Remembering the facts - building settlements in Israel - Column

Christian Century, June 19, 1996 by James M. Wall

DOES IT matter that Likud rather than Labor will be governing Israel? Not really. Over the past 25 years, regardless of which coalition has held power, Israelis have continued to construct settlements on occupied land. The settlements were called "illegal" during the Carter administration, and "obstacles to peace" under Reagan and Bush, but they have not ceased to sprout up in Gaza, the West Bank and the Golan Heights, increasing the Israeli population in occupied Arab lands from a handful in 1973 to more than 125,000 today, in addition to the 160,000 Israeli Jews living in East Jerusalem settlements. The governing powers, whatever the political parties they represent, shape public debate in such a way as to assure that these "facts on the ground" are permanent. Which settlements are built, who actually owns the land that is used, and whether U.S. aid helps finance them are questions that are brushed aside in the "larger" interest of Israeli security or Israel's right to control land, determined as "sacred" from one particular biblical perspective.

In his book The Politics? of Diplomacy, former Secretary of State James Baker describes President George Bush's frustration in dealing with Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir about these settlements. At a meeting in 1989, Bush told Shamir that "the settlements issue was very important to him. At first, Shamir had suggested that this was strictly an internal matter and not the business of the United States. `You have things that concern you, we have things that concern us,' he said. `Don't let it concern you.'" Baker writes: "Given the fact that at the time American taxpayer-financed assistance to Israel amounted to more than $1,000 per Israeli citizen per year, this was not a brush-off George Bush was prepared to accept." When the president persisted, he was assured that the building of settlements would stop. Two weeks later new settlements appeared on the West Bank, and it became obvious to Baker and Bush that Shamir "was intent on expanding settlements at a record pace."

According to Palestinians that monitor construction in the area, since 1967, 61 percent of all land in the Bethlehem area has been either confiscated or declared a military or green (environmental) area. The city of Bethlehem is almost completely surrounded by the settlements of Gilo. Efrat and the Gush Etzion Block, all served by 43 kilometers of newly built by-pass roads that connect these and future settlements.

Jabal Abu Ghneim, home to numerous species of wildlife, was confiscated for "public use" from its Palestinian landowners in 1991. Plans are now proceeding to turn the mountain area's 1850 dunums (about 460 acres) into a settlement that will be called Har Homa (Mount Wall), providing housing for more than 50,000 Jewish Israelis. Petitions against this confiscation are still pending in the Israeli High Court, but Palestinians have seldom received favorable rulings from Israeli courts regarding land confiscations.

The completion of Har Homa will close the northern area of Bethlehem, separate it from Jerusalem and complete a circle around Bethlehem of Jewish settlements and bypass roads. In the future, American and European tourists will be able to stay in nearby Israeli hotels and ride Israeli buses to Bethlehem and back, thereby depriving the struggling Palestinian economy of revenue from one of the most cherished Christian sites.

Ironically, Hamas extremists have provided a cover for the Israeli land confiscation and settlement construction with their terrorist attacks against Jewish civilians. The attacks, culminating in recent explosions on civilian buses, drew world sympathy to Israel and provided the government with a rationale for building more settlements to separate civilians from potential terrorist attacks. Of course, walls do not provide security; they encourage insecurity.

Religious zealots in Israel have also contributed to the self-defeating settlement policy. An Israeli apartment complex, supported by shopping areas and other amenities, was built adjacent to the West Bank city of Hebron to provide religious Jews close access to the traditional burial sites of Abraham and Sarah. More recently, within the city limits of Hebron, a small group of religious Jews have settled in the middle of the Arab oily requiring the presence of a military unit to ensure their safety. One of the first decisions facing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is whether or not to honor the agreement his. predecessor made with the Palestinian Authority to withdraw Israeli troops from Hebron.

In the months ahead, as the new Israeli government attempts to convince the world that it is doing what is best for Israel's security and peace, we should remember that the "peace process" does not involve two equals. It is, rather, a dialogue between two vastly unequal entities, one an occupying force with a huge military advantage, backed to the hilt by an American administration motivated by its own domestic political goals, the other a population of 2.5 million that has little influence on what happens to their lives or to any land Israel wishes to confiscate.