Correspondent speaks on Israeli settlements

By Michele Alperin
Dec. 7, 2007

Akiva Eldar, senior military correspondent for the Haaretz newspaper, recently gave a lecture on Nov. 8 at Princeton University entitled The Jewish Settlements and the Prospects for Israeli-Palestinian Political Settlement

The lecture focused on how settlements have affected Israel's existential identity and impacted on its democratic values.

Eldar claims resources are not distributed equally with Palestinians not getting to vote on this process. Expanding on this, he said there are injustices in the distribution of land and water in the territories.

Getting more specific, he said the separation wall, at 790 kilometers, is twice the length of the 350-kilometer Green Line, including as many settlement enclaves as possible. Also, of the 500 roadblocks and checkpoints in the territories, he said more serve to protect these settlements than Israel proper.

The settlements, he said, have been costly both in terms of the lives of Israeli soldiers who must defend them, and in raw dollars. The money spent between 1987 and 2005 to secure these occupied territories totaled over $6.5 billion. Beyond this, said Eldar, Israelis are being taxed to support cheap mortgages and tax exemptions for the settlers and to maintain small class sizes for their children.

The 1993 Oslo Accord, said Eldar, was based on the premise that Israel was leaving these territories.

"Instead, we went in. We built at least 104 more settlements with 170,000 more people," he said.

Eldar also noted that the settlements have failed in their primary aim of creating a substantial Jewish presence. Only 4.5 percent of the entire Jewish population of Israel lives in these territories, he said, with only 1.25 percent of this living east of the separation wall.

And now the settlements, in particular the large settlement blocks, are a big challenge in the peace process, he maintained, being a point of friction between Israel and the international community.

Having made his case against these settlements, Eldar then asked, "Is it still possible to correct this mistake and save the Zionist dream?"

He remained mildly hopeful, emphasizing that many divisive issues have been essentially put to rest by both sides by agreements during past conferences. But other issues, including determining borders and the equitable distribution of this disputed land, remain outstanding, he maintained.

Looking at the issue of borders, he said both sides acknowledge that with an agreement: the Israeli occupation would end; the West Bank's main population areas would be contiguous, with meaningful linkages between the West Bank and Gaza; Israel would have secure borders that would reflect the realities of major Israeli population centers; and changes to the armistice lines of 1949 would be mutually agreed upon in the form of a swap.

Also within these borders, Eldar said, is the issue of the symmetry and equality of such a future land distribution and exchange. For example, he said, the largest settlement blocks, Maaleh Adumim and Gush Etzion, comprise about two percent of these territories. Israel would need to give the Palestinians an equal percentage of land in exchange for this.

Going beyond border and land disputes though, he said most seem to agree that the Palestinian refugees will eventually be resettled in Palestine rather than Israel. But, said Eldar, what is really necessary is for both parties to have a mutual respect for each other's rights.

Exploring this, Eldar suggested a scheme such as: Israel would recognize the Palestinians' right to return with the Palestinians giving up this right as a practical reality; and Palestinians would recognize Israel's attachment to the holy sites of Jerusalem with Israel, in turn, not exercising its power over Jerusalem as a practical political reality. Beyond this, he suggested, each side would have sovereignty over their own neighborhoods and control of their own holy sites.

But the present political realities continue to be problematic to any future solutions, Eldar said.

"It is criminal and stupid to let Hamas or rejectionist settlers have a veto over the process," said Eldar. "As long as the Palestinians and Israelis are committed - the Palestinians to stop violence and the Israelis to contain settlements and remove outposts - the process will go on. We must fight terrorism as if there is no peace process and pursue the peace process as if there is no terrorism."

And the situation in the Middle East, as always, remains tenuous, he said.

"The name of the game is not peace between Israel and the Palestinians - what Bush eventually understood when he talked about a third world war - it's about who controls the Middle East," said Eldar.