Give settler homes to Palestinians
Israel must not 'miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity' to help Palestinian refugees, Avraham Gal says
In one month, there will no longer be Jews left in Gaza. More and more people in Israel and around the world are coming to understand that the inevitable will in fact happen.
However, there’s no final word yet as to what happens with the property that will have to be left behind. While the decision to leave Gaza was taken unilaterally by Israel in conjunction with its strategic interests, so too should the question of property be treated.
From this point of view – despite the unrestrained terrorist attacks emanating from certain extremist groups in Gaza – the discussion over whether to destroy the property left behind the evacuated areas must be raised again.
There are a few reasons for this. First, not destroying the properties will mean saving hundreds of millions of shekels (the cost of destroying and of hauling the waste).
Second, we can imagine how badly Israel’s image will be hurt by those easily photogenic images of devastation and destruction. Third, a prosperous, inhabited civilian area creates a clear Palestinian interest in preventing tension and violence.
Just as economic distress provides fertile ground for desperate terrorist activities, so does welfare and contentment provide its antidote. These dynamics, and economic interests, if we are smart enough to create and develop them, have proven themselves time and again to be abundant sources of stabilizing powers. These are all clearly Israeli interests.
Housing crisis
And then there are the Palestinian interests – some of them in opposition to the above. For example, they claim that solving a housing crisis for the most crowded population area in the world requires saturated, crowded buildings, and so they prefer the area of single family homes to be razed.
This is a weak, unconvincing argument, as those same areas left behind can also accommodate skyscrapers and many other homes without destroying what exists.
Even in poverty-stricken Gaza, there is no dearth of luxurious single family homes. In any case there will be those who will build their new homes in the flattened area to the same level of luxury and wealth.
It’s safe to assume that more than Israel is guided by a rational specification of strategic interests she is guided by a desire to protect the feelings of her citizens. In other words: the expected attempts of Palestinians to throw gloating victory parties as they overrun the properties, possibly even plundering them and thereby adding the element of humiliation to Israel’s perception of the withdrawal.
It isn’t hard to imagine the effects the difficult images of a Palestinian victory as they capture abandoned Israeli homes will have. Yet despite this, if we add to the balance the opposing interests, including the emotional effects, the scales will still tip in favor of the practical approach.
And we must remember: Adopting the rational approach and practical considerations has been one of the greatest advantages for Jewish survival in our land from the very beginning of the Zionist enterprise; concomitant with the greatest disadvantage of the Palestinian adoption of the emotional approach, leading them to destruction and failure.
A opportunity to miss an opportunity
In fact, the government has changed its mind several times on this issue. Sharon’s original disengagement plan spoke of “Israel’s desire to leave immovable properties and objects intact, as long as an international body is found to assume responsibility for them”.
Later on, in June 2004, the government decided to destroy the existing buildings and infrastructure of the evacuated settlements. And then later on once again, it voted in favor of leaving them in place. Recently the tide is turning again to destroying them. This vacillation speaks for itself.
The truth is that the greatest gain to be had from the disengagement has already been missed – that is, turning the abandoned settlements in to an all-encompassing long term solution to Palestinian refugee problem. Unfortunately, Israel continues to turn a blind eye to this issue, as if blinded by the enormity of it. Israel refuses to deal with the issue with moral and intellectual courage.
Sticking our heads in the sand will not make the regional problem go away. Rather, it intensifies it and pushes Israel to miss opportunity after opportunity to solve it.
Even if the Palestinians decide to hold on to the refugee card, those properties do not necessarily have to go to waste. It’s enough for Israel to declare, once again unilaterally, that she sees the evacuated properties as part of the compensation package that will be offered refugees if and when the day comes when a solution will be decided upon.
Even without this declaration, the reality the future brings will force this position to be taken at the right moment and in the right circumstances.
The success of this step could be the start of a new era in Israeli-Palestinian relations. It will create a barrier of dual interests to reduce the pressures of terrorism and the sense of desperation of our neighbors. The opportunities yielded by this solution will help absorb over time some of the difficult, unavoidable psychological effects of withdrawal.
Abba Eban once said that the Palestinians never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity. Leaving the settlements intact will mean that at least Israel tries not to miss a one either.
