|
|
May 3, 2002/Iyar 21, 5762, Vol. 54, No. 33
Settlements expand despite growing violence
GIL SEDAN
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
JERUSALEM - Thirty-four years after the first Israeli settlement was established in Hebron, the Jewish settlement network in the West Bank and Gaza Strip continues to grow.
As of February, the settler population was estimated at 230,000, having approximately doubled in the past decade. The figures were confirmed by both the left-wing Peace Now movement and the settler's Yesha Council.
In the West Bank, 206,000 Israelis live in 130 settlements. In the Gaza Strip, 6,400 Jews live in 16 settlements.
An additional 17,000 Israelis live in 33 communities on the Golan Heights, land that Israel officially annexed in 1981 in a move overwhelmingly rejected by the international community.
These figures do not include some 170,000 Jews living in Jewish neighborhoods in eastern Jerusalem.
These territories also were annexed to Israel after the Six-Day War, but some Palestinians consider residents there as settlers.
Roughly half of the settlers live in large population areas such as Ariel (population 15,600) in the northern West Bank, Ma'aleh Adumim (24,900) and the group of settlements known as the Etzion bloc near Jerusalem, and Kiryat Arba (6,380) near Hebron.
Almost all Israeli governments, Labor and Likud alike, have built settlements since 1967. In some cases, the settlements constituted a return to land that was owned by Jews until Arabs killed or exiled the Jewish residents, as in Hebron in the 1929 riots or Gush Etzion in the 1948 War of Independence.
During the first decade after the 1967 war, Labor-led governments were the driving force behind the creation and expansion of settlements. Labor's approach was incremental, but after 1977, the first Likud government, led by Menachem Begin, embraced settlements and used it to fuel the Likud's political renaissance.
Settlement expansion continued even under Prime Minster Ehud Barak of the Labor Party, despite his intensive efforts to reach a final peace accord with the Palestinians.
The Palestinians cited the settlement-building as one of the reasons they lost trust in Barak, eventually leading to the collapse of peace talks and the outbreak of the intifada.
Many Israelis, on the other hand, point to Barak's willingness to dismantle almost all the settlements in the context of a peace deal as proof that the settlements are not an impediment to peace.
As foreign minister under Benjamin Netanyahu in the late 1990s, Sharon urged settlers to make one last land grab before peace was finalized with the Palestinians.
Because of the ongoing Palestinian violence, some Israelis have called for a unilateral withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, abandoning settlements even with- out a peace treaty. Sharon, however, said recently that his government will not consider abandoning any settlements, despite his frequent claim that he is ready to make unspecified "painful concessions" for peace.
Since Sharon became prime minister, according to a Peace Now survey, some 34 new settlement sites have been established in the West Bank.
The Mitchell Plan, which is designed to bring about an end to the violent intifada and a return to peace talks, calls for a "freeze" on settlements. Sharon nominally accepted a freeze, but has reserved the right to continue building new neighborhoods to accommodate the exist- ing settlements' "natural growth."
Figures released last year by the Central Bureau of Statistics showed a sharp decrease in the annual growth rate of Jewish settlers to 4.4 percent last year, compared to an average of 8 percent in each of the five preceding years. According to the CBS, the net increase of settlers was only 2,500, compared to 5,000 to 7,000 in each of the 10 preceding years.
According to the Yesha Council of Jewish settlements, however, only 3,000 settlers - roughly 1.4 percent of the settler population - left the settlements during 2001, despite the intifada.
According to Peace Now, however, some 10,000 settlers have left since the intifada began, a departure rate of 5 percent.
|
