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Americans for Peace Now Presents
A Visitor’s Guide to The Land of the Settlers
Introduction
A Short History of Israeli Settlements in the West Bank and Gaza
Since it was founded in 1978, the Israeli Peace Now movement has worked to enhance Israel’s security through peace. Peace Now believed then, as it does today, that one of the keys to achieving peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors is exchanging most of the land that Israel captured during the 1967 Six Day War for the formal end of hostilities and security assurances. This "land for peace" formula has provided Israel with stable, defensible borders with Egypt and Jordan, and it remains the foundation for the pursuit of peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
Israel found it relatively straight forward to reach agreements with Egypt and Jordan on questions of territory. Egypt focused its demands on the return of the Sinai Peninsula (which Israel had only lightly populated with settlers) in exchange for peace, a condition that Israel was eventually willing to meet. Gaza, which had been under Egyptian control before the Six Day War, was allowed to remain in Israel’s hands. After the peace treaty with Egypt and the launch of peace talks with the Palestinians, Jordan withdrew its claims to the West Bank, which it held prior to 1967. It, too, was able to reach a territorial accommodation with Israel as part of establishing peaceful relations.
But the situation with the Palestinians in the West Bank and, until recently, Gaza is more complicated. In the wake of the Six Day War, Israel wanted to retain its hold on the Palestinian territories for a variety of reasons. First, having fought three major land wars in its brief existence, Israel saw the acquisition of the West Bank and Gaza as providing much needed buffer zones to protect Israeli cities from menacing Arab armies, particularly in the narrow middle section of the country. Second, the West Bank cities that were captured during the Six Day War held tremendous historic and religious significance for the Jewish people. A religious Zionist movement developed that interpreted Israel’s lightning military victories in 1967 as a sign that bringing Jewish communities to these captured territories was a way of fulfilling a major obligation of the Jewish faith that would, in turn, hasten the coming of the Messiah
In addition to establishing a permanent military presence in the West Bank and Gaza, Israel decided to strengthen its hold on these occupied territories by building a series of civilian communities (i.e., settlements) there. The settlements were often positioned strategically among major Palestinian population centers in order to break up Palestinian territorial contiguity, provide ways of exerting control over Palestinian towns and cities, and diminish the chances of the Palestinians establishing a viable state for themselves.
Besides the settlements, Israel has also built an extensive series of "bypass roads,’ which allow Israeli settlers to travel from their homes in the territories to Israel proper without encountering Palestinians, as well as industrial parks and other facilities that cater exclusively to the needs of the settlers. Through such methods, Israeli settlements have become intertwined with Palestinian cities and towns, often creating friction and conflict, and making it increasingly difficult to separate the two populations from each other.
Under international law, occupying countries are not allowed to move their populations into the territories that they capture during wars. Therefore, most of the international community sees all of Israel’s settlements activity as illegal.
But under Israeli law, a process was set up for Israelis to submit plans for establishing settlements and to obtain permission to construct new communities. In this way, 145 settlements were constructed in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip "legally" under Israeli law.
However, Israel came under pressure from the United States and the international community to halt its settlement expansion, forcing Israel to pledge that it would not build new ones. But the settlers and the Israeli government have found a way around that pledge
—using a system of "winks and nods" to build over 100 settlement "outposts" in the territories, small communities that are essentially settlements, but lack prior approval from the government, even though the government often provides financial, logistical, and security support for the construction of these sites. The vast majority of the settlements and outposts were built in the West Bank; just 21 were built in the Gaza Strip. About 245,000 settlers now live in territories.None of this happened by accident. The Israeli government offered (and still provides) huge financial incentives
—like tax breaks and mortgage assistance—to Israelis willing to move to the settlements, which has helped bolster the Israeli population in the territories far beyond the number of settlers who moved there for ideological, religious, or security reasons. In fact, the majority of settlers today live in the territories because of quality of life issues, not some higher motivation.Disengagement
In 2004, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
—who had helped as much as anyone to expand settlements in the occupied territories during most of his political career—made a tactical decision to unilaterally remove Israeli settlers and soldiers from Gaza and the northern West Bank. Coming after over three years of the second Intifada, a period of terrorism and bloodshed that took a tremendous toll on Israel, Sharon was feeling pressure to take steps to change the situation from internal and international players (such as prominent Israelis who started to voice their opposition to performing military duty in the occupied territories and plans like the Geneva Initiative that offered a diplomatic way out of Intifada through significant territorial concessions).He also began to recognize that while holding on to territory offers some benefits to Israel, the land comes with a tremendous cost: namely 3.5 million Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza for whom Israel is responsible. Combined with the Arab citizens of Israel and a high population growth rate, Arabs will soon outnumber Israeli Jews in the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. Unless Israel finds a way to end its occupation, this demographic trend will destroy Israel’s future as a Jewish democratic state, the entire point of Zionism.
Further. Israeli military leaders started to realize that the strategic value of holding on to the territories was decreasing. Israel’s treaty with Jordan and America’s invasion of Iraq eliminated any threat of a land invasion from the east for the foreseeable future. The biggest military threats facing Israel today are rocket attacks, Iranian weapons of mass destruction, and terrorism, none of which can necessarily be countered by Israeli buffer zones in the West Bank or Gaza.
(Before Sharon awoke to some of the problems of the settlements, many other Israelis saw that they were costing the country a lot of money that could have been spent in other communities or for other services inside its borders
—over $400 million is wasted annually on civilian expenditures alone that would not otherwise be spent if the settlers lived in Israel proper. Israel spends millions more to protect the settlements with its military, an obligation that extends its line of defense in the West Bank to ten times the length of what it was prior to the Six Day War, when Israel and the West Bank were divided by what is known as the "Green Line." Israel has spent over $10 billion occupying the West Bank and Gaza, and billions more to evacuate settlements from the same locations. Further, the day-to-day routine of maintaining the occupation is taking a big mental and moral toll on the soldiers who are asked to implement it.)As a result of his personal deliberations, Sharon proposed that Israel would disengage from Gaza and part of the West Bank, while strengthening Israel’s hold on the parts of the West Bank where it remained through more settlement activity and the completion of a security barrier being built mostly on the Palestinian side of the Green Line.
