The shmittah year is about to start, which means a new vineyard cannot be planted until at least fall of 2022. Once new vines are planted, it takes four years before the first grapes can be harvested. This means that the potential uprooting of this vineyard in the Shiloh Valley may obliterate nearly half of the Achiya Farm’s income for the next six years. This will be completely devastating.
In response, David Zitzer, who is the CEO of Achiya’s Farm, said,
“We are in an inconceivable reality that even though the petitioners have not proved land ownership, about half of our farm is going to be uprooted because of a draconian order invented by Civil Administration lawyers and everyone admits it is blatantly immoral.”
The Civil Administration’s “foolish attempt to uproot the farm by surprise in the midst of the harvest season and while they are discussing with us a compromise outline to reduce the damage to the economy is no less than a national disgrace,” he charged.
He called on Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and “all the ministers of the national camp” in the government to “finally prove that they are really right-wing and stop the uprooting.”
Jeremiah 31:5 says:
“You will again plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria. The planters will plant and eat them as ordinary food.”
There were no vineyards on the mountains of Samaria for 2,000 years. Then, just a few short years ago, Jeremiah’s 3,000-year-old prophecy came to pass and the first vineyards were once again planted.
No uprooting will be able to stop what Jeremiah said would come to pass. These vineyards will be replanted.
If you believe that no vineyard should be uprooted in Israel, please:
- Pray
- Share this article with your friends and family
- Share this video on social media
- Call your local representatives and ask them to make a public statement in support of Israel’s right to develop Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria.
I am sorry to see and hear of the problems of Judea and Samaria, the lands that have been home home Jewish lands of the people of Israel from Biblical times. Yes Yeshua was a Jew. I deeply regret what this individual we have in a leadership position has done to the United States, the Middle East, and our once good partners. I pray we will get through this without war and a competition individual returns to the leadership of this country