Updates (from the West Bank!)

Before my trip, I read a book about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but this brief introduction was inadequate preparation for what I have since discovered: the subject literally consumes day to day life in Israel. Israel's unique political situation has been evident from the moment I stepped off the plane. Articles about the many-faceted political situation comprise almost all of Ha'aretz, the daily newspaper. One cannot explore any tourist site, or ride any bus, without coming across the IDF carrying huge guns. My Israeli roommate, and many others, are very eager to talk about the conflict.

In an effort to learn more, I attended two events put on by the Jerusalem branch of JStreet, an American lobbying group dedicated to the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The first event took place on Wednesday evening in the apartment of the JStreet organizers. It was called Lochmim L'Shalom, "Combatants for Peace," and featured a panel consisting of one IDF veteran and one former Palestinian soldier. Both have laid down arms and are committed to a bi-national, grassroots peace movement. Both of their stories highlighted the political rhetoric which (on both sides) had convinced their younger selves that all Arabs or all Jews were the enemy. Perhaps the most interesting point in the discussion was a series of questions that came from the audience. A family of Jews from New York, who were clearly extremely pro-Israel, attacked both panelists for believing that it was immoral for Jewish soldiers to serve in West Bank and Gaza (civil disobedience).

On Friday, JStreet sponsored an organized tour of Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Settlements--Jewish neighborhoods over the Green Line (the 1949 armistice line)--remain one of the biggest barriers to peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Crossing into and out of the West Bank, we were stopped at the security checkpoint (pictured below) by IDF soldiers, who asked us if we were all Jewish (answer: yes). Virtually all infrastructure in the West Bank (including the roads) are inaccessible to Palestinians, and we saw plenty of Palestinian villages that had been "cut off" from the neighboring city of Bethlehem... these Palestinians need special permits to cross the check point tunnel which goes under the Israel highway.



We were taken to the Jewish neighborhood of Gush Etzion, near Bethlehem. Because Gush Etzion existed before 1949, it is considered by most to be part of the "consensus." In other words, when the line finally is drawn between Israel and Palestine, it is assumed that Gush Etzion will become part of Israel. The settlers of Gush Etzion described there lives as very normal. They have not experienced serious violence in the past several decades, and the settlers coexist with neighboring Palestinians, even shopping at the same supermarkets. Their pro-settlement perspective was expected, but the day wasn't over yet.

After Gush Etzion, we were taken on a bus tour guided by a representative from Peace Now--another peace organization. The tour guide was in charge of the Peace Now Settlement Watch program. She explained that Israel never officially annexed the area of the West Bank because granting Israeli citizenship to the Palestinians in the West Bank would compromise the Jewish majority of Israel's demographics. As such, settlements were allowed to exist in which Jews could hold full Israeli citizenship. The presence of Israeli settlements in the future State of Palestine is the cause of a lot of tension between Israelis and Palestinians. Pictured below are three neighborhoods--the village in the valley (closest to us) is Palestinian, the hilltop is a Jewish settlement, and the town in the distance is behind the Green Line and is part of Israel. Notice that the famous separation barrier between Israel and the West Bank is not in this picture--it does not coincide with the Green Line.



Though in the past Israel has evacuated some settlements and relocated the Jewish residents into Israel proper, most pre-1949 settlements were allowed to remain in existence. Israeli law states that these settlements are NOT allowed to expand, and that no new settlements can be erected. This policy has been loosely enforced, or even not enforced at all. According to our guide, ninety-six illegal settlement outposts have formed in the past two decades. One is pictured below.



I am still trying to wrap my head around all the politics, but the tour was definitely an interesting introduction to the complex issue of settlements. JStreet will continue to provide similar programming throughout the semester, and I will continue to blog about it.

This last picture is completely unrelated to this post. While looking at the settlements pictured above, we noticed a Palestinian goat herder passing through the valley below. This shot was taken somewhere between Hebron and Bethlehem, in other words, the exact locations that the biblical patriarchs were said to have taken their flocks.