His proposal caused a huge uproar in Israeli society. Right-wing supporters of the settlements movement saw disengagement as a personal betrayal by someone who they had come to see as the greatest champion of their cause. Right-wing rabbis and other ideological reactionaries proclaimed that Jews were forbidden to give back even one inch of land to the Palestinians, that the withdrawal was a reward to terror, that Jews do not "expel" Jews, and that a civil war would break out. The settlement movement went into overdrive with a well financed public relations campaign aimed at building empathy for the settlers and threatening violence and disobedience against mainstream Israeli society, whose institutions had democratically approved Sharon’s plan. Roadblocks on Israeli highways, vandalism, and protest marches
—all under the signature "orange" banners of the anti-disengagement campaign—filled television screens in Israel and around the world in the months before the pullout got underway.
In the end, while there were loud protests, some acts of violence, and two lethal acts of Jewish terrorism carried out against Palestinians and Arab citizens of Israel, the worst of the dire predictions failed to come true. In fact, the settlements in Gaza were removed in about a week, and the four settlements in the northern West Bank also were evacuated quickly. The plan remained popular with a majority of Israelis, most of whom would welcome additional settlement evacuations from the West Bank.
Many issues remain to be resolved regarding disengagement, as of this writing. Israel and the Palestinians have not reached agreement on how to treat border crossings between Gaza, Israel, and Egypt. The question of how to build a seaport and an airport in Gaza has yet to be answered, as has the question of how to provide a safe passage route between Gaza and the West Bank. Further, Palestinian President Mabmoud Abbas, while credited with genuinely opposing the Intifada and violence, has yet to demonstrate that he has the security resources, and the willingness to use them against terrorists, to exert his control over the areas that Israel has left.
Meanwhile, construction of the security barrier in the West Bank continues, as does the expansion of settlements in there.
The Land of the Settlers
After more than two years of research and filming, an Israeli television station aired veteran Israeli television news anchor Chaim Yavin’s powerful five-part documentary series, The Land of the Settlers in Spring 2005. His program caused a huge sensation in Israel and abroad, not only because of the powerful footage and interviews that he recorded for the series, but also because of who he is.
For the last 40 years, Chaim Yavin has enjoyed a distinguished career in broadcast news covering a wide range of topics, including Israeli society and politics, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the peace process. He helped found Israel’s Channel One in the late 1960s, and he became the first anchorman of "Mabat," the evening news program on that station, a position that he has held for most of the last 30 years. In addition, he has served as an overseas correspondent in the U.S. and Europe, and as editor-in-chief, news bureau head, and director-general of Israel TV. He received the Israel Prize in 1997. Not surprisingly, Mr. Yavin has become an Israeli cultural icon, sometimes referred to as "Israel’s Mr. Television." Besides his news broadcasting experience, he has directed approximately 80 documentaries to date, including films on American Jewry, Soviet Jewry, the Oslo peace process, Jerusalem, Gaza, the Jordan Valley, Ramallah, and Gush Katif.
In short, Yavin had a long-established reputation as an objective observer and reporter of the news, not as someone who was an advocate on issues one way or the other. So when he raised serious questions about settlements in his new documentary, people noticed. Through the lens of his camera and his sharp interview questions, Yavin caused Israelis, who typically pay little attention to what takes place in the occupied territories, to see what is happening with their own eyes and consider the consequences for their nation.
Here’s what some of the leading Israeli newspapers had to say about his series:
Raanan Shaked Yedioth Ahronoth, wrote, "The bream breath becomes short, the heart is choked with anger. This is the only human response to The Land of the Settlers. No. there is actually another reasonable reaction: After watching The Land of the Settlers, every caring Israeli, every humane Israeli, should get up next Saturday, go to the settlement nearest to his place of residence, and drag its inhabitants, kicking and screaming, across the road to the side of sanity. This is what comes out of The Land of the Settlers, the personal territories journal of Chairn Yavin, who reaches an impressive professional peak here as a documentary journalist. Although it may not be new on an informative level, The Land of the Settlers will astound you, mainly by placing on the screen, over the course of many hours, the hard core of the shameful insanity of the settlers in the territories, along with the tacit approval of the Israeli governments, along with the helplessness of the army...’
Assaf Schneider of Ma’ariv said, "As a journalistic television product, what can one say about Yavin’s personal journey between roadblocks, in front of the soldiers who are hardhearted because those are the orders, next to the chilling Daniela Weiss and in the living room of the denizens of the settlement outposts, who are so friendly (until reminded that there are even fairly close to us, such beings called ‘Palestinians.’)? The documentation with the small Sony camera is an effective trick that always works... The difference is that here, it all comes together to present one unappealing idea: Disengagement has taken place long ago. Thirty years ago, to be precise, when the first settlers remained in Sebastia. Only it is a disengagement by them from Israel, from Israeliness. They let it slip now and then, when they talk contemptuously about ‘those who live in Tel Aviv and Haifa,’ when they threaten rnatter-of-factly to burn their ID cards, when they call anyone who is not t
hem ‘a generation of wusses,’ when they fail to understand why Yavin does not want a day to come when ‘Mohammed will make us all coffee.’ The feeling is harsh: After all, it is true that ‘we are brothers.’ and the Israeli governments over the generations did indeed send them..."
And Tom Segev of Ha ‘aretz noted, "For two and half years, Yavin wandered the West Bank and the Gaza Strip with a small hand-held camera, which he operated himself, without a technical crew. Here and there he was reviled as the representative of the hostile leftist media, but in general the settlers spoke to him on the assumption that he was their man, and justly so: Until now he was everyone’s man. The film he brought back seems intended to salve his conscience: ‘I cannot really do anything to relieve this misery, other than to document it, so that neither I nor those like me will be able to say that we saw nothing, heard nothing, knew nothing,’ he says in the film..."
Why A Visitor’s Guide?
Chaim Yavin’s documentary covers a lot of ground in a short period of time. The first episode deals with the issue of the occupation in general, the second with the settlements in and around Hebron, the third with the security fence, the fourth with disengagement, and the fifth with the internal Israeli debate generated by Sharon’s withdrawal initiative.
In the course of each program, Yavin interviews a wide range of Israelis and Palestinians who have helped shaped the debate and the reality on the ground with regard to settlements. His documentary also provides an incredible array of images and references related to settlements that help make The Land of the Settlers an incredibly rich viewing experience.
