Gush emunim (Israel)

Gush Emunim (Hebrew: גּוּשׁ אֱמוּנִים‎, lit. "Bloc of the Faithful") was an Israeli ultranationalist religious Zionist Orthodox Jewish right-wing fundamentalist activist movement committed to establishing Jewish settlements in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and the Golan Heights. Gush Emunim, as of 2010, had never been formally disbanded, but it has nevertheless ceased to exist. While not formally established as an organization until 1974 in the wake of the Yom Kippur War, Gush Emunim sprang out of the conquests of the Six-Day War in 1967, encouraging Jewish settlement of the land of Israel based on two points, one religious and one practical. The religious point was a belief that, according to the Torah, God wants the Jewish people to live in the land of Israel and had returned lands such as the biblical Judea and Samaria as an opportunity for the Jewish people to return to their ancestral homeland. The second point stemmed from a concern that the pre-1967 borders, a mere 10 km (6.2 mi) wide at its narrowest point, were indefensible, especially in the long term, and it was therefore necessary to ensure that the land captured in the Six-Day War remained under Israeli control by creating a Jewish presence in the region and placing "facts on the ground". While Gush Emunim no longer exists, vestiges of its influence remain in Israeli politics and society.