Settlements

Upper: The settlement of Efrat. Lower: 'Welcome' sign at south entrance

I was sent by the Common Board of Global Ministries of the United Church of Christ (UCC) and the Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, and Church World Service, to participate in the World Council of Churches’ (WCC’s) Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI). The views contained herein are personal and do not necessarily reflect those of the Common Board of Global Ministries, the UCC or the WCC. If you would like to publish the information contained here or disseminate it further, please first contact the EAPPI Coordination (eappi-co@jrol.com) for permission. Thank you.
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How to write about settlements? Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are among the most emotion-laden, difficult-to-discuss, intractable topics in Palestine and Israel.

As I write this, headlines here in Palestine and throughout the world record the back-and-forth of the Obama Administration’s effort to re-start talks that it is hoped may lead to peace in a long, sad history of Israeli-Palestinian conflict, war, destruction, human tragedy. Surely the topic with the greatest potential to bog this effort down to a stop is precisely that of the settlements.

* The settlements are people’s homes.
* The settlements are Israeli people’s homes built on Palestinian land, in violation of international law.
* The settlements transplant Israeli population to land that has been the source of livelihood, culture, history – indeed, the source of life – for Palestinians for thousands of years.
* For Israelis, the settlements are a redemption of the history of Diaspora: reclaiming biblical territory that is theirs by right – “divine right,” for religious Jewish Israelis – as well as a bold pioneering enterprise, creating modern, attractive, sustainable communities in the desert.
* For Palestinians, the settlements are theft, pure and simple. The Wall, publicly interpreted as a security measure that will protect Israel and the Israeli settlements from “terrorism,” actually surrounds and confiscates their land. In Jayyous, where I live, the neighboring settlements now claim the majority of the land, enclosed by the Wall, from which Jayyousi families historically have made their living.
* By extending Israel and Israelis into occupied Palestine, boundaries, water rights, construction rights, mobility and travel, all fall under the control of the Israeli government.
* Israeli settlers are governed by Israeli civil law. Palestinians under occupation are governed by the codes of the Israeli military.

Yesterday, our EAPPI group visited the settlement of Efrat, part of the Gush Etzion settlement bloc south of Jerusalem, a pleasant ten-minute-or-so drive (for Israelis; Palestinians are barred from part of the route) from Jerusalem. I enjoy the drive. As I have noted on many occasions, the landscape in the Holy Land resembles greatly resembles the desert in which I was brought up in Arizona. The soil, the rocks and hills, the flora, the colors, are all familiar to me. I feel at home.

Efrat is a modern, sun-washed suburban village of some 8,000 inhabitants. Services – shopping of all kinds, medical and dental, educational, cultural – are conveniently located and modern. Religious and community life are vibrant. We met with a spokesperson in one of the local synagogues, beautifully designed and welcoming. He was pleasant, full of information, a long-time community leader, clearly a settlement “booster.”

So… what’s the problem?

The problem, from his point of view, are those who question that this land belongs to the people of Israel. There is no question, no doubt. The land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean is Israel, and the problem is those who would take it away. Others may use it. Others who happen to be there should have their rights protected. But it is for the Israeli people, they control it, will fight to keep controlling it, and anyone who disagrees, or would compromises that claim, must be kept at bay.

If Palestinian leaders deny this claim, they cannot be negotiated with. If Palestinian leaders wishing some sort of compromise with Israel cannot, or will not, make sure that the Israeli claim is respected, are not partners for peace discussions.

The problem, as I have come to understand it from the Palestinians among whom I have been living, is that their land has been taken and they are now treated as outsiders in their own country. The will and priorities of another people have been imposed upon them, without their consent and to their disadvantage. In short, the land has been stolen from them, and no one seems to recognize their claim.

The problem, as per the Fourth Geneva Convention, to which Israel is a pary, is that an occupying power cannot transfer its own population to an occupied territory. And the problem, as per the Hague Convention, to which Israel is a party, is that occupation is by definition a temporary state, and the occupying power cannot change the nature of the occupied territory.

The Israeli government’s response is that people move to the occupied territory of their own free will, not by government policy; yet there are settlements constructed on confiscated land which the Israeli government has declared to be “state land,” and housing subsidies and other economic incentives are offered to Israelis, or immigrants to Israel, who move to the settlements. The Israeli government states that it the land is being “improved” by occupation. The Palestinian populace, and international observers, note that the improvements benefit the Israeli settlers, not the local population.

A few quick facts and figures, gleaned from a variety of sources:[i] In the West bank at this time, the Palestinian population is approximately 2-3 million; there are about 300,000 Israeli settlers. Added to that settler number are an additional approximately 200,000 in the East Jerusalem area annexed by Israel following the 1967 war. The Wall extends deeply into the West bank in several areas; three “fingers” in particular, which reach some 20 kilometers each into the West Bank, are projected to surround about 10 percent of Palestinian land, effectively incorporating it into Israel, and, Palestinians fear, defining a future political border. A system of checkpoints, tunnels, Israeli-only roads and the location of the settlements themselves divides the West Bank into small enclaves, or “cantons,” thus decreasing the viability of a possible future Palestinian state.


My husband, Max,Surjadinata, posted a link on Facebook the other day, to the text of an interview on Bill Moyers’ Journal, as posted on September 21, 2009 on www.alternet.org. Moyers' guest was Sam Tanenhaus, described as “high powered New York Times editor, and author of a new book entitled “The Death of Conservatism.” Tanenhaus sees the conservative movement in America as increasingly in the hands of what he considers “conservative radicals.” Following is a brief excerpt from the interview:


SAM TANENHAUS: …. Conservatism has been divided for a long time -- this is what my book describes narratively -- between two strains. What I call realism and revanchism. We're seeing the revanchist side.
BILL MOYERS: What do you mean revanchism?
SAM TANENHAUS: I mean a politics that's based on the idea that America has been taken away from its true owners, and they have to restore and reclaim it. They have to conquer the territory that's been taken from them. Revanchism really comes from the French word for 'revenge.' It's a politics of vengeance.


That phrase, “politics of vengeance,” rang a bell with me when I read it this morning, the day after our visit to Efrat settlement. There are settlers – I can’t say all of them, I don’t know that – who feel they are recovering something that was taken from them: the Land of Israel. They will do anything, even become violent and abusive, to get back, and hang onto, what they believe to be rightfully theirs.


I have EA colleagues who live and work in the northern West Bank village of Yanoun, where nearby settlers destroy the orchards and kill the sheep of the Yanoun farmers, thus undermining their livelihood. Settlers periodically come into the village, carrying firearms, walking around, speaking to no one, and then walk away. Sometimes they swim in the village well. Sometimes they don't just walk away, but attack the villagers.


In Jayyous, where I live, 4,000 olive trees were uprooted and disposed up to make way for the Separation Barrier, ostensibly built for the “security” of the Zufin Settlement dwellers; the village of Jayyous was thus further impoverished as a part of its historic economic base was estroyed.
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[i] B’Tselem, Yesh Din, The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), all have websites in English.