But The Land of the Settlers was made by an Israeli, for an Israeli audience. Many Americans looking at this documentary may be able to appreciate to the broad message of what is being conveyed, but they may not know the significance of the people on camera, their off-hand comments about issues that serve as a sort of short-hand in the debate over settlements, or the geographic sites that Yavin visits and/or discusses.
That’s why Americans for Peace Now (APN) wrote this Visitor’s Guide.
APN is independent from the Israeli Peace Now movement, yet we are sister organizations and work to support the goals of Peace Now in Israel. In Fall 2005, APN was privileged to host Chaim Yavin in different cities across the U.S., along with other like-minded organizations, through the generous support of the Foundation for Middle East Peace. We helped provide audiences with an opportunity to view the first two episodes of The Land of the Settlers with English subtitles, and spread awareness about this important issue in the process.
But we think that anyone sufficiently motivated to purchase the complete set of Yavin’s documentary deserves more than simply being able to read the subtitles and take in the scenes that he presents. So we have gone through each episode and provided you with brief notes (in rough chronological order) about some of the people, references, and images that make this documentary so important
—things that may be self-evident to most Israelis who watched this program on television, but may not be obvious to Americans who are not as seeped in the issue.APN did not attempt to write a book about the settlements when we created this guide. We have provided only short references for you in order to help the documentary make a bit more sense. You are invited to learn more about settlements and the many issues related to them by visiting the APN website,
www.peacenow.org, on a regular basis or by signing up for our Weekly Update emails, which often contain the latest news about this subject. APN provides some of the most accurate, authoritative information around about settlements on a regular basis—whether it’s from the Israeli press or from Peace Now’s own Settlements Watch research program. We invite you to visit our website and see for yourself.Part of the significance of Peace Now’s work in this field is reflected in the first episode of Yavin’s documentary, Have You Seen A Green Line? He spends a lot of time with Dror Etkes, the head of Peace Now’s Settlements Watch program, jokingly calling him a fanatic about his work. If one understands "fanatic" to mean someone obsessed with his job to uncover the truth about settlements, Yavin is right.
Part of that obsession is reflected in the small Peace Now demonstration in the territories that is also included in this episode. Peace Nov. has never held large demonstrations in the occupied territories themselves
—only an occasional small event to draw the publics attention to a particularly important development with an outpost or settlement. Peace s biggest events have been saved for inside Israel itself.And it’s inside Israel itself where Peace Now has proven to have had a large impact over the years.
Since its beginning, Peace Now has helped move the Israeli public to embrace peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan. It has helped get Israel out of Lebanon. And it has educated the public about the burdens of settlements to the point where even Ariel Sharon has accepted some of its arguments and pulled out of Gaza, while most Israelis understand that even more needs to be done to end the occupation in the West Bank as well. It’s safe to say that few people in Israel, the U.S., or elsewhere would ever have paid attention to the problem of settlements without the ongoing work of Peace Now to raise the profile of this issue over the years.
When Peace Now first started to take to the streets in Israel, calling for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it was called radical and beyond the fringe. Now, its policy has officially been adopted by the American and Israeli governments.
Peace Now has come a long way since its inception. We can point to many accomplishments, but we also recognize that there is a long way to go before Israel can live in peace and security with its neighbors.
In the meantime, we invite you to browse the following Visitor’s Guide. . . and get ready for an incredible journey through The Land of the Settlers.
(October 2005)
A Visitor’s Guide to The Land of the Settlers
Chapter One: Have You Seen A Green Line?
Daniella Weiss
—A leader of the settlement movement since its earliest days, Weiss was the General Secretary of the ideological settlement movement Gush Emunim ("the Bloc of the Faithful"), and the mayor of the radical settlement of Kedumim.Kedumim
—One of the first settlements built by Israel in the West Bank after the Six Day War. It was established in 1975. Its mayor is the radical settler leader, Daniella Weiss.Abu Dis
—A small Palestinian town bordering East Jerusalem. It was once considered as a possible site for the capital of a future Palestinian state. The security barrier runs through part of the community, dividing it into two parts.Ha’aretz
—Large circulation Israeli daily newspaper. Political orientation is center to left-of-center.The Green Line
—The line that informally divided Israel from the West Bank prior to the 1967 Six Day War. Also known as the Armistice Line. The Armistice was signed between the Israeli and Jordanian armies in November 1948.Six Day War
—The war that took place in June 1967, pitting Israel against Egypt, Jordan, and Syria and beginning with a preemptive Israeli attack against the Arab armies. Over the course of six days Israel defeated the Arab armies, conquering the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip (previously under Egyptian control), the Golan Heights (previously under Syrian control), and East Jerusalem and the West Bank (previously under Jordanian control).Rabbi Moshe Levinger
—One of the founders and leaders of the ideological settler movement, Levinger engineered the takeover of a Palestinian hotel in Hebron during Passover 1968, a provocative act that paved the way for the establishment of the first settlement in the Hebron area shortly thereafter. He subsequently was one of the leaders of the movement in the early 1970s to settle the northern West Bank heartland, beginning with Kedumim, Ofra, and Elon Moreh, near the Palestinian city of Nablus.Mabat
—Chaim Yavin helped found Israel’s Channel One in the late 1960s, and he became the first anchorman of "Mabat," the evening news program on that station, a position that he has held for most of the last 30 years.Huwwara Checkpoint
—A major IDF checkpoint located at the southern entrance to the city of Nablus. All Palestinians traveling between Nablus and areas to the south of the city (i.e., entirely within the West Bank) must pass through this checkpoint. Palestinian vehicles are generally not permitted to pass through.Machsom Watch/Checkpoint Watch
—Machsom Watch was founded in January 2001 in response to repeated reports in the press about human rights abuses of Palestinians crossing army and border police checkpoints. . .The goals of the group are threefold: 1. To monitor the behavior of soldiers and police at checkpoints; 2. To ensure that the human and civil rights of Palestinians attempting to enter Israel are protected; 3. To record and report the results of our observations to the widest possible audience, from the decision-making level to that of the general public.Binyamin "Fuad" Ben Eliezer
—Longtime Labor politician who served in the government of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin as Minister of Housing and Construction (1992-1996). He also served in the Government of Ehud Barak as Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Communications, and Minister of Housing and Construction (1999- 2001). Under the first national unity government led by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Ben Eliezer served as Minister of Defense (2001-2002). He currently serves as the Minister of National Infrastructure. In the 1970s, Ben Eliezer was an army general and governor of the West Bank, involved in establishing the first settlements in the area.Nablus
