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The colony of Eli, at the highest point of Binyamin, the central area of the West Bank, is clearly inside the borders of the area that, according to the UN deliberation, should belong to a future Palestinian state. The residential complex, consisting of large and refined houses, always painted beige, in clean and wooded streets, is among the best maintained settlements.
Mikhail Frunze/Opera Mundi
Settlement of Eli reminds comfortable condos that often surround the big cities of the world
Its prestige is linked to religious and political reasons. It is a few miles from Shiloh, cited by the Bible as the capital of the Jews in the time of the judges, after the escape from Egypt and the creation of the twelve tribes led by their magistrates. It is also almost next door to Ariel, the model city built in the occupied territories, with modern facilities and a major university.
Its most memorable inhabitant is an Argentine Jew named Dani Dayan, who was President of the Council of Judea and Samaria for 6 years (2007-2013). Judea and Samaria are the names used in Israel to officially entitle the mountain range on the west bank of the Jordan River. These mountains were home to the patriarchs, and it is also where Abraham the promised land, as he announced to his descendants.
“We are the new vanguard of Zionism,” says Dayan. “We have the historic mission of regaining the land from which we were expelled two thousand years ago. We are not invaders, as the Arab narrative insists, but we came back. This region is of strategic importance for the defense and development of Israel.”
Entrepreneur of computer science, the leader of the settlers sold his company to fully devote himself to the cause which he postulates. While respecting the traditions, he is not religious. He is proud of the telegram he received from Menachem Begin when he completed his bar mitzvah. He declares himself an admirer of Jabotinsky, the ideologist of the Zionist right, but confesses his growing affection for Ben-Gurion, the leader of the independence movement.
Mikhail Frunze/Opera Mundi
Palestinians living in the region are hired to work in the settlements and use different transportion
Dayan tries hard to attract investment and modernize the region. Binyamin is the most developed of the five areas that make up the jurisdiction of the board which he presided. It consists of 54 medium and high luxury communities, guarded day and night by army soldiers or private security guards trained by the military. They are protected by a system of fences and walls that keep the Palestinian villages separated, while well-paved roads connect them to each other.
Sometimes you can see cars and buses with Palestinian license plates passing through these roads after crossing military control points. The restrictions are greater when the tension rises between settlers and the population of the villages. The public transport services, however, are separated, although there is no written rule about it. Israeli buses serve only the settlers. Palestinians hired for various jobs are transported by different vehicles, most often provided by the employers or intermediaries.
Many residents work in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv. The current colonies are distinct from kibbutzim with their communal model and their production structure. They look more like the comfortable condos that often surround the world’s big cities. But there are private ventures that are being deployed.
Mikhail Frunze/Opera Mundi
Danny Dayan, president of the Council of Judea and Samaria for 6 years: “we are the new vanguard of Zionism”
One of them, in Binyamin, is the Psagot winery, named after the community in which it is installed. Its owner, Yaacov Berg, sells 200,000 bottles of white and red wine per year, exporting 60% of his production. The bottles are labeled “product of Israel”. If the label identified its bottles as products of the colonies in the West Bank, they would run the risk of being boycotted by some countries.
Expansion
The international community, after all, considers that this whole area was illegally occupied in the 1967 war. UN resolution 242 requires Israel to withdraw behind the Green Line, established in the 1949 armistice. But since the conquest of these territories, no matter if under the administration of the Labour Party or the conservatives, the Zionist policy has been focused on expanding the colonization.
Currently there are 121 settlements officially recognized by the government of Israel, according to the Interior Ministry, in which 350,000 settlers live. Another 300,000 live in East Jerusalem and yet another 20,000 in the Golan Heights. In addition to Ariel, three other colonies gained, over time, recognition as cities: Modin Illit (controlled by ultra-Orthodox), Maale Adumim and Betar Illit.
Although it is difficult to calculate through the national budget all the subsidies that the government puts into the colonization, the Peace Now movement estimates that something between 540 to 600 million dollars are spent annually to maintain the settlements, including security spending.
One of the few items identified in the official documents is the money transferred to the county councils in the West Bank, which equaled 322 million dollars last year, equivalent to 8.9% of all income received by Israeli cities, even though there are only 3.8% of its citizens living in those territories. Another important figure: the investment in housing, excluding Jerusalem, represented 123.14 million dollars, equivalent to 15.36% of domestic funds in the sector.
