The settlement policy pushed by Benjamin Netanyahu is a fits and starts preposition that has long played out as the cat and mouse game in the decades long peace process.
There are however, different forces at play when it comes to settlements. Some objectors to Netanyahu's hawkish approach are demonstrating alongside the Palestinians whose land is being taken, but the other line of conflict is drawn when ultra Oxthodox Jews decide to settle in areas where even Netanyahu has not dared venture, and clash with the Isreali army who are perceived as being against them, or if the army tries to clear the illegal settlements under official orders.
A constant challenge to Netanyahu's tenure is perennially effected by illegal settlers in the West Bank who are now voting on whether to advocate disobeying the army when it comes to settlement issues.
In the West Bank, the city of Nablus has the dubious reputation of being the most bellicose towards the Palestinian in the entire settlement belt outside the international delimitation zone. Most of the cases that are referred to the UN for possible human rights violation involve the small community of Yitzhar, in Nablus.
The settlers of Yitzhar, however, are not just fighting the Palestinians in the West Bank, but also the Israeli army. In April of this year, illegal settlers pinned themselves squarely against the army by throwing stones at officers demolishing the illegal housing, sending six army personnel to the hospital.
The army had no choice but to close the local Jewish seminary. They also militarized the zone, thereby voiding any further attempts by settlers to rebuild. For now.
Extreme Orthodoxy in Israel has always been the unspoken thorn in the side. Many settlers are armed with submachine guns and have a messianic drive to disregard orders from anyone to settle and push Palestinians out of the West Bank and other areas.
But, until recently, these extremists were tolerated, if disliked, for their actions and beliefs. Meanwhile, the past couple of years has seen a groundswell of negative opinion against illegal settlements, and even legal ones, as Israelis more and more become cognizant that the stalled peace process can never come to fruition until these activities stop. Human rights groups, composed of Israeli citizens are now supporting the Palestinians in the West Bank and help contrast legal settlement, even confronting the army peacefully in demonstrations.
For the first time in history, the ultra Orthodox settlers of the West Bank have been referred to as 'terrorist', a word that in the past was always and only applied to Palestinians or other Arab neighbors. Does this signify a radical shift in the way they will be dealt with? Hardly.
The fact that the denizens of Yitzhar are even voting on the 'legality' of stone throwing to defend their settlements, speaks to the divide, and dangerous separation, between the different religious factions in Israel.
In fact, the reason for the army's actions have to more do with the fact that the ultra Orthodox in Yitzhar are fomenting violence by conducting repeated attacks on the Palestinians living in the area, thereby setting the stage for greater violence and escalation of existing tensions, and not with the preoccupation that the illegal settlements need to be shut down.
The Ultra Orthodox are led in the Nablus area by a rabbi called Od Yosef Chai who has openly advocated violence against any non Jew, even children if that person is perceived as being a threat, even when it is a future threat. He has advocated the killing of non Jews, and children on the same pretexts. Many of the Ultra Orthodox community in Yitzhar disregard the acts of violence against Palestinians neighbors as little more than boys being boys, but the incidents have been reported to the UN, which has documented more than 70 serious attacks in 2012 alone. The attacks furthermore, are not just against valuable property, but also against people. 50 Palestinians were reported to be injured. More than 2,500 olive trees, often the sole source of income or subsistence for Palestinians in the West Bank, have been burned.
At issue however, is also the fact that the army has no detailed orders on how to deal with the settlers. In that sense their hands are tied. Their role then becomes that of peacekeepers, in an ironic twist. They are not even allowed to react when Ultra Orthodox attacks their own army camps or posts, like the one that resulted in the six injured army personnel earlier this month. In fact ultra Orthodox Jews have attacked army posts before.
The army also has no orders when it comes to the settler's actions against the Palestinians. The Isreali Human Rights groups B'Tselem has documented attacks from settlers against vital Palestinians property where the army just stood by.
As much as the problem of the Ultra Orthodoxy in Israel is growing and needs to be addressed specifically, there is no indication that the government is interested in truly cracking down. The fact that the army has seized an illegal settlement seems to have come more as a reaction to an isolated incident against some of their own, then as a logical response to increasing violence perpetrated by Israelis.
Now, however, the violence has caused members of the Knesset to call for direct and specific orders to deal with the settlers' violent acts. Labour representative Omer Bar-Lev even went so far as to advocate for the evacuation of Yitzhar to avoid an escalation of violence by the illegal settlers.
As long as the lines are drawn, and become clearer, there is a small possibility that the cabinet will deal with the problem. But one needs to remember who is the ruling party, and where the majority of Israelis' sympathies lie. There is still, after decades of occupation the sense that Israelis live in a defensive position, even when their actions are clearly offensive.
In fact, the general belief is that after a minor punitive action to allay concerns on the illegal settlers is meted, they will be allowed not only to return to their homes, but to carry on as they did before. And that is because the right wing party still rules the country and decides over and above whatever objections or voices are raised against the violence, and for the respect of human rights.
Even Tzipi Livni, decrying the attacks in 2011, raised the specter of civil war if the government did not properly address the violence in Yitzhar. The settlers in Nablus, in fact, carry on in a militia like fashion, non recognizing the central Israeli authorities, and using propaganda that often reads 'revenge' in signs and walls in the area. Their excusal of violence and the illegal taking of land tries to find justification in unrelated or even historical precedents that have no bearing on the present situation in Nablus. And that is why their disconnect is becoming deeper.
But the ultra orthodox are protected by their powerful lobby which holds the Israeli government in its fist and will preclude any effective action against them. In that sense, even as the ultra Orthodox are advocating violence even against their own army and the disavowment of their own government, they are the ones who effectively dictate policy in Israel.
Op-Ed
Source : The Jewish Daily/i24 news/ Onlinewsj/ Al Jazeera 4.21.14
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