A New Home Found at the Expense of Others?

So the Zeff family is “home at last.” They have escaped from Westwood, the “secular rat race of L.A.” and the United States and found a “haven” in the West Bank complete with a five-bedroom apartment, a splash pool, Little Tikes toys, armed sentries, a gaily painted bomb shelter and a barbed wire fence.

In order to justify their claims to the land, the Zeffs ignore the Palestinians who have lived on the land for centuries, have ancient claims predating Hebrew claims, were born in the land and some even have documents of land ownership which the Israelis disregard.

Zeff is even critical of other Israelis who desire peace, who have a “naive, secular Israeli view of life,” and do not believe that “this land belongs to us by divine right.”

For some who have made aliya, dreams turn into nightmares as they learn that some claims are merely propaganda. Some have learned that the sales pitch “a land without people for a people without land” was a deceptive illusion. The land was occupied by people who continue to suffer, struggle and fight for their homeland.

As the article states: “West Bank residents such as the Zeffs are seen by most of the world as settlers in occupied territory.” This is illegal under international law even though the Zeffs and others ignore the laws and show contempt for world opinion.

FLORENCE RICHARDS

Whittier