—A major Palestinian city in the West Bank, home to 130,000 people. It is located north of Jerusalem and serves as a major hub of Palestinian economic activity.Judea and Samaria
—Biblical names used by the settlers to refer to the northern West Bank (Samaria) and the center and southern West Bank (Judea).Doiphinarium Attack
—On June 1, 2001, a Hamas suicide bomber blew himself up while standing near a group of Israeli youths outside Tel Aviv’s popular "Doiphinarium" discotheque. Twenty-one teenagers and young adults were killed in the attack, and more than 100 others were wounded.Migron
—An illegal outpost in the northern West Bank established in April 2002. In an official report to the Sharon government, Israeli attorney Talia Sasson wrote, "The findings I have gathered indicate that the funding for setting up the infrastructure for the Migron outpost was provided in full by the Housing Ministry, which invested NIS 4 million at the site for funding the preparation of the land, connection to the water and sewage systems, and paving roads."Doctors for Human Rights
—Physicians for Human Rights-Israel was founded in 1988 with the goal of struggling for human rights, in particular the right to health, in Israel and the occupied territories. Human dignity, wellness of mind and body and the right to health are at the core of the worldview of the organization and direct and instruct its activities and efforts on both the individual and general level. Its activities integrate advocacy and action toward changing harmful policies and direct action providing healthcare.The General Security Service (GSS)
—Also known as the "Shabak" or "Shin Bet," the GSS is the internal counterintelligence and security agency of Israel. In 2002, the GSS was renamed the Israel Security Service."Pieds Noirs"
—A term of unknown origin (meaning "black feet") used to describe the group of around 1 million Europeans (mainly French) living in Algeria at the time of Algeria’s independence from colonial rule. Most of the "pieds noirs" left Algeria in a mass exodus in 1962. At that time, the colonists represented slightly more than 10% of the total population of Algeria.Amona
—The illegal outpost of Amona was established during the second half of the 1990’s on a hill about a kilometer from the settlement of Ofra. Approximately 30 families reside there today, making it one of the largest outposts in the West Bank. Following the start of construction on nine permanent buildings in Amona, Peace Now presented a written inquiry to the Civil Administration which, after many delays, confirmed the construction was indeed illegal. Since then, Peace Now has pressed the Civil Administration to apply Israeli law, to little effect. In 2005, Peace Now submitted a petition to the High Court of Justice. The petition accuses the Minister of Defense, the Commander of the IDF forces on the West Bank, the Head of the Civil Administration and the Commander of the area’s police of failing to implement the law, under which they are required to stop work at the site and demolish some of the structures that have been illegally erectedTa’ayush
—Founded in Fall 2000, this is a far-left group comprised of Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel that works to break down the walls of racism and segregation by constructing a true Arab-Jewish partnership. Its name means "life in common," in Arabic. Ta’ayush tries to end the occupation and achieve full civil equality in Israel for all its citizens.Civil Administration
—Referred to in the film as "the Administration," the Civil Administration is the part of the IDF that deals with civilian affairs in the West Bank. Its responsibilities and authority extend from the issuance of building permits for Palestinians who build in Area C (West Bank land that Israel fully controls) and the registration of land, to locating land for new Israeli settlements. The Civil Administration is also responsible for dealing with illegal construction in Area C both Israeli and Palestinian — and oversees the connection of buildings to water and electricity. According to the official report submitted to the Sharon government by Israeli attorney Talia Sasson, the Civil Administration has failed to meet its obligations regarding illegal outposts and settlement expansion.Area C
—60% of the West Bank. Defined under the Oslo agreement as the area that will remain for five years of transition under Israeli control. Also the area that hosts all of the remaining 117 settlements in the West Bank.Dror Etkes
—Head of Peace Now’s Settlement Watch project.Peace Now
—The largest grassroots movement in Israel’s history. It has worked to promote security through peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors, including Egypt, Jordan, and the Palestinians. It also spearheaded the movement to withdraw Israel from Lebanon, and supported the evacuation of Israeli settlements from Gaza and the northern West Bank.Settlement Watch
—A Peace Now project. it’s the premier civilian, impartial source of basic information about Israel’s settlements in the occupied territories. Due to successive Israeli governments attempts to conceal from the public what is going on over the Green Line. Settlement Watch has become a primary resource for Israelis who want to know what’s really happening in their name and with their resources.Park Hotel Terrorist Attack
—On March 27, 2002, a Palestinian suicide bombing attack in the Park Hotel in the city of Netanya took the lives of 30 Israelis and injured another 140 people as they were celebrating the holiday of Passover. This attack led to Israel launching Operation Defensive Shield, which included Israel’s reoccupation of Palestinian cities in the West Bank that it had left as part of the Oslo peace process.Matza Restaurant Bombing
—On March 31, 2002, a Hamas suicide terrorist detonated a bomb inside the Matza Restaurant in Haifa, Israel. Fifteen people were killed and forty were injured in the attack.Jenin
—Jenin is a large Palestinian city in the northern West Bank. In April 2002, the Jenin refugee camp (which is practically part of the city) was the site of a major Israeli military offensive, provoking an international outcry and charges that Israel had massacred hundreds of Palestinians. During the operation Israel sealed the area off from journalists. The United Nations later estimated that around 50 Palestinians were killed in the operation, a large number of whom were civilians. There was also widescale destruction in the Jenin refugee camp, where the operation was focused. Jenin has a population of about 45,000 people.The Muqataa
—Shorthand term for the official Palestinian government compound in Ramallah. Shortly after the outbreak of the second Intifada the IDF raided the Muqataa, destroying many of the buildings, seizing documents and weapons, and trapping Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in one of the only buildings left partially intact. Fearing that if he ever left Israel would not permit him to return, Arafat remained inside the besieged Muqataa for more than two years, until October 2004, when his health had deteriorated to the point where he was evacuated by helicopter to a hospital in France, where he died. Arafat’s grave is located on the grounds of the Muqataa., Episode 1: Did You See A Green Line?
6-8 pm.
3310 NW Franklin Court (cross over the Thurman St. Bridge, left on 32nd (up
the hill), right on Franklin Ct. to corner of 33rd. House is on the SW
corner, up steps)
The video is one hour, leaving an hour for discussion which will be led by
Lee Gordon. Gordon formerly lived in Israel where in 1997 he co-founded Hand
in Hand Center for Jewish-Arab Education to build peace between Jews and
Arabs through development of bilingual and multi-cultural schools.
