Positive reactions to the immersion program were also documented in a short promotional film produced by the Ministry of Absorption in 1983 that followed Operation 1000 participants through three different project sites, the kibbutz, the occupied territories, and the JNF forests.85 At Hebron, the narrator characterized the area as, “populated by Arabs . . .
abandoned, and the old Jewish quarter resettled by a zealous Jewish community.” One Jewish-American participant told the camera that despite warnings not to come, “everyone seems very peaceful.” Beit-El was characterized as “spartan” and “more like a summer camp than a five-star hotel.” Yet, as one Jewish-American woman argued, Operation 1000 was all and all “a wonderful and unique experience living as part of a community, being received as a neighbor and a friend . . . [and] that friendship overrides any of the technical shortcomings.” According to Gush Emunim organizer Danny Spielman, these outcomes confirmed that all the effort, planning, and expense of Operation 1000 in its first year were “most definitely”
worthwhile.86