Why Jews settle beyond the Green Line

By Steve Kramer

ALFE MENASHE, Israel –On my recent visit to America, good friends asked me to explain why Israel continues to build settlements, “when peace is so close.” Fundamental to understanding why Israel continues to build homes in “settlements,” (communities located beyond the 1949 Armistice Line), is this reality: there will be no peace treaty with the Palestinians in the near or distant future. This situation isn’t caused by Israeli construction, but by the fact that the PLO-Fatah/Hamas coalition steadfastly strives to replace Israel with an Arab state. While all three organizations dissemble in English, their Arab language charters unambiguously call for Israel’s destruction.

One must look backwards in time to understand why Israel has a compulsion to build and populate the Land of Israel. Zionism, which is the nationalist foundation of the State of Israel, became a political reality in the latter half of the 19th century, at the same time as other nationalist movements were developing. Jews had never abandoned their land throughout the millennia following Rome’s destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE, though their population was small. Jews from the Diaspora began to return to Palestine (the Roman 1st century name to replace Eretz Yisrael-Land of Israel) in the late 19th century. There were several stages of aliyah (immigration), especially after the 1917 (British) Balfour Declaration, which promised the establishment of a “Jewish Home” in Palestine.

Unfortunately, the British had also promised an Arab state to the Hashemite clan, the former rulers of “Arabia” who had been deposed by the Saudis.  So, almost immediately after the British received the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine, three-quarters of Palestine, the area east of the Jordan River, was proclaimed to be Transjordan and given to the Hashemites, who rule Jordan until today (but maybe not tomorrow, given the growing strength of Islamist forces in Iraq and Syria).

The division left only the much smaller area west of the Jordan River for the Jews to build their national home. Despite the fact that Jews were allowed “close settlement” [dense settlement] of the land, the British did all they could to discourage this. Always pragmatic, the British decided that scores of millions of Arabs and Arab oil were the priority, while tens of thousands of Jews settling in Palestine were a nuisance. Therefore, entire areas of Judea, Samaria, and Galilee were forbidden for settlement by Jews. (Judea and Samaria were the customary names for the areas which the Hashemites renamed “West Bank” in 1950.)

In November 1947, the United Nations Partition Plan divided the land between Arabs and Jews. The Jews accepted the plan while the Arabs unanimously rejected apportioning any land to the Jews. Attacks against the Jews broke out immediately; six Arab countries attacked Israel on May 15, 1948, after Israel’s proclamation of independence.

In 1949, the establishment of the Armistice Line (also known as the Green Line) marked the end of the war, but attacks against Israel continued. Jordan annexed areas in the “West Bank” and Egypt took control of the Gaza Strip. No state of Palestine was proclaimed, most likely because the existing Arab states coveted the land while the Arabs living there, now known as “Palestinians,” were not interested in their own state. The Six Day War of 1967 changed that. The Jews defeated the Arab armies and took control of all the land west of the Jordan River, plus the Golan Heights which overlooked the Galilee. Israeli leaders expected to bargain with the Arabs over the conquered territory, but instead received the “Three No’s,” which proclaimed: no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with Israel.

It wasn’t until a decade later that communities began to be built beyond the Green Line, first authorized by the left-wing Labor Party. Many Israeli Jews rightly believed that there was no reason not to build there, because peace was not in the offing and no Arab state had ever been established there.

Israel continues to develop all of the Land of Israel, except when constrained by treaties. As it stands today, the Oslo Accords allow Israel to build throughout Area C, which is the majority of the “West Bank.” Despite numerous attempts to achieve a peace treaty with the Palestinians, it has become apparent to most Israelis that the Palestinian leaders don’t want the conflict with the Jews to end, instead preferring endless hostilities with what they believe is the certainty of eventual victory over the Jews. No Palestinian leader, neither Mahmoud Abbas nor his predecessor, Yasser Arafat, was or is willing to go down in history as the Arab traitor who gave “Arab land” to the hated Jews.

Nevertheless, Israel has tried meeting the West’s demands that it stop building beyond the Green Line. In 2009, “to restart peace talks,” Prime Minister Netanyahu agreed to a 10-month building moratorium. It had no effect on the Palestinians, who only began to negotiate after nine months had passed, and then abruptly ended the negotiations.

Other efforts to achieve peace, such as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s complete withdrawal of all Jews from the Gaza Strip in 2005, led nowhere. On the contrary, any withdrawal of Jews from areas beyond the Green Line have only spurred terrorist elements, such as Hamas, to take over.

As of now, there are approximately 600,000 Jews (nearly 10% of Israel’s Jewish population) living beyond the Green Line in Judea and Samaria, as well as Jerusalem. This cohort of Jews living alongside of Arabs is similar to the number of Arabs living within the Green Line. (20% of Israelis are Muslims.) The Palestinians proclaim that their intended State of Palestine would be judenrein, yet this racism is not acknowledged by the West.

Israel’s government feels totally justified in continuing to add to existing communities on land that it would never concede in any possible peace treaty. New, tiny outposts are illegal and are eventually uprooted by the government, a situation which, however, is extremely controversial.

So to my friends: peace doesn’t depend on whether a Jew adds an extra bathroom or bedroom to his house in Judea or Samaria. Jews and Palestinians are very far from reaching consensus, let alone peace. Though the West would like to see the conflict settled, Israeli-Palestinian strife is just one more distressing situation in a fraught region.

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Stephen Kramer is a freelance writer based in Alfe Menashe, Israel. His works may also be read on the website, www.encounteringisrael.com