Americans for Peace Now Presents
A Visitor’s Guide to The Land of the Settlers
Introduction
A Short History of Israeli Settlements in the West Bank and Gaza
Since it was founded in 1978, the Israeli Peace Now movement has worked to enhance Israel’s security through peace. Peace Now believed then, as it does today, that one of the keys to achieving peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors is exchanging most of the land that Israel captured during the 1967 Six Day War for the formal end of hostilities and security assurances. This "land for peace" formula has provided Israel with stable, defensible borders with Egypt and Jordan, and it remains the foundation for the pursuit of peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
Israel found it relatively straight forward to reach agreements with Egypt and Jordan on questions of territory. Egypt focused its demands on the return of the Sinai Peninsula (which Israel had only lightly populated with settlers) in exchange for peace, a condition that Israel was eventually willing to meet. Gaza, which had been under Egyptian control before the Six Day War, was allowed to remain in Israel’s hands. After the peace treaty with Egypt and the launch of peace talks with the Palestinians, Jordan withdrew its claims to the West Bank, which it held prior to 1967. It, too, was able to reach a territorial accommodation with Israel as part of establishing peaceful relations.
But the situation with the Palestinians in the West Bank and, until recently, Gaza is more complicated. In the wake of the Six Day War, Israel wanted to retain its hold on the Palestinian territories for a variety of reasons. First, having fought three major land wars in its brief existence, Israel saw the acquisition of the West Bank and Gaza as providing much needed buffer zones to protect Israeli cities from menacing Arab armies, particularly in the narrow middle section of the country. Second, the West Bank cities that were captured during the Six Day War held tremendous historic and religious significance for the Jewish people. A religious Zionist movement developed that interpreted Israel’s lightning military victories in 1967 as a sign that bringing Jewish communities to these captured territories was a way of fulfilling a major obligation of the Jewish faith that would, in turn, hasten the coming of the Messiah.
In addition to establishing a permanent military presence in the West Bank and Gaza, Israel decided to strengthen its hold on these occupied territories by building a series of civilian communities (i.e, settlements) there. The settlements were often positioned strategically among major Palestinian population centers in order to break up Palestinian territorial contiguity, provide ways of exerting control over Palestinian towns and cities, and diminish the chances of the Palestinians establishing a viable state for themselves.
Besides the settlements, Israel has also built an extensive series of "bypass roads,’ which allow Israeli settlers to travel from their homes in the territories to Israel proper without encountering Palestinians, as well as industrial parks and other facilities that cater exclusively to the needs of the settlers. Through such methods, Israeli settlements have become intertwined with Palestinian cities and towns, often creating friction and conflict, and making it increasingly difficult to separate the two populations from each other.
Under international law, occupying countries are not allowed to move their populations into the territories that they capture during wars. Therefore, most of the international community sees all of Israel’s settlements activity as illegal.
But under Israeli law, a process was set up for Israelis to submit plans for establishing settlements and to obtain permission to construct new communities. In this way, 145 settlements were constructed in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip "legally" under Israeli law.
However, Israel came under pressure from the United States and the international community to halt its settlement expansion, forcing Israel to pledge that it would not build new ones. But the settlers and the Israeli government have found a way around that pledge
—using a system of "winks and nods" to build over 100 settlement "outposts" in the territories, small communities that are essentially settlements, but lack prior approval from the government, even though the government often provides financial, logistical, and security support for the construction of these sites. The vast majority of the settlements and outposts were built in the West Bank; just 21 were built in the Gaza Strip. About 245,000 settlers now live in territories.None of this happened by accident. The Israeli government offered (and still provides) huge financial incentives
—like tax breaks and mortgage assistance—to Israelis willing to move to the settlements, which has helped bolster the Israeli population in the territories far beyond the number of settlers who moved there for ideological, religious, or security reasons. In fact, the majority of settlers today live in the territories because of quality of life issues, not some higher motivation.Disengagement
In 2004, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
—who had helped as much as anyone to expand settlements in the occupied territories during most of his political career—made a tactical decision to unilaterally remove Israeli settlers and soldiers from Gaza and the northern West Bank. Coming after over three years of the second Intifada, a period of terrorism and bloodshed that took a tremendous toll on Israel, Sharon was feeling pressure to take steps to change the situation from internal and international players (such as prominent Israelis who started to voice their opposition to performing military duty in the occupied territories and plans like the Geneva Initiative that offered a diplomatic way out of Intifada through significant territorial concessions).He also began to recognize that while holding on to territory offers some benefits to Israel, the land comes with a tremendous cost: namely 3.5 million Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza for whom Israel is responsible. Combined with the Arab citizens of Israel and a high population growth rate, Arabs will soon outnumber Israeli Jews in the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. Unless Israel finds a way to end its occupation, this demographic trend will destroy Israel’s future as a Jewish democratic state, the entire point of Zionism.
Further. Israeli military leaders started to realize that the strategic value of holding on to the territories was decreasing. Israel’s treaty with Jordan and America’s invasion of Iraq eliminated any threat of a land invasion from the east for the foreseeable future. The biggest military threats facing Israel today are rocket attacks, Iranian weapons of mass destruction, and terrorism, none of which can necessarily be countered by Israeli buffer zones in the West Bank or Gaza.
(Before Sharon awoke to some of the problems of the settlements, many other Israelis saw that they were costing the country a lot of money that could have been spent in other communities or for other services inside its borders
—over $400 million is wasted annually on civilian expenditures alone that would not otherwise be spent if the settlers lived in Israel proper. Israel spends millions more to protect the settlements with its military, an obligation that extends its line of defense in the West Bank to ten times the length of what it was prior to the Six Day War, when Israel and the West Bank were divided by what is known as the "Green Line." Israel has spent over $10 billion occupying the West Bank and Gaza, and billions more to evacuate settlements from the same locations. Further, the day-to-day routine of maintaining the occupation is taking a big mental and moral toll on the soldiers who are asked to implement it.)As a result of his personal deliberations, Sharon proposed that Israel would disengage from Gaza and part of the West Bank, while strengthening Israel’s hold on the parts of the West Bank where it remained through more settlement activity and the completion of a security barrier being built mostly on the Palestinian side of the Green Line.
