Why did the orange campaigners fail in their struggle to stop the disengagement plan? And how did the pullout mold the image of the State of Israel?
“Just as this is a big victory for the Israeli state, so too is this a defeat of the same proportions for the settlers. It was a small group struggling for hegemony in Israeli society,” Dr. Daniel Maman, a senior lecturer in behavioral science at Ben Gurion University, says.
“It wasn’t just 7,000 people who fought for their homes. They were fighting for a dream. Israeli consciousness has changed over a long period of time and today. This struggle is more about the future than the present. From now on, it seems possible to give land and take apart settlements. From now on, it will be much harder to say that one can’t clear settlements. Since the 1980s, the settlers are the ones who controlled priorities in Israeli society, and now new a discussion is forming.
"The 'orange guys' took a major hit, or as they put it, they could not ‘settle the hearts.’ They did not manage to forge significant alliances with other groups. From the start, it was their struggle alone. We didn’t see other social groups joining them to oppose the disengagement - such as people from development towns, Likud supporters, mayors, and others.”
'Settlers speak a foreign language'
Why did the settlers fail to make such alliances?
“Groups within Israeli society came to the conclusion that Gaza really is a bone stuck in the throat,” Maman says. “The settlers are seen as a marginal minority, a messianic, daydreaming group, which does not have support. There is a consensus among Israeli groups over Gaza. The Gaza settlers are seen as a group which, despite having a few secular members and those seeking a better quality of life, is predominantly made up of a very specific stream which speaks a foreign language for most Israeli people. That language is messianic.”
Another reason for the failure of anti-disengagement activists is, according to Maman, the neo-liberal, privatized policies that have ruled here since 1985, which have left the country weaker from a sociological point of view.
The disengagement did however prove that the State of Israel is still in possession of enforcement and execution of orders, a field in which Israel surpasses all other advanced democracies in the world.
Though there is widespread identification and sensitivity to the pain felt by evacuated settlers, says Dr. Maman, this did not translate into political support for them.