Adam Horowitz has spent a lot more time in Israel than I have. He’s collecting string on a dangerous new trend in Israeli culture/politics:
Welcome to the Israeli settler movement, the 2008 model: the growing priority of settling Palestinian areas inside Israel.
This is not a totally new phenomenon, having been seen since the founding of the state in places like Nazareth Illit, but
these two important articles in Ha’aretz
and the Middle
East Report outline the recent efforts to “judaize” the Palestinian centers
of the ancient cities of Jaffa and Akko.
A similar trend has been seen throughout the Galilee, Negev, the Triangle and
any other Palestinian and Arab parts of the country.
A choice quote is from Rabbi Eliyahu Mali, who has
set up a yeshiva in the middle of the Ajami neighborhood of Jaffa:
“Our conclusion [in 2005]…was for us to move
from Beit El [settlement in the West Bank] to metropolitan Tel Aviv [that means Jaffa] along with additional families and start
to take action. We talked to friends and the idea struck a chord in many
families. We explained to them that we had carried out a great project in the
settlements for the past 30 years, but that now the struggle needs to be moved
to a different place.”
Meanwhile, Rabbi Mali’s brother is carrying out a similar plan in
the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan in East Jerusalem–what a family. In Jaffa,
the development of the yeshiva is happening as hundreds of Palestinian
residents of Ajami are being forced out of their homes to clear the way for
“development.” As Peter Lagerquist points out in his MERIP article “In Jaffa,
development is code for developing Arabs off their land and out of their
homes.”
The results of this activity were seen in October, in the five days of riots that shook Akko, a town held up as the model of coexistence. As in Jaffa, settlers relocated in the heart of Akko–this time from Gaza. “Coexistence is
a slogan. Ultimately, Akko is a town like Raanana, Kfar Saba or and must safeguard
its Jewish identity,” Rabbi Yosef Stern, the director the “Spirit of the North” yeshiva in
Akko, explained to the settler news service Arutz Sheva. “I think everyone would agree that Akko is the capital city
of Galilee,, of
thousands of years of Jewish history. We are here to preserve that Jewish
identity and to reinforce that spirit, to stand for our nation’s honor.”
Lagerquist also quotes Akko resident Taysir Khatib as saying Palestinians in Akko are “reliving the nakba every day.”
This activity is not strictly a settler initiative; it has been actively promoted by the Israeli government
and Zionist institutions. Nazareth-based journalist Jonathan Cook points out
that Ariel Sharon’s government approved 14 settlements in the Negev and Galilee
(both primarily Palestinian areas inside Israel) in 2003. These settlements
were to be funded by the World Zionist Organization, marking the first time “the
body has worked on settlements within Israel rather than in the occupied
territories.” This policy has received a full endorsement from the
Bush Administration, which actually treats the plan as part of the peace process, with Bush describing it as an alternative to West Bank settlement.
green line”? For Palestinian citizens of the state of Israel? What does it mean for the
two-state solution when Jaffa and Akko start
looking like Hebron? And–perhaps most importantly–why do the U.S. advocates
for the two-state solution refuse to talk about this?