His proposal caused a huge uproar in Israeli society. Right-wing supporters of the settlements movement saw disengagement as a personal betrayal by someone who they had come to see as the greatest champion of their cause. Right-wing rabbis and other ideological reactionaries proclaimed that Jews were forbidden to give back even one inch of land to the Palestinians, that the withdrawal was a reward to terror, that Jews do not "expel" Jews, and that a civil war would break out. The settlement movement went into overdrive with a well financed public relations campaign aimed at building empathy for the settlers and threatening violence and disobedience against mainstream Israeli society, whose institutions had democratically approved Sharon’s plan. Roadblocks on Israeli highways, vandalism, and protest marches
—all under the signature "orange" banners of the anti-disengagement campaign—filled television screens in Israel and around the world in the months before the pullout got underway.
In the end, while there were loud protests, some acts of violence, and two lethal acts of Jewish terrorism carried out against Palestinians and Arab citizens of Israel, the worst of the dire predictions failed to come true. In fact, the settlements in Gaza were removed in about a week, and the four settlements in the northern West Bank also were evacuated quickly. The plan remained popular with a majority of Israelis, most of whom would welcome additional settlement evacuations from the West Bank.
Many issues remain to be resolved regarding disengagement, as of this writing. Israel and the Palestinians have not reached agreement on how to treat border crossings between Gaza, Israel, and Egypt. The question of how to build a seaport and an airport in Gaza has yet to be answered, as has the question of how to provide a safe passage route between Gaza and the West Bank. Further, Palestinian President Mabmoud Abbas, while credited with genuinely opposing the Intifada and violence, has yet to demonstrate that he has the security resources, and the willingness to use them against terrorists, to exert his control over the areas that Israel has left.
Meanwhile, construction of the security barrier in the West Bank continues, as does the expansion of settlements in there.
The Land of the Settlers
After more than two years of research and filming, an Israeli television station aired veteran Israeli television news anchor Chaim Yavin’s powerful five-part documentary series, The Land of the Settlers in Spring 2005. His program caused a huge sensation in Israel and abroad, not only because of the powerful footage and interviews that he recorded for the series, but also because of who he is.
For the last 40 years, Chaim Yavin has enjoyed a distinguished career in broadcast news covering a wide range of topics, including Israeli society and politics, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the peace process. He helped found Israel’s Channel One in the late 1960s, and he became the first anchorman of "Mabat," the evening news program on that station, a position that he has held for most of the last 30 years. In addition, he has served as an overseas correspondent in the U.S. and Europe, and as editor-in-chief, news bureau head, and director-general of Israel TV. He received the Israel Prize in 1997. Not surprisingly, Mr. Yavin has become an Israeli cultural icon, sometimes referred to as "Israel’s Mr. Television." Besides his news broadcasting experience, he has directed approximately 80 documentaries to date, including films on American Jewry, Soviet Jewry, the Oslo peace process, Jerusalem, Gaza, the Jordan Valley, Ramallah, and Gush Katif.
In short, Yavin had a long-established reputation as an objective observer and reporter of the news, not as someone who was an advocate on issues one way or the other. So when he raised serious questions about settlements in his new documentary, people noticed. Through the lens of his camera and his sharp interview questions, Yavin caused Israelis, who typically pay little attention to what takes place in the occupied territories, to see what is happening with their own eyes and consider the consequences for their nation.
Here’s what some of the leading Israeli newspapers had to say about his series:
Raanan Shaked Yedioth Ahronoth, wrote, "The bream breath becomes short, the heart is choked with anger. This is the only human response to The Land of the Settlers. No. there is actually another reasonable reaction: After watching The Land of the Settlers, every caring Israeli, every humane Israeli, should get up next Saturday, go to the settlement nearest to his place of residence, and drag its inhabitants, kicking and screaming, across the road to the side of sanity. This is what comes out of The Land of the Settlers, the personal territories journal of Chairn Yavin, who reaches an impressive professional peak here as a documentary journalist. Although it may not be new on an informative level, The Land of the Settlers will astound you, mainly by placing on the screen, over the course of many hours, the hard core of the shameful insanity of the settlers in the territories, along with the tacit approval of the Israeli governments, along with the helplessness of the army...’
Assaf Schneider of Ma’ariv said, "As a journalistic television product, what can one say about Yavin’s personal journey between roadblocks, in front of the soldiers who are hardhearted because those are the orders, next to the chilling Daniela Weiss and in the living room of the denizens of the settlement outposts, who are so friendly (until reminded that there are even fairly close to us, such beings called ‘Palestinians.’)? The documentation with the small Sony camera is an effective trick that always works... The difference is that here, it all comes together to present one unappealing idea: Disengagement has taken place long ago. Thirty years ago, to be precise, when the first settlers remained in Sebastia. Only it is a disengagement by them from Israel, from Israeliness. They let it slip now and then, when they talk contemptuously about ‘those who live in Tel Aviv and Haifa,’ when they threaten rnatter-of-factly to burn their ID cards, when they call anyone who is not t
hem ‘a generation of wusses,’ when they fail to understand why Yavin does not want a day to come when ‘Mohammed will make us all coffee.’ The feeling is harsh: After all, it is true that ‘we are brothers.’ and the Israeli governments over the generations did indeed send them..."
And Tom Segev of Ha ‘aretz noted, "For two and half years, Yavin wandered the West Bank and the Gaza Strip with a small hand-held camera, which he operated himself, without a technical crew. Here and there he was reviled as the representative of the hostile leftist media, but in general the settlers spoke to him on the assumption that he was their man, and justly so: Until now he was everyone’s man. The film he brought back seems intended to salve his conscience: ‘I cannot really do anything to relieve this misery, other than to document it, so that neither I nor those like me will be able to say that we saw nothing, heard nothing, knew nothing,’ he says in the film..."
Why A Visitor’s Guide?
Chaim Yavin’s documentary covers a lot of ground in a short period of time. The first episode deals with the issue of the occupation in general, the second with the settlements in and around Hebron, the third with the security fence, the fourth with disengagement, and the fifth with the internal Israeli debate generated by Sharon’s withdrawal initiative.
In the course of each program, Yavin interviews a wide range of Israelis and Palestinians who have helped shaped the debate and the reality on the ground with regard to settlements. His documentary also provides an incredible array of images and references related to settlements that help make The Land of the Settlers an incredibly rich viewing experience.
