Jewish Settlers Plant Trees--and Dig In Heels

The school principal stared at the loaded Uzi machine pistol on the floor a few feet away, briefly pondered the dramatic political changes unfolding around him, then began to speak.

“The people of Israel have always had to distinguish between things that will pass and things that are permanent,” he said. “This is one of those things that will pass.”

Rabbi Moshe Bleicher, who heads a religious school in the tiny Jewish enclave of this ancient city, is philosophical about the Israeli government’s decision to make peace with the Palestine Liberation Organization on terms that will likely give the Palestinians land he is convinced belongs to Israel.

It won’t last, he insisted. In the meantime, he, his school and his people will stay put.

“That’s what I believe; that’s the message I have for my students,” he said. “The land of Israel is not for sale.”

Of all those affected by the peace agreement signed Monday in Washington, few stand to lose more than the estimated 120,000 Jews who began new lives by resettling on land won by Israel during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.

For if the accord goes according to plan, the Israeli army that has protected the settlers will pull back and then Palestinians will take over administrative control of the region. The Palestinians may one day may rule it as an independent state.

Israel has insisted that these communities will remain under its control, but with Palestinians deeply divided among themselves about whether to accept peace, the chain of 140 settlements suddenly looks like an uncertain archipelago.

Nowhere does this uncertainty appear greater than in Hebron.

Surrounded by Palestinian neighborhoods, Bleicher’s school and the settlement lead a kind of Fort Apache life. They feel unsafe on the streets without weapons, even with the Israeli army only a few hundred yards away, and they caution visitors to accept their armed escorts.

That conditions could deteriorate further is something Bleicher accepts as a simple fact of life.

“They murdered us when we didn’t have weapons,” he said, referring to a 1929 Palestinian massacre of Jews in Hebron. “I’m just happy that today we can protect ourselves with guns.”

With his school only yards away from the Cave of Machpelah, where Abraham, ancestor of the Jews, is said to be buried along with his wife, Sarah, and sons Isaac and Ishmael, the settlers are convinced that history is on their side.

Indeed, Jews argue that Abraham’s purchase of the land is even described in the Book of Genesis.

While few of the Jewish settlements are located directly inside Palestinian towns, concerns are especially worrisome for those due to inherent the settlements in the next generation.

“We’re afraid about the future because we don’t know where it’s going,” said 17-year-old Hagai Strasbourg, who attends a high school at the Kiryat Arba Jewish settlement, about one mile east of central Hebron.

“Everyone hopes there will be peace, but there’s a fear that we won’t be able to make it work with Hamas,” he said, referring to the hard-line Islamic Resistance Movement that is opposed to the agreement and launched attacks Sunday that claimed four Israeli lives.

Strasbourg and several other youths had gathered in one of the many cargo containers that serve as makeshift classrooms to discuss the impact of Monday’s signing on their lives.

“They’ll remember this as their independence day,” said one of the others. “It’s very worrisome.”

But here too, there was unanimity among students and teachers: No matter what happens, they have no intention of giving up their land.

As the youths emerged into the bright September sun, they watched a group of classmates working under the supervision of the school principal.

They were planting olive, fig and pear trees along a freshly prepared strip of earth.

“You see what we’re doing here on this day?” shouted the principal, Avinoam Horowitz. “We’re preparing for the future.”