Israeli Settlers Rebuilding Even as Outposts Are Razed

There isn’t much to look at -- a water tower, the charcoal ghosts of old campfires, a handful of trailers clinging to the earth against hot winds. This scraped-out hilltop isn’t on the map, but it’s been under construction for months, and it’s growing daily -- new foundations, new trailers and even a new baby. They named him Amitzur, which means “my people are like a rock.”

On paper, Haroe is slated for oblivion. A U.S.-backed peace plan calls on Israel to immediately tear down all such Jewish settlement outposts erected since March 2001 in the Palestinian territories.

But a tour through miles of golden hills and olive groves reveals that the West Bank is gaining rather than losing outposts. Israel’s scattered efforts to raze renegade homesteads have only succeeded in inspiring a contrary construction spurt.

The tally stands at nine destroyed, 10 or 11 built, according to Dror Etkes, a Peace Now activist who takes almost daily settlement-counting jaunts into the West Bank.

“Construction freeze, eh?” he snorted.

To Palestinians and peace activists, the reluctant rearrangement of outposts is proof that the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon isn’t committed to the U.S.-backed “road map” to peace.

“One eye is winking to the settlers, and the other eye is winking to your government,” said Gabriel Sheffer, an analyst of the peace process at Hebrew University. “It’s hopeless. It will prevent any peace with the Palestinians or any Palestinian state.”

In June, Israeli soldiers marched forth with orders to tear down outposts. While cameras rolled, the troops grappled and tugged at settlers.

But then there’s the inevitable -- and oft-ignored -- counteraction: the move onto a new hilltop, and the defiant construction of a new storage container or antenna.

“It’s a cat-and-mouse game, and everybody knows it’s a game,” settler David Wilder of Hebron said. “We’re saying, ‘You can’t just pick us up and throw us off.’ ”

A few rabbis urge the settlers -- many of whom pack automatic weapons and pistols -- to fight back against the evacuation of what they regard as sacred soil.

Other leaders advocate passive resistance: Pick new hilltops and found fresh outposts, they advise. No state, even the Jewish state, should interfere with a divine mandate to settle the biblical lands, many reason.

Industrious settlers were already staking out a new outpost near Ramallah last week while soldiers tore down the old one a few hundred yards away. Near Hebron, a hilltop known only as No. 26 was evacuated four times in two days. Proud founders named one of the outcrops Ariel in honor of the prime minister, who has erected many a settlement in his time.

“High drama,” scoffed Michael Tarazi, a legal advisor to Palestinian authorities. “Cosmetic.”

Still, some settlers are nervous. After spending decades spurring the charge to settle the West Bank, Sharon’s loyalty now seems to be in question.

This year, under the expectant eye of a Bush administration that appears intent upon Middle East peace, Sharon warned his people to expect painful sacrifices -- namely, forcing some of the most ideologically driven settlers off land they believe is their birthright.

Settlers regard their communities as noble. Many are fed by the conviction that these old hills, spotted with biblical tombs and ruins, were given to the Jewish people by God. Compelled to stake out the earth on behalf of the Jewish people, they speak of “redeeming the land,” and point out that Jews have fought for generations to establish a homeland here.

“The Jews have come home,” settler Eve Harrow said. “And we’re not leaving.”

Then there’s the question of national security, which has driven even relatively secular Israelis like Sharon to push for more settlements. The idea is that one of the best buffers against the Arab world is a ribbon, the thicker the better, of Jewish settlements outside Israel’s border.

But land is precious to both sides. If Palestinians now living on bitterly disputed territory are ever to found a state, they’ll need land to call their own -- as much as possible, and as continuous a stretch as they can find. With every new outpost, Palestinians see another spot of decay in the disintegration of their would-be homeland. Already, more than 225,000 Jewish settlers live in the Palestinian territories.

Whether Sharon really has the desire or the political force to go through a widespread evacuation is a question of heated debate. Bullying the settlers would mean irritating his hard-core religious allies -- and unraveling decades of his life’s work.

Last week, in what is becoming a familiar reversal of tone, Sharon told the Israeli Cabinet that settlers should keep on building, but quietly, according to Israeli news reports. As Israeli radio paraphrased it, “Build, but don’t gloat.”

“It is all fraud and deceit,” opposition lawmaker Yossi Sarid said. “The prime minister is leading this deception.”

A Sharon advisor scorned the suggestion that the prime minister was treading lightly with the settlers. The peace plan doesn’t oblige Israel to take action, Raanan Gissin argued, until all Palestinian attacks end. On the contrary, he argued, Sharon was generous to send soldiers to dismantle some outposts as a good faith gesture.

“He started at the most inconvenient political time,” Gissin said. “It’s not whether it’s convenient or popular. It’s a question of whether you want to lead your people to a different destiny.”

An outpost can be a trailer, industrial park or water tower; it can be occupied or empty. Outposts are the seeds of new settlements, usually nearby satellites of a larger community.

Outposts often serve as land links between settlements, ways of slowly expanding domain. It can happen like this: Proclaiming the need for a mobile telephone antenna or a scientific research station, a man climbs a hill and pitches a tent. Then he brings a friend, and they bring their families. In time, if Israel confers legitimacy upon them, they graduate from outpost to settlement.

“The whole thing here is crazy,” said Etkes of Peace Now, an Israeli organization that has long opposed settlements. “It’s one big twisted wash of words and concepts to make sure the Palestinians will go on being occupied.”

If Israelis and Palestinians manage to keep the peace process going, getting rid of the newer outposts will be just the beginning. As talks creak forward, the so-called road map calls for the negotiation of the fate of established settlements. Sharon has said that some of the communities must be forsaken -- but he’s also pledged the continued existence of Jews in the controversial neighborhoods.

“Who knows what Sharon is thinking? Really, nobody knows,” said Sheffer, the analyst. “He determines the government’s moves, and nobody can say whether he’s serious or not.”

Under Sharon’s guidance, Israel has paid to make sure eager pioneers go forth to settle tracts of land in the name of Israel. Settlers have been entitled to tax breaks, cheaper housing and schools -- and soldiers to guard the gates. Through years of battle and truce, under all types of leadership, Israel has built on, despite protests from the international community.

At this point, says West Bank settler Yisrael Harel, Israel couldn’t clear out the settlements even if it tried.

“It’s not a matter of how good your administration is or how effective,” Harel said. “We don’t give in.”

But Palestinian legal advisor Tarazi is unconvinced. The soft handling of outposts is “very much premeditated; it’s not just laissez-faire,” he said. “It’s a documented pattern.”

As the residents of Haroe attest, the only thing that counts is holding onto the land, one way or the other. If the Jews and Arabs share an ideology, it is this: It matters little what’s on the maps or in the books; nothing is important except “facts on the ground.”

Water towers, olive groves and antennas are facts on the ground. “Road maps” and cease-fires are ephemeral.

“History moves on,” said a bespectacled 27-year-old resident of Haroe who declined to give his name. He balanced his M-16 on his knee and gazed off over the biblical hills. “We are still here, on the land of my ancestors.”