Israel's Outposts Seal Death Of Palestinian State
By Jonathan Cook in Migron, West Bank
26 August,
2008
Countercurrents.org
Yehudit
Genud hardly feels she is on the frontier of Israel’s settlement
project, although the huddle of mobile homes on a wind-swept West
Bank hilltop she calls home is controversial even by Israeli standards.
Despite the size and isolation of Migron, a settlement of about 45
religious families on a ridge next to the Palestinian city of Ramallah,
Mrs Genud’s job as a social worker in West Jerusalem is a 25-minute
drive away on a well-paved road.
Mrs Genud, 28, pregnant with her first child, points out that Migron
has parks, children’s playgrounds, a kindergarten, a daycare
centre and a synagogue, all paid for by the government -- even if
the buildings are enclosed by a razor-wire fence, and her husband,
Roni, has to put in overtime as the settlement’s security guard.
From her trailer, she also has panoramic views not only of Ramallah
but of the many communities hugging the slopes that gently fall away
to the Jordan Valley.
Long-established Palestinian villages are instantly identifiable by
their homes’ flat roofs and the prominence of the tall minarets
of the local mosques. Interspersed among them, however, are a growing
number of much newer, fortified communities of luxury villas topped
by distinctive red-tiled roofs.
These are the Jewish settlements that now form an almost complete
ring around Palestinian East Jerusalem, cutting it off from the rest
of the West Bank and destroying any hope that the city will one day
become the capital of a Palestinian state.
“These settlements are supposed to be the nail in the coffin
of any future peace agreement with the Palestinians,” said Dror
Etkes, a veteran observer of the settlements who works for the Israeli
human rights group Yesh Din. “Their purpose is to make a Palestinian
state unviable.”
The majority of the half a million settlers in the West Bank and East
Jerusalem, according to Mr Etkes, are “economic opportunists”,
drawn to life in the occupied territories less by ideological or religious
convictions than economic incentives. The homes, municipal services
and schools there are heavily subsidised by the government.
In addition, the settlements -- though illegal under international
law -- are integrated into Israel through a sophisticated system of
roads that make it easy for the settlers to forget they are in occupied
territory surrounded by Palestinians.
But Migron, with its supposed links to the Biblical site where King
Saul based himself during his fight against the Philistines, attracts
a different kind of inhabitant.
“This place is holy to the Jewish people and we have a duty
to be here,” Mrs Genud said. “The whole land of Israel
belongs to us and we should not be afraid to live wherever we want
to. The Arabs must accept that.”
Unlike the 150 or so official settlements dotted across the West Bank,
Migron is an example of what the Israeli government refers to as an
“illegal outpost”, often an unauthorised outgrowth from
one of the main settlements. Today there are more than 100 such outposts,
housing several thousand extremist settlers.
Mrs Genud, however, argues that Israel’s refusal to turn Migron
into an authorised settlement, as it has done with many other established
outposts, reflects pressure from Washington.
Back in 2003, Israel committed itself to dismantling the more recent
outposts under the terms of the Road Map, a US-sponsored plan for
reviving the peace process and creating a Palestinian state. Two years
later the cabinet approved the removal of 24 outposts, although barely
any progress has been made on dismantling them. Israel confirmed its
pledge again in January when George W Bush, the US president, visited.
Established six years ago by a group from the nearby settlement of
Ofra, Migron is now the largest of the outposts. Two residents --
Itai Halevi, the community’s rabbi, and Itai Harel, the son
of Israel Harel, a well-known settler leader -- have demonstrated
their confidence in Migron’s future by each building permanent
homes.
“We are connected to the water grid, we have phone lines from
the national company Bezeq, we have been hooked up by the electricity
company and have street lighting,” Mrs Genud said. “We
also have a kindergarten paid for by the state and a group of soldiers
stationed here to protect us. How can we be ‘illegal’?”
Daniella Wiess, a leader of the most extreme wing of the settlers,
agreed. Like the inhabitants of Migron, she said the outpost was first
suggested by Ariel Sharon when he was housing minister in the 1990s.
It was also among the first outposts to be set up after he became
prime minister in 2002.
