Faith and fortitude

Situation in flux concerns settlers in West Bank

LENI REISS
Senior Contributing Editor

Editor's note: Senior Contributing Editor Leni Reiss traveled to the West Bank during a recent trip to Israel, where she attended the annual General Assembly of the UJA Federations of North America. This year marked the first time the G.A. was held in Jerusalem.

Shani Simkovitz stands along one of many new roads built recently in the town of Tekoa, which her family helped to settle in 1977. Homes and roads continue to be built there.

Photo by Leni Reiss

On the eve of the first Wye accord redeployment, life appears serene in the Israeli community of Tekoa. The streets are quiet, the sky is a bright blue, and a gentle breeze warms the rocky, unforgiving terrain where 250 families live about a half-hour south of Jerusalem, in one of 15 settlements in the Gush Etzyon bloc. (The name of this cluster of Jewish settlements in the Hebron area literally translates to "Bloc of the Faithful," referring to the fact that most of the Jewish residents of the region choose to live there for ideological reasons.)

But all is not calm in Tekoa, which will become increasingly isolated amid two large, growing Palestinian areas, as the Wye accord is gradually implemented. The first stage of the redeployment, which started Nov. 20, began in the north and will move southward toward Tekoa as the peace process progresses.

For Shani Simkovitz, mother of five children, ages 4 to 17, the questions are very basic. She worries about whether her Arab neighbors, whose village is only a few hundred yards away and whose minarets (slender, lofty towers attached to mosques) dot the landscape, are sincere about peace. "Will they let me live my life? Will they try to shoot at us?"

The night before, the local Israeli military commander had met with community leaders to reassure them and pledge the Army's cooperation, but residents are justifiably concerned about their security.

Our small group of American Jewish journalists has made the drive, in a car with reinforced glass windows, from Jerusalem to the West Bank. Our guide is Bob Lang, a native New Yorker and West Bank resident who is a spokesman for several organizations that deal with the peace process.

(Just a week earlier, Lang escorted participants in the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix's Mission on a visit to Efrat, a West Bank community of 1,200 families.

Phoenix garners praise

He recalled that he had met with another Phoenix group about seven years ago, and at that time had been given, as a souvenir, a windbreaker with the Mission logo. "When I told the Phoenix people that I just about had worn out my first jacket, one of the guys took one right off his back and gave it to me," Lang says.)

On this day, Lang takes us past Bedouin tents and Arab villages, some slums and some large homes, en route to visit two Jewish settlements that are close to areas coming under Palestinian control.

Mounds of trash are piled on either side of the road. In fact, he tells us that this path, which skirts Bethlehem, is generally referred to by the Israelis as "Garbage Road."

A Jewish heartland
Simkovitz, who often greets groups of visitors on behalf of the community, meets us at a picnic area near Tekoa's main entrance. A resident since 1977, hers was the 18th family to settle here. "I was brought up believing in Eretz Israel (the land of Israel) and believing that Jews have the right and responsibility to live in our holy areas," she says. "This is one of the places mentioned in the Bible, and it is the heartland of the Jewish people. Tekoa is where the prophet Amos came from."

Simkovitz defends construction now under way on a cluster of new homes. "This is all a part of a master plan that has been in place since 1977, allowing for natural growth. And, as far as we can tell, neighboring Arab communities will be growing in size, so it is all the more important that we fully expand within our master plan."

The town has several playgrounds, a basketball court, four synagogues, 24-hour guard duty - and a communal bomb shelter. The school goes through grade six, after which students continue their studies in Efrat, about 15 minutes away, making the daily trip in a school bus with bulletproof windows and an army escort.

Soldiers are beginning to fortify the settlement with trenches and an elaborate gate. "God forbid, if we need to stop the Arabs," Simkovitz says. "We're here, we're set. We're put."

We ask, "What do you do to relax - to get a break from all the pressure?"

"We make children," she says, with a big laugh. "But really, we have a social committee, we have concerts. We go into Jerusalem - or I plop down on my bed and watch 'Chicago Hope!' "

'Great place to live'
Our next stop is Carmei Tsur, a religious community founded in 1984 that is about one quarter the size of Tekoa. Thirty homes now under construction will bring the total number of residences to 100. Once Israel completes its pullback, Carmei Tsur will be the only Jewish presence "between the Gush and Hebron," says Menucha Chwat. Nonetheless, says this mother of 10, "This is a great place to live and to raise kids. The children run the place. There are play groups, classes. They are free to run around unsupervised. They don't know any other way of life."

The older children go by bus to Efrat as well, and Chwat acknowledges her heart starts pounding if the school bus is late. "The bus is a big target - an easy target." She says she hopes life will not change in Carmei Tsur after the redeployment.

"Terrible things can happen," she says. "But there is an army base nearby and we have good relations with the soldiers. We bring them food and invite them for Shabbat. And with the new roads that will bypass the Palestinian towns, we'll go on. The greatest problem is traveling on the roads. But we have a great sense of community and we live our lives day to day."

"Newcomers are still moving here - they are aware of the realities of our situation, and they are coming anyway," Chwat adds. "We have a waiting list. And, for the most part, the old-timers, the ideologues, are not leaving."

The sky has turned dark as we head back to Jerusalem, and our thoughts are with these settlers and the hard life they have chosen with faith and fortitude.

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