But The Land of the Settlers was made by an Israeli, for an Israeli audience. Many Americans looking at this documentary may be able to appreciate to the broad message of what is being conveyed, but they may not know the significance of the people on camera, their off-hand comments about issues that serve as a sort of short-hand in the debate over settlements, or the geographic sites that Yavin visits and/or discusses.
That’s why Americans for Peace Now (APN) wrote this Visitor’s Guide.
APN is independent from the Israeli Peace Now movement, yet we are sister organizations and work to support the goals of Peace Now in Israel. In Fall 2005, APN was privileged to host Chaim Yavin in different cities across the U.S., along with other like-minded organizations, through the generous support of the Foundation for Middle East Peace. We helped provide audiences with an opportunity to view the first two episodes of The Land of the Settlers with English subtitles, and spread awareness about this important issue in the process.
But we think that anyone sufficiently motivated to purchase the complete set of Yavin’s documentary deserves more than simply being able to read the subtitles and take in the scenes that he presents. So we have gone through each episode and provided you with brief notes (in rough chronological order) about some of the people, references, and images that make this documentary so important
—things that may be self-evident to most Israelis who watched this program on television, but may not be obvious to Americans who are not as seeped in the issue.APN did not attempt to write a book about the settlements when we created this guide. We have provided only short references for you in order to help the documentary make a bit more sense. You are invited to learn more about settlements and the many issues related to them by visiting the APN website,
www.peacenow.org, on a regular basis or by signing up for our Weekly Update emails, which often contain the latest news about this subject. APN provides some of the most accurate, authoritative information around about settlements on a regular basis—whether it’s from the Israeli press or from Peace Now’s own Settlements Watch research program. We invite you to visit our website and see for yourself.Part of the significance of Peace Now’s work in this field is reflected in the first episode of Yavin’s documentary, Have You Seen A Green Line? He spends a lot of time with Dror Etkes, the head of Peace Now’s Settlements Watch program, jokingly calling him a fanatic about his work. If one understands "fanatic" to mean someone obsessed with his job to uncover the truth about settlements, Yavin is right.
Part of that obsession is reflected in the small Peace Now demonstration in the territories that is also included in this episode. Peace Nov. has never held large demonstrations in the occupied territories themselves
—only an occasional small event to draw the publics attention to a particularly important development with an outpost or settlement. Peace s biggest events have been saved for inside Israel itself.And it’s inside Israel itself where Peace Now has proven to have had a large impact over the years.
Since its beginning, Peace Now has helped move the Israeli public to embrace peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan. It has helped get Israel out of Lebanon. And it has educated the public about the burdens of settlements to the point where even Ariel Sharon has accepted some of its arguments and pulled out of Gaza, while most Israelis understand that even more needs to be done to end the occupation in the West Bank as well. It’s safe to say that few people in Israel, the U.S., or elsewhere would ever have paid attention to the problem of settlements without the ongoing work of Peace Now to raise the profile of this issue over the years.
When Peace Now first started to take to the streets in Israel, calling for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it was called radical and beyond the fringe. Now, its policy has officially been adopted by the American and Israeli governments.
Peace Now has come a long way since its inception. We can point to many accomplishments, but we also recognize that there is a long way to go before Israel can live in peace and security with its neighbors.
In the meantime, we invite you to browse the following Visitor’s Guide. . . and get ready for an incredible journey through The Land of the Settlers.
(October 2005)
A Visitor’s Guide to The Land of the Settlers
Chapter One: Have You Seen A Green Line?
Daniella Weiss
—A leader of the settlement movement since its earliest days, Weiss was the General Secretary of the ideological settlement movement Gush Emunim ("the Bloc of the Faithful"), and the mayor of the radical settlement of Kedumim.Kedumim
—One of the first settlements built by Israel in the West Bank after the Six Day War. It was established in 1975. Its mayor is the radical settler leader, Daniella Weiss.Abu Dis
—A small Palestinian town bordering East Jerusalem. It was once considered as a possible site for the capital of a future Palestinian state. The security barrier runs through part of the community, dividing it into two parts.Ha’aretz
—Large circulation Israeli daily newspaper. Political orientation is center to left-of-center.The Green Line
—The line that informally divided Israel from the West Bank prior to the 1967 Six Day War. Also known as the Armistice Line. The Armistice was signed between the Israeli and Jordanian armies in November 1948.Six Day War
—The war that took place in June 1967, pitting Israel against Egypt, Jordan, and Syria and beginning with a preemptive Israeli attack against the Arab armies. Over the course of six days Israel defeated the Arab armies, conquering the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip (previously under Egyptian control), the Golan Heights (previously under Syrian control), and East Jerusalem and the West Bank (previously under Jordanian control).Rabbi Moshe Levinger
—One of the founders and leaders of the ideological settler movement, Levinger engineered the takeover of a Palestinian hotel in Hebron during Passover 1968, a provocative act that paved the way for the establishment of the first settlement in the Hebron area shortly thereafter. He subsequently was one of the leaders of the movement in the early 1970s to settle the northern West Bank heartland, beginning with Kedumim, Ofra, and Elon Moreh, near the Palestinian city of Nablus.Mabat
—Chaim Yavin helped found Israel’s Channel One in the late 1960s, and he became the first anchorman of "Mabat," the evening news program on that station, a position that he has held for most of the last 30 years.Huwwara Checkpoint
—A major IDF checkpoint located at the southern entrance to the city of Nablus. All Palestinians traveling between Nablus and areas to the south of the city (i.e., entirely within the West Bank) must pass through this checkpoint. Palestinian vehicles are generally not permitted to pass through.Machsom Watch/Checkpoint Watch
—Machsom Watch was founded in January 2001 in response to repeated reports in the press about human rights abuses of Palestinians crossing army and border police checkpoints. . .The goals of the group are threefold: 1. To monitor the behavior of soldiers and police at checkpoints; 2. To ensure that the human and civil rights of Palestinians attempting to enter Israel are protected; 3. To record and report the results of our observations to the widest possible audience, from the decision-making level to that of the general public.Binyamin "Fuad" Ben Eliezer
