To build, or not to build?

“I believe that this is one of the most Zionist books written in many years,” said Akiva Eldar unashamedly in Jerusalem last night. His new book, Lords of the Land, co-written with Edith Zertal, was the topic of discussion at the Yakar Center for Social Concern and charts the growth of Israeli settlements in the West Bank since 1967. “The settlements are the greatest enemy of Zionism. I’d even say they are ‘post-Zionist’,” said Eldar.

Even for Haaretz’s chief political columnist, this was stepping into the lion’s den by coming to a place like Katamon, a right-of-centre religious community in Jerusalem, and topple one of it’s sacred cows. The same could be said for Talia Sasson, former head of the State Prosecution Criminal Department who discussed her Outposts Report, commissioned by then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, which ordered the dismantling of settlement ‘outposts’ built without Government authorisation. Also speaking was Bethlehemite, Suhail Khalilyah, head of the Monitoring Settlements Unit at the Applied Research Institute. Unlike Khalilyah, the case made by Eldar was not a bleeding-heart plea for Palestinian civil rights. Rather, he demonstrated how the settlements and the apparatus associated with them are undermining the security and foundations of Israeli society and, thus, Zionism. Eldar’s thesis is that the settlements are antithetical to the key tenets of the 1948 Declaration of Independence which avowed that the State of Israel is to be: Jewish, Democratic, Safe, Reaching for Peace, and Just. “Let’s ask the question if Israel will be more Jewish with the settlements or without them?” he said. Computer says ‘no’, came the answer. Within the Green Line, 79% of the population is Jewish, but from the river and the sea (excluding Gaza) just over half of the population is Jewish, 4.5% of which are settlers. In this sense, the settlement enterprise can be considered a ‘failure’. The issue of justice vis a vis the settlements is commonly related to the status of the Palestinians. However, Eldar posed the question, “Are we [the Israelis] doing justice to ourselves?” His case is compelling and deserves to be widely heard throughout Israel and abroad.

The 2005 Outposts Report (commonly known as the Sasson Report) has already been heard far and wide, although it is still a long way off from being enacted. Talia Sasson stated that, “The legality of the settlements is controversial [in Israel], but the High Court agreed on the illegality of the outposts”. According to Sasson, Ariel Sharon understood that the outposts were a problem and wanted to stop them, so he sent a message to the settlers in the shape of the report. “Did we elect them [the settlers] to decide Israel’s borders; to look after it’s citizens?” she asked. However, it can be hard to see how progress can be made with so many ‘facts on the ground’ and the Sasson Report gathering dust on Government shelves. On a visit last week with The Guardian’s Seth Freedman to the settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, just east of Jerusalem, we witnessed continued building in the city which is home to over 30,000 residents. In the event of a peace agreement with the Palestinians, Ma’ale Adumim would be annexed to Israel in exchange for land swaps. Nevertheless, a huge police station on an adjacent hilltop in the controversial E-1 zone is nearing completion. E-1 is a tract of land, currently undeveloped, between the settlement and Jerusalem which the United States and others have consistently leaned on Israel not to build there as it would effectively bisect the West Bank and render a two-state solution dead and buried. “Even the most cursory glance from atop the hilltop at the level of expansion in E1 belies the Government’s assertion that it is freezing settlement activity whilst it negotiates with the Palestinian Authority,” said Seth. But Eldar sees things differently. He argues that the settlers, as well as using the Israeli Government to push their own agenda, are also pawns used by the Government itself. The police station is merely a ‘fig-leaf’ to the settlers to demonstrate that the plan to develop E-1 is no fantasy. “I spoke to the mayor of Ma’ale Adumim,” said Eldar. “And he is very discouraged about the prospects that he can expand the city into E-1.”

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