Haaretz
Tevet 19, 5765
Israel is continuing to establish facts beyond
the Green Line (the pre-Six-Day War border), despite the change that has
occurred in the diplomatic atmosphere since the death of former
Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
will soon bring the amended route of the separation in the Etzion Bloc and
the southern Hebron Hills to the government for approval. As was reported
in Haaretz yesterday, the government will present a trade-off: The Jewish
settlements in the Etzion Bloc will be on the Israeli side of the fence,
and the southern segment will be moved to the Green Line, leaving
extensive areas on the other side.
It is difficult to believe this
trade will be acceptable to the Palestinian Authority. The candidate for
the presidency of the PA, Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), said yesterday that
"there will be no peace with the fence" and he called for it to be
dismantled. The construction in the Etzion Bloc will be a test - and not a
simple one - of Abbas' relationship with Israel, immediately after the
elections in the PA. The route Sharon will present to the government
brings to the Israeli side of the fence 50,000 Jewish settlers in 10
settlements in the territories, four Palestinian villages, in which there
are 18,000 inhabitants, and many lands belonging to Palestinians from the
Bethlehem area.
The Etzion Bloc is one of the settlement blocs over
which there is broad public agreement. Various plans for a permanent
status agreement, from the Camp David summit to the Geneva accord, have
proposed annexing it to Israel in return for an exchange of territory;
however, the route that has been planned will cause unnecessary suffering
to thousands of Palestinians who will find it hard to lead a normal life
and work their lands.
The route was redrawn after the High Court of
Justice ruled that it is necessary to take the Palestinians into
consideration. The Council for Peace and Security, a nonpartisan
organization whose members include retired Israel Defense Forces officers,
has proposed a less invasive route that will not cut off the Palestinian
villages and will put many Palestinian lands outside the fence. However,
the security establishment has rejected the idea and has chosen a wider
route, with the support of the Etzion Bloc local
council.
Apparently, Sharon and the security establishment have not
learned the lesson of their previous failures in the fence affair and they
are again trying to use it as a basis for the future annexation of
territories deep in the West Bank. This is destined for diplomatic
troubles and legal suits that will again cause unnecessary delays in the
project.
The fence is not the only Israeli project in the West
Bank. Peace Now has reported on the construction of 3,500 new housing
units in the Jewish settlements, especially in the large blocs. The
government construes the "Bush letter" to Sharon, which recognized the
existence of Israeli population centers in the territories, as an
authorization to build in the settlement blocs. Apparently, however, there
is an attempt here to expand the built-up area in order to increase the
size of the areas that will be annexed to Israel in the
future.
Even if there is understanding in the international
community that large settlements will be included in Israel in return for
alternative territory, there is no justification in this for extensive
building in the territories. The government has undertaken to suspend
construction in the Jewish settlements in the territories as part of the
road map, parallel to the implementation of the Palestinian commitments.
It is important that the construction be as limited as possible and not
look like unnecessary provocation that weighs heavily on the chances for
the renewal of the peace process with the Palestinians.