Originally published October 17, 2010. Updated January 5, 2012.
By Marney Blom
Highway 60 winds like a spinal cord through the land of Israel.
It is dusty, mostly two lanes, and stretches from Beersheba in the south to Nazareth in the north, connecting towns and cities that form the backbone of an ancient route known to the local Jewish community as “the way of the fathers”.
It’s on the surrounding terrain’s rocky heights and sweeping valleys that Biblical patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob first settled Hebron, Bethel and Shechem.
A deep connection to the land – not just cheap housing or Zionist ambition – draws Jewish people to settle there today. To them, this is Judea and Samaria; the Biblical heartland of Israel restored to its sovereignty after the 1967 Six-Day War.
To the rest of the world however, this is the West Bank; land designated by United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181 in 1947 to constitute the vast majority of a future Palestinian State.
Israel’s settlement policy in the disputed territories is a bone of contention threatening to choke the ongoing peace process. It draws heavy criticism from the international community, which expects Israel to secede the majority of the territory as part of a final peace settlement.
But international law actually supports the Jewish claim.
Canadian lawyer and international law expert Dr Jacques Gauthier states that the San Remo conference of 1920 and the subsequent Mandate for Palestine gave the Arab people civil and religious rights in Palestine, but sovereignty rights were given solely to the Jewish people.
“My conclusion is that after all these years, these provisions, provisions of these treaties, are still relevant as far as the part of the holy land where there is no final determination yet, referred to as the West Bank today.
“Even if a Palestinian state is established in those areas in years to come, based on the rights set out in the Mandate for Palestine, Jews have the right, because of their historical connection to many areas, including Hebron, to remain there.”
Jewish settler and Shomron Liaison Office executive director David Ha’ivri agrees.
“We’re not about to leave our homes, we believe in settling the land of Israel, this is our national heritage and our national right, and we will live here under whatever government rules the area.
And I think that the argument has no parallel in any other country in the world; seeking peace by openly discussing ethnic cleansing.”
Manager of Mount Blessing Winery in Samaria Nir Lavi, who works side by side with the local Arab population, argues that segregation is not the answer.
“To be apartheid, to think that no Israeli settlements should be in Judea and Samaria at all is something fictional; it’s not real. It’s like us Israelis saying that tomorrow that we would not like the Arab Galilean people or the Arab Bedouin people to live in the land of Israel. How would the world look at us?”
If Israel surrenders Judea and Samaria, up to 300,000 Jewish people will either live in a Palestinian State – an option the Palestinian Authority rejects – or be evicted from their homes, businesses, and livelihood.
The emotionally fraught scene of the Israeli army forcefully evacuating 8000 Jewish settlers from Gaza in 2005 is still fresh in Israel’s national conscience, and chairman of the YESHA council of the Jewish Communities of Judea, Samaria and Gush Katif Daniel Dayan says the situation would be exponential in Judea and Samaria.
“Maybe, if you decide to evict, to expel, to forcefully expel 100,000, 200,000, or maybe 300,000 Israelis forcefully from their homes, maybe it will be technically possible…but….it will break the backbone of Israeli society.”
Yet the Israel Democracy Institute War Peace Index shows that 66 per cent of Jewish Israelis support a two state solution, and a recent Dahaf Institute poll shows almost half of Israelis support withdrawing from disputed territory in exchange for Palestinian recognition of the Jewish State.
Without Judea and Samaria, Israel’s narrowest border will be just nine miles wide, and largely considered indefensible. Ironically, a land-for-peace deal on these terms could actually invite future conflict.
However, the gap in reaching a peaceful resolution appears to be widening.
In recent days, officials of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) have moved further from peace negotiations with Israel, expressing their resolve to return to ‘popular resistance’. This includes a strategy of continued pressure on the international community to secure full recognition and full United Nations membership as well as ‘disengaging’ from Israel. The latter would be implemented by a move towards converting the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Judea and Samaria into a second Gaza and threatening to end economic and security ties with Israel.
Meanwhile the Israeli settlers residing in Judea and Samaria – smack dab in the centre Palestinian Authority – appear to growing impatient with their government’s apparent apathy towards their need for increased protection. From the growing phenomenon of settler “Price Tag” acts of vandalism to the rumblings of splitting with Israel to establish the State of Judea, there is growing separation of the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria from secular left-wing Jewish groups and from the international community.
The Hebrew prophet Ezekiel foretold a day when the Jewish people would be re-gathered from the nations and dwell peacefully in un-walled, unguarded cities only to be attacked by enemy nations from the north who would take advantage of Israel’s vulnerability. According to Ezekiel, God however, would come to Israel’s rescue.
Jewish Israelis who maintain a presence on the land remain undeterred. They continue to build houses, develop industry, and with determination, cling to their biblical heartland along Highway 60, because, after all, this is the “way of the fathers”.
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