An official report published in 2005 found that more than $4 million
was invested in Migron in its first years, with the money channelled
through at least six different ministries.
There is good reason for official complicity in such outposts as Migron.
“This place is very strategic,” Mrs Genud said. It looks
down on Route 60, once the main road serving Palestinians between
Jerusalem and Jenin in the northern West Bank.
Today, even those Palestinians who can get a permit to travel the
road find regular sections obstructed by checkpoints or closed for
the protection of neighbouring settlements.
“We can also see all the Arabs from here and keep an eye on
what they are doing,” she said referring to her Palestinian
neighbours. “And in addition, we can see the other settlements
and check on their safety.”
But despite its significance to the settlement drive, Migron is under
threat. Last week, the Israeli government agreed that the outpost
must be destroyed, although it was tight-lipped about when. Few are
expecting such a reversal to happen soon. The government’s decision
was largely foisted upon it by a series of unforeseen events.
In 2006, several West Bank Palestinians, backed by Israeli peace groups,
petitioned Israel’s supreme court claiming that Migron had been
built on their private land.
Over the past four decades, Israel has declared nearly two-thirds
of the West Bank as “state land”, seizing it on a variety
of pretexts and transferring much of it to the jurisdiction of settler
councils. According to the figures of the Israeli group Peace Now,
the settlers are in direct control of more than 40 per cent of the
West Bank.
Land belonging to Palestinians who hold the title deeds, however,
has been harder to confiscate. As a result, a dubious industry of
front companies both inside Israel and in the occupied territories
has been spawned to transfer private Palestinian land to the settlers.
One such company appears to be behind the sale of the land on which
Migron was built. A police investigation has revealed that one of
the Palestinian owners, Abdel Latif Hassan Sumarin, signed over his
power of attorney to an Israeli real estate company in 2004, even
though he died in the United States in 1961.
During the court hearings, Israel has been dragging its feet. According
to its own figures, there are a dozen outposts built entirely or partially
on private Palestinian land -- and the true number may be higher still.
The settlers believe that the decision to destroy Migron, if carried
out, would set a dangerous precedent. “They are very afraid
that this will become simply the first of many settlements to fall,”
Mr Etkes said.
Last week, faced with another hearing before the court, the government
finally conceded on Migron -- but only after striking a deal with
the main settlement lobby group, the Yesha council. Israel promised
that the outpost would go, but not before new homes had been built
for Migron’s settlers and they had been relocated en masse to
a newly created -- and authorised -- settlement. According to reports
in the local media, Migron’s families may be moved only a few
hundred metres from their current location to an area of the West
Bank designated as “state land”.
“The settlers know that preparation of an alternative site could
take years,” said Yariv Oppenheimer, the head of Peace Now,
fearful that this was simply a delaying tactic.
Others believe that relocating Migron may, in fact, set back the struggle
against the settlements. There is already talk of moving the settlers
to the jurisdiction of a neighbouring settlement, Adam.
“The danger is that Migron will be destroyed only to be resurrected
in ‘legalised’ form by the government as a new settlement
close by Adam,” Mr Etkes said.
Such a suspicion is confirmed by the main settler council, Yesha,
which issued a statement last week: “We believe it is possible
to find a solution for the outposts that will strengthen the settlements.”
Nonetheless, the residents of Migron, backed by hardline settler groups,
are talking and acting tough for the time being. In a show of defiance,
they moved another mobile home into the outpost last week. For several
months the residents have also been erecting a large stone building
close by the outpost that will become a winery.
The settlers’ rabbinical council denounced the threatened loss
of the outpost, as did settler leader Gershon Masika, who warned of
a bloody confrontation to save it.
Mrs Genud is not sure what she will do if the crunch comes and she
has to give up her home and life in Migron. “All of this land
is Jewish,” she said. “It would be a big mistake if we
give up what is rightfully ours.”
Jonathan Cook is a journalist and writer living in
Nazareth, Israel. His latest books are "Israel and the Clash
of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East"
(Pluto Press) and "Disappearing Palestine: Israel's Experiments
in Human Despair" (Zed Books). His website is www.jkcook.net.
This article originally appeared in The National (http://www.thenational.ae), published in Abu Dhabi.