The occupation was a good business until 1987, according to Israeli economist Shir Hever from the Alternative Information Center (AIC). The costs were low, Israel collected of all the area’s taxes, the settlements had captive market for their products and employed Palestinian labor, much cheaper, to work for their companies. In addition, they controlled the main sources of water, which represented 50% of the consumption.
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After this period, however, the accelerated establishment of new colonies began to reverse. Profits would definitely disappear after the second intifada in September 2000, when the borders were closed and Israel stopped hiring Palestinian workers while increasing military spending dramatically.
“Many Israeli companies make money with the colonization, especially those involved in safety and construction,” explains Michel Warshawski, also from AIC. “But geopolitical interests now outweigh the economic. The State finances colonization for strategic reasons, strengthening the settlers and opening good opportunities for companies benefiting from this expansion. The result for the public accounts, however, is deficient.”
The government does not deny its incentives, but claims temporary reasons. “We're still in a situation of potential conflict,” says Yigal Palmor, spokesman for the Foreign Ministry. “The settlements are important to our defense policy, as they reinforce our borders.”
While the peace does not come, the settlements encourage secular and religious Jews to perform a demographic change contrary to the kibbutz movement in the twentieth century. Statistics from the Council of Judea and Samaria reveal that only 20% of the settlers are not religious, compared to 10% of ultra-Orthodox and 70% of moderated religious.
Demography
This composition helps to increase the average fertility rate, the largest among the groups that follow by heart the teachings of the Torah. The family of Dani Dayan, for example, is composed only of him, his wife and a son. Other settlement leaders have far more numerous offspring, an important weapon to strengthen the Jewish presence in the West Bank.
Mikhail Frunze/Opera Mundi
Rafael Kaufmann lives in the north colony of Tzufim. Born in Uruguay 41 years ago, he has lived in the settlement since 2004. He has six children, five boys and a girl. Religious, he walks through the mountains with his yarmulke and a 9 mm pistol in the waist, which he guarantees he’s never used.
He works as a tour guide, and helps the international dissemination of the colonist movement, giving lectures in several countries. He also raises funds for other settlers so they can start their crops and create small outposts in the region.
“Israel cannot commit the same mistake twice, the Jews will never leave the promised land again,” says Kaufmann, on top of a mountain overlooking the Jordan River. “God gave us this land, we will fight tooth and nail for it, as mandated by the commandments.”
Many people think like him, and several even more intensively so. To the south is the city of Hebron, the largest of the West Bank. It is divided into two sections, one under the control of the Palestinian Authority and the other controlled by the Israeli government. There are approximately 250,000 inhabitants of Arab origin living in 80% of the urban perimeter and 750 Jews in the remaining 20%.
The main commercial artery of the city, Shuhada Street, which crosses the old center, resembles a ghost town. Shops are closed and residences abandoned. After the 2000 Palestinian uprising, the Israeli army sealed off the area, on the pretext of safeguarding five Jewish settlements. Several military checkpoints control the entry and exit of passersby. No Palestinian is allowed to drive cars or motorcycles in the isolation zone. Only the Jewish settlers can do that.
One of these colonies, situated at the top of a hill that begins at the blocked street, is the Tel Rumeida. It has around 150 residents, protected by the military, who live, study and pray there. Many work out, moving under permanent custody. Several Zionist groups help raise funds to support the community.
Mikhail Frunze/Opera Mundi
About 150 Jews live in the colony of Tel Rumeida in Hebron, protected 24 hours by military
One of these organizations is Jabad Lubavitch, a religious entity that has branches in several countries. David Halon, an American from New York, went to Hebron as part of the effort to encourage Bible studies among the settlement’s soldiers and civilians. He is proud of what he does. “We are an example to the Jews of the world,” he says. “Here we are 500 against 250,000 Arabs. We resist without fear, alongside our military.”
He looks at the Palestinian neighbors in sight, a few yards away, but separated by a fence. “The Torah says that the Jews should have the command,” he says. “We are the chosen people and we won, in the war, by the will of God, the right to be here. They can stay, provided they are obedient to the divine commands.”
Translation: Kelly Cristina Spinelli