FEATURED JOBS
Here we go again. The State of Israel’s Supreme Court ruled this week that the largest illegal West Bank Jewish outpost must be disbanded. The government even admitted that Migron, which has 50 families, was built with state funds on Palestinian-owned lands. That same government has in the past agreed to evacuate the outpost (and some 101 others declared illegal) but not followed through. The court ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed by Peace Now, a leading anti-settlement group.
(For more, read: http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?ID=232107&R=R1).
In this case, illegal settlements are ones that then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (a political architect of settlement acceleration from the late 1970s) declared were not begun with state approval after March 2001.
Migron’s residents have in the past consented to relocate to undeveloped land within the nearby settlement of Adam. Yet, in a pathetically sad replay of the Sharon-led August 2005 evacuation of about 9,000 Jews from the Gaza Strip, that promised housing has yet to be built.
Still, that these settlers – and more importantly their politically influential settlers’ council—have agreed to relocate without a fight speaks highly of them. Clearly they are more interested in generally living on land sacred to Jewish history than in a specific house. This avoids creating the national trauma we saw with the Gaza withdrawal).
Mind you, the state has until March 2012 to act – which means a lot can (and will) happen between now and then. The court really should have pushed action up many months, thereby forcing the speedy construction of new homes for Migron’s residents.
Still, this shows that a future consolidation of settlements, which would be integral to a possible settlement with the Palestinian Authority, might be possible. Whether that policy could be carried out on a large scale—it would require the relocation of more than 100,000 settlers—remains a very open question.
Yet, if it cannot be done now, trying later is inconceivable. By acting quickly and successfully, the Israeli government could gain points with its electorate’s most ideological extremes, as represented by the supporters of both Peace Now and the settlers. That would be a matter of pride to American Jews – increasing numbers of whom studies show are alienated from the State of Israel and its policies.
No issue further splits Israelis at home and its supporters abroad than Jewish settlement in the biblical heartland. Mindful that this exercise—a court ruling, a government agreement and then little follow up—has played itself out before, one hopes this time to see a different result.
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