—Longtime Labor politician who served in the government of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin as Minister of Housing and Construction (1992-1996). He also served in the Government of Ehud Barak as Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Communications, and Minister of Housing and Construction (1999- 2001). Under the first national unity government led by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Ben Eliezer served as Minister of Defense (2001-2002). He currently serves as the Minister of National Infrastructure. In the 1970s, Ben Eliezer was an army general and governor of the West Bank, involved in establishing the first settlements in the area.Nablus
—A major Palestinian city in the West Bank, home to 130,000 people. It is located north of Jerusalem and serves as a major hub of Palestinian economic activity.Judea and Samaria
—Biblical names used by the settlers to refer to the northern West Bank (Samaria) and the center and southern West Bank (Judea).Doiphinarium Attack
—On June 1, 2001, a Hamas suicide bomber blew himself up while standing near a group of Israeli youths outside Tel Aviv’s popular "Doiphinarium" discotheque. Twenty-one teenagers and young adults were killed in the attack, and more than 100 others were wounded.Migron
—An illegal outpost in the northern West Bank established in April 2002. In an official report to the Sharon government, Israeli attorney Talia Sasson wrote, "The findings I have gathered indicate that the funding for setting up the infrastructure for the Migron outpost was provided in full by the Housing Ministry, which invested NIS 4 million at the site for funding the preparation of the land, connection to the water and sewage systems, and paving roads."Doctors for Human Rights
—Physicians for Human Rights-Israel was founded in 1988 with the goal of struggling for human rights, in particular the right to health, in Israel and the occupied territories. Human dignity, wellness of mind and body and the right to health are at the core of the worldview of the organization and direct and instruct its activities and efforts on both the individual and general level. Its activities integrate advocacy and action toward changing harmful policies and direct action providing healthcare.The General Security Service (GSS)
—Also known as the "Shabak" or "Shin Bet," the GSS is the internal counterintelligence and security agency of Israel. In 2002, the GSS was renamed the Israel Security Service."Pieds Noirs"
—A term of unknown origin (meaning "black feet") used to describe the group of around 1 million Europeans (mainly French) living in Algeria at the time of Algeria’s independence from colonial rule. Most of the "pieds noirs" left Algeria in a mass exodus in 1962. At that time, the colonists represented slightly more than 10% of the total population of Algeria.Amona
—The illegal outpost of Amona was established during the second half of the 1990’s on a hill about a kilometer from the settlement of Ofra. Approximately 30 families reside there today, making it one of the largest outposts in the West Bank. Following the start of construction on nine permanent buildings in Amona, Peace Now presented a written inquiry to the Civil Administration which, after many delays, confirmed the construction was indeed illegal. Since then, Peace Now has pressed the Civil Administration to apply Israeli law, to little effect. In 2005, Peace Now submitted a petition to the High Court of Justice. The petition accuses the Minister of Defense, the Commander of the IDF forces on the West Bank, the Head of the Civil Administration and the Commander of the area’s police of failing to implement the law, under which they are required to stop work at the site and demolish some of the structures that have been illegally erectedTa’ayush
—Founded in Fall 2000, this is a far-left group comprised of Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel that works to break down the walls of racism and segregation by constructing a true Arab-Jewish partnership. Its name means "life in common," in Arabic. Ta’ayush tries to end the occupation and achieve full civil equality in Israel for all its citizens.Civil Administration
—Referred to in the film as "the Administration," the Civil Administration is the part of the IDF that deals with civilian affairs in the West Bank. Its responsibilities and authority extend from the issuance of building permits for Palestinians who build in Area C (West Bank land that Israel fully controls) and the registration of land, to locating land for new Israeli settlements. The Civil Administration is also responsible for dealing with illegal construction in Area C both Israeli and Palestinian — and oversees the connection of buildings to water and electricity. According to the official report submitted to the Sharon government by Israeli attorney Talia Sasson, the Civil Administration has failed to meet its obligations regarding illegal outposts and settlement expansion.Area C
—60% of the West Bank. Defined under the Oslo agreement as the area that will remain for five years of transition under Israeli control. Also the area that hosts all of the remaining 117 settlements in the West Bank.Dror Etkes
—Head of Peace Now’s Settlement Watch project.Peace Now
—The largest grassroots movement in Israel’s history. It has worked to promote security through peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors, including Egypt, Jordan, and the Palestinians. It also spearheaded the movement to withdraw Israel from Lebanon, and supported the evacuation of Israeli settlements from Gaza and the northern West Bank.Settlement Watch
—A Peace Now project. it’s the premier civilian, impartial source of basic information about Israel’s settlements in the occupied territories. Due to successive Israeli governments attempts to conceal from the public what is going on over the Green Line. Settlement Watch has become a primary resource for Israelis who want to know what’s really happening in their name and with their resources.Park Hotel Terrorist Attack
—On March 27, 2002, a Palestinian suicide bombing attack in the Park Hotel in the city of Netanya took the lives of 30 Israelis and injured another 140 people as they were celebrating the holiday of Passover. This attack led to Israel launching Operation Defensive Shield, which included Israel’s reoccupation of Palestinian cities in the West Bank that it had left as part of the Oslo peace process.Matza Restaurant Bombing
—On March 31, 2002, a Hamas suicide terrorist detonated a bomb inside the Matza Restaurant in Haifa, Israel. Fifteen people were killed and forty were injured in the attack.Jenin
—Jenin is a large Palestinian city in the northern West Bank. In April 2002, the Jenin refugee camp (which is practically part of the city) was the site of a major Israeli military offensive, provoking an international outcry and charges that Israel had massacred hundreds of Palestinians. During the operation Israel sealed the area off from journalists. The United Nations later estimated that around 50 Palestinians were killed in the operation, a large number of whom were civilians. There was also widescale destruction in the Jenin refugee camp, where the operation was focused. Jenin has a population of about 45,000 people.The Muqataa
—Shorthand term for the official Palestinian government compound in Ramallah. Shortly after the outbreak of the second Intifada the IDF raided the Muqataa, destroying many of the buildings, seizing documents and weapons, and trapping Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in one of the only buildings left partially intact. Fearing that if he ever left Israel would not permit him to return, Arafat remained inside the besieged Muqataa for more than two years, until October 2004, when his health had deteriorated to the point where he was evacuated by helicopter to a hospital in France, where he died. Arafat’s grave is located on the grounds of the Muqataa.Portland Brit Tzedek v'Shalom PO Box 12471
Portland, Oregon 97212 503 249-1957 portland@btvshalom.org
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