http://www3.haaretz.co.il/eng/scripts/article.asp?mador=4&datee=5/15/01&id=119439
The fraud of natural settlement increase
By Daniel Ben Simon
There is a considerable degree of political autism - fraud even -
directed at the domestic and international communities in Israel's
official moaning about demands for a freeze on settlement activity in
the territories.
It is hard not to be impressed by the apparent sincerity in the wails
of utter despair with which Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Foreign
Minister Shimon Peres are responding to the universal plea for this
freeze.
First, everyone knows - most especially Sharon and Peres - that only
compliance with this request can possibly reduce or even end the
murderous madness that has taken hold of Palestinians and Israelis
over the last 12 months.
Second, if the Israeli public only knew the utter falseness of the
slogans chanted in such persuasive tones about the need for
humanitarian aid to the settlements because of "natural increase" -
maybe they would emerge from the cocoon of indifference they presently
inhabit.
In the past few months, I have intensively surveyed the settlements
and have observed at first hand the distress in which the settlers
find themselves. It is hard not to feel pity for the way of life
imposed on them since the start of the Intifada.
Anxiety and depression plague parents in these settlements, and fear
and stress stalk children who have been evacuated from classrooms at
which mortars have been fired. When they leave their homes, the
settlers can never know for certain whether or not they will return in
one piece.
Brigitte Shoshan, a resident of Rafiah Yam will not send her twin
boys, aged six, to school. She had looked forward to the day she would
accompany them to grade one. Then mortar shells fell on the school in
the Habesor region and she canceled their early registration there.
Instead, she registered her sons with the state religious school in
Neveh Dekalim. A few days later mortar shells hit the school in Neveh
Dekalim. That was when she decided not to send them to school at all.
"I want my sons alive," she says.
Alongside the settlers' distress is something else - a gradual trickle
of settlers who are sick of this kind of life. Some of the "emigres"
are relocating permanently, others have done so temporarily "until
things blow over."
This trend is particularly noticeable in settlements of the northern
Gaza Strip. Nearly half of the 15 houses in Dugit stand empty. A new
neighborhood in Nisanit looks like a ghost town. It's the same in Elei
Sinai. The government has built more than 100 cottages with red tiled
roofs in Pe'at Sadeh - only 15 families live there and some of them
are already planning on leaving.
One local resident, Shlomo Kadosh, says he and his neighbors are
waiting for the government to offer compensation payments for those
who decide to leave. Another settler, Kfir Avrahami, adds: "Just give
these people compensation and not one of them will remain in Pe'at
Sadeh."
In Kfar Darom, where more than 30 families used to live, less than 10
still remain. The others left even before the disturbances began and
their homes look like monuments of political megalomania.
In Morag, in the southern part of Gush Katif, despite the insane
atmosphere all around, construction work is being completed on a
synagogue. Given the current rate of "emigration," it is almost
certain there will not be enough male residents left in this community
for a minyan (quorum) for prayer services.
Even in Neveh Dekalim, whose inhabitants define themselves as
"ideological settlers," dozens of families have already registered
their children with educational institutions in Ashkelon and Ashdod -
a preliminary measure before the transfer of the entire family to a
home inside the Green Line.
In the settlements of the Jordan Valley, the situation is just as bad.
Last summer, before the riots, the kindergarten in Naama shut its
doors because there were not enough children of kindergarten age left
in the community. Many of the residents of Fatzael, Netiv Hagedud and
Yafit are making plans to cross the Green Line into Israel. One
inhabitant of Fatzael reports that, in the wake of the disturbances
and in view of the uncertainty about the settlement's future,
Fatzael's population has been reduced by half.
New villas were built in Yafit and their owners were supposed to
occupy these homes by Rosh Hashana - however, the Intifada broke out,
changing the entire situation. As a result, the homes are now empty
shells. One owner complains he has been unable to rent out his
six-room villa despite the ridiculously low rent he is asking - less
than 200 dollars.
Considering the freeze the security situation has already imposed on
the settlements, it is hard not to lose your temper when you hear all
the nonsensical talk about the danger of a freeze on the settlements.
Not only are the settlements "frozen," they have already lost many of
their inhabitants.
The government can perhaps continue to deceive the world with the
argument that the construction work in the settlements must continue
to meet the needs of natural increase - but the Israeli public has the
right to know the truth. The settlements on the West Bank and in the
Gaza Strip contain thousands of empty homes.
American intelligence sources cite the figure of 20,000 unoccupied
housing units. Nonetheless, construction work in the settlements has
not stopped for even one second and even assumed mammoth proportions
during Ehud Barak's regime. For whom are these empty homes intended
and what possible political logic justifies the wasteful spending of
millions of dollars?
If the government really had the country's best interests at heart, it
would do the only sensible thing and would, of its own volition,
freeze the settlements. By doing so, the government would be giving a
clear message to the West and to the Arab world that Israel is
sensitive to what happens outside its borders. After making such a
decision, perhaps the government might just recover some of the
sympathy Israel has already lost.
