Settlers in the war zone

Where are the settlements located?

They’re on two pieces of land that Israel occupied after defeating its Arab neighbors in the 1967 war. The West Bank is a hilly, fertile region on the Jordan River that is rich in historical and religious sites, including Bethlehem, the traditional birthplace of Jesus. It formerly was part of Jordan. The Gaza Strip is a much smaller, arid rectangle on the Mediterranean, formerly administered by Egypt. When Israel took control of both regions in 1967, the population consisted almost entirely of Arabs who had been displaced by the creation of Israel. Israel retained control of the West Bank and Gaza, it says, to prevent Arab nations from using them as launching points for future attacks. Small groups of Israelis started settling in the West Bank and Gaza immediately after the war.

How many settlements are there?

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One hundred and forty. Or 195. Or 308. Like everything else about the settlements, their number is the subject of vehement dispute. The Israeli government says 140 settlements have been established in the two regions. The left-wing Israeli group Peace Now says the number is somewhat higher, because Israel has continued to build settlements in defiance of international agreements. Peace Now says at least 35 settlements have been built since Prime Minister Ariel Sharon took office in 2001. The government says sites spotted by Peace Now are merely expansions of preexisting settlements. The highest number, calculated by Palestinians, includes neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed in 1967 and now considers a permanent part of its nation. There are around 250,000 Jewish settlers in the occupied territories and about 3.3 million Palestinians.

Who are the settlers?

Roughly two-thirds are ardent Zionists, motivated by religious and/or nationalist convictions. Around 20,000 of these have moved to the region from America. Settlers call the West Bank by its biblical names, Judea and Samaria, and cite scriptural evidence that God granted it to the Jews. They also say that Jews have lived in this area for thousands of years, and are only returning to places from which they were expelled after the first Arab-Israeli war in 1948. They hope that settling on the land will prevent it from ever being turned over to the Arabs. While some settlers live in ramshackle trailer parks, more than half reside in just eight large settlements that resemble American suburbs, complete with shopping malls and swimming pools.

Why does Israel want settlements?

Traditionally, settlements have been considered Israel’s first line of defense against attack. This idea has fallen out of favor during the recent Palestinian uprising, or intifada; at least a quarter of recent terrorist attacks have targeted the settlers. Many military leaders say the Israeli Defense Force now spends much of its time defending the settlements, instead of Israel. Critics say the real reason for the settlements’ existence was once voiced by former defense minister Moshe Dayan, who said they were essential “not because they can ensure security better than the army, but because without them we cannot keep the army in those territories.”

Is that the only reason?

No. Many Israelis see the settlements as necessary bargaining chips in a future peace treaty. When the borders of a Palestinian state are drawn, according to this line of thinking, they will be based on “facts on the ground.” Thus, the more territory Israel occupies today, the more it will retain after an accord. Operating largely on this theory, then-agriculture minister Ariel Sharon spearheaded a move in 1977 to expand settlements deep into the occupied territories. Palestinians say the settlements were purposely placed to fracture them into separated islands of population, crisscrossed by Israeli roads and surrounded by Israeli soldiers.

Are the settlements legal?

Not in the eyes of the world. The Geneva Conventions say an “occupying power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” Three United Nations resolutions specifically condemn the settlements, and the recently ratified International Criminal Court declares them a war crime. Israel dismisses the U.N. and the I.C.C.’s condemnations as the products of pro-Palestinian factions in those bodies. The Geneva Conventions article, says Israel, pertains only to the forcible transfer of civilians. The United States has consistently opposed the settlements as an obstacle to peace, though it has not called them illegal since 1979.

Will Israel ever give them up?

Half of Israelis, polls indicate, favor dismantling all settlements if it would lead to lasting peace. But that’s a big if. Israeli hawks question whether surrendering the West Bank and Gaza will end Palestinian hostility and violence. Before 1967, they note, there were no settlements, yet Arabs still were calling for the destruction of Israel. Israel agreed to dismantle 95 percent of its settlements last year, these hawks say, only to be rewarded with a new wave of attacks and suicide bombings. Palestinians say the Israelis have failed to show good faith in negotiations over the settlements, and have encouraged them to grow while pretending to consider giving them back. Sharon says the settlements will remain as long as he is prime minister. “We do not have to pay in order not to be killed,” Sharon says. “It’s very simple.”

Does he mean it?

He may, but Sharon may not have a choice. The Bush administration and the Saudi Arabian government are pushing for an international peace conference that will exert huge pressure on Israel to relinquish the settlements. If Arab moderates succeed in convincing Palestinians to rein in suicide bombers, Sharon will find it difficult to resist that pressure. Surrendering the settlements may not guarantee peace, but maintaining them will ensure perpetual war.

The roots of Zionism

Settlers see themselves as spiritual heirs of the Zionist pioneers who first arrived in Palestine with dreams of a Jewish state in the 19th and early 20th century. Modern Zionism was founded in 1896 by Theodor Herzl, a Hungarian socialist who believed that Jews would never be free of persecution without their own homeland. Herzl briefly endorsed a proposal to create a Jewish state in Uganda, but other Zionists insisted on the biblical land of Israel. After World War I, Great Britain offered to oversee the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine, and tens of thousands of Zionists poured into the region, setting up small agricultural villages called kibbutzim. Political battles among the Jews, the Arabs, and the British frustrated the establishment of the Jewish state for many years. In the 1930s and ’40s, some radical Zionists began a terrorist campaign against British and Arab civilians to speed their cause. Following World War II, as the world acknowledged the facts of the Holocaust, the international community created the state of Israel as a haven for the Jewish people.