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We won't be hostages. West Bank settler (archives)
Photo: AFP
Gadi Taub

Let settlers stay there

Op-ed: settlers should be allowed to remain in West Bank, but Israel must withdraw

The working assumption of the settlers is that the settlement enterprise has the power to prevent partition. Meanwhile, supporters of partition – whether unilateral or through agreement – are mostly concerned about the issue of evacuation. However, this is a needless concern: The settlement problem can be solved, because there is no need for absolute or forced evacuation like we saw in Gaza.

 

The practical policy on this issue must be utilized in three stages. The first phase would actually follow the Gaza example: Another compensation-evacuation law. That’s the obvious. The second stage would be less obvious: We must gradually annul the laws that regularize the status of residents of the territories.

 

Political and social rights, as well as many of the commercial services in Israel, depend not on citizenship, but rather, on residency. It’s not enough to be a citizen in order to vote; one also needs to live in the country. Similarly, national insurance is not granted to those who do not reside here. Also, large corporations like the phone and hydro companies, as well as healthcare providers and banks, only provide services to residents.

 

As the settlers reside in an area that is formally not part of Israel and has the status of military occupation, a clutter of laws and orders were created to grant settlers the legal status of residents. Annulling these orders would shift responsibility for providing the services to the formal sovereign in the area, that is, the IDF.

 

Annulling these orders is not a new idea in and of itself. When the disengagement was about to be executed, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his advisors considered the possibility that settlers would resist the evacuation. In such case, some aides thought, the orders should be annulled, thereby revoking the civilian infrastructure of the settlements and forcing the settlers to return.

 

Living under Palestinian rule

However, annulling the orders as an intermediate step ahead of a withdrawal has another implication. Under such circumstances, the services need to be handed over to the army, which would temporarily provide transportation services, medical services, electricity, telecommunication services, and so on. It won’t be pleasant, but it can be fair if Israel indeed intends to withdraw from the territories, and especially if it complements the move with a third step: Granting settlers who prefer to stay in their area of residence the possibility to remain under Palestinian rule.

 

Such possibility turns the annulment of the abovementioned orders into an intermediate step between Israeli and Palestinian citizenship. This stage would give the settlers an idea about life without the convenience provided by Israeli residency. We can assume that most of them would not wish to live under such conditions, and even fewer would want to live under Palestinian rule.

 

And rightfully so. All of us are hoping that the future state of Palestine would be a liberal democracy that safeguards minority rights, yet our experience in the Middle East in general, and in Gaza in particular, shows us that we should not count on such possibility. Hence, the State should advise settlers who choose to remain in their homes not to do so, but under no circumstances should they be forced to leave.

 

What we can do then is what Israel has always done: Reserve the right to intervene in case of danger to the Jewish community in Palestine, and if necessary enter Palestinian territory in order to evacuate the Jews. We already evacuated many Jewish communities that faced danger, and we shall continue to do so.

 

The implication of these steps is that we will no longer be hostages at the hands of the settlers. They wish to stay there? Go ahead then. Yet they cannot tie all of us to the occupation forever.

 

 


פרסום ראשון: 10.31.10, 18:34
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