Short Takes

The Council of the League of Arab States discussed in its extraordinary meeting on December 1 the settlements activities in the occupied Arab territories and the Israeli government's plans to expand such settlements which are considered an obvious violation, not only of the principles on which was started the peace process, but also to all international principles and resolutions. . . .

The Council also invites the international community and all states that offer financial and economic assistance to Israel, particularly the United States, governments of the European Union, and other international funds and banks to stop all such aid to Israel. Oftentimes such assistance is used by Israel to expand the settlements activities in the occupied Arab lands.

[The Labor government did not have to] explain [the legality of the settlements] because the world believed in the sincerity of its intentions of reaching peace with the Palestinians. The Netanyahu government is forced to explain every building it constructs in the territories, because the world has not yet received from it any proof of its intentions of continuing the peace process, as it promised.

Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics reports that the number of Israeli settlers with the right to vote [all persons aged 18 and over] was 73,990 in the May 1996 elections, or 2 percent of all voters. This figure represents an increase of 26,990, or 57 percent of voters registered at the time of the 1992 elections, when the number was 47,000. For the 1988 elections, there were 28,000 eligible voters in the settlements.

We have prepared our deployment plans in every place. Also equipment. Besides the 400 police who will be stationed in Hebron there will be 500 men from the National Guard. . . . In my briefings of the forces I gave them orders regarding the settlers. The situation is not so complicated. Only the settlers are insisting on complicating it. Anyone can enter the Arab area. To visit. Make purchases. But we won't allow settlers to go around with weapons. When a settler enters armed, we will immediately advise the coordinating committee. We will ask that he be removed. As long as he doesn't threaten with his weapons and does not shoot, we won't shoot at him. But I will be there, with my finger on the trigger. If he threatens with his weapon we will shoot him.

There are 175,000 Arabs in the city and 275 Jews in the city.

It is very clear who should be moved . . . if you [Netanyahu] believe the settlers and the Arabs can live next to one another with fences, you are wrong. Today, we see once again the settlers must be removed from here.

A few weeks ago [Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak] Mordechai took a walking tour from Beit Hadassah to the Avraham Avinu neighborhood [settlement areas in Hebron]. As he inspected the market, due to be reopened with implementation of the redeployment agreement, I shook his hand, welcomed him to Hebron and pointed out to him that the market, located on Jewish property, was stolen from us following the expulsion of the Jewish community in 1929. His response: "And how much land did we take from them?" Shocked at this answer, especially because in Hebron we didn't take any land from the Arabs, I responded, "But they murdered us and then stole our land." Mordechai retorted, "You're looking at this from an historical perspective; where does that historical perspective begin?" This is the Israeli Likud Minister of Defense, who we put into office.

The Cabinet noted the 49th anniversary of the passage of the UN resolution leading to the establishment of the State of Israel. Prime Minister Netanyahu said that it is not the UN resolution, but rather Zionism which founded the State of Israel. However, without the 100 years of settlement which preceded the resolution, Zionism would not have been realized; and without the War of Independence, the State of Israel would not have been established. The UN resolution added international recognition of the right of the Jewish people to establish a state in its land. The Arabs who rejected the resolution 49 years ago are now seeking to roll back the course of events.

Jews living outside of Israel have raised $40 million over the past three months to buy up land from Arabs in the Hebron, Golan Heights, Negev and Jerusalem areas.

Hundreds of properties have already been purchased from Arab owners in Hebron and East Jerusalem. The land purchases are being done with discretion to avoid involvement of political figures. Sources close to Deputy Housing Minister Rabbi Meir Porush have stated the Deputy Minister is aware of the transactions and has given the green light.

Israel has confiscated more than 75,000 acres of Palestinian land in the West Bank and Gaza in the last three years, according to a report submitted by the Palestinian Authority [PA] Ministry of Information to PA Chairman Yasser Arafat. The report added that Israel has confiscated since 1967 almost 750,000 acres of the 1.5 million acres comprising the West Bank and Gaza Strip (74 percent in the West Bank and 26 percent in Gaza). The PA claims that in the 1993-1996 period Israel confiscated 47,975 acres in the West Bank for rock quarries; 3,000 acres for nature reserves; and 5,500 acres for the network of bypass roads to Israeli settlements.

Israel's General Security Service [Shabak] wrote a memo to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recommending that after a Hebron pullback deal is reached, he consider removing the estimated 450-member Hebron Jewish community due to fears of settler provocation which could lead to bloodshed. . . .

Netanyahu has repeatedly made it clear that he would not evacuate settlers, instead viewing the Hebron deal as a way of ensuring their safety.

In the Palestinian Legal Council they speak angrily about a popular struggle, about the national committees to defend the land, about the development in Area C of the greatest threat of all posed by the settlements. Ministers of the PA even make militant declarations and promise legal aid to residents, as though the PA was an external actor. Not for quotation, members of the PA acknowledge that they have little chance to thwart Israel's ability to do as it pleases on lands outside of Area A, to expand existing settlements, [and] to pave more security roads. . . .

We will monitor the addition of every house in the settlements. We will photograph construction from the air, by satellite, and from the ground. We will oppose every act on the government's part that encourages people to move to the territories.

As you must have heard and seen in the media, Kfar Darom was actually attacked by an Arab mob, and worse, by the Palestinian police using weapons supplied to them by the previous government. The residents were besieged in their houses while snipers armed with semi-automatic weapons arranged themselves opposite the community, waiting for living targets to come within their sights. There are still a number of families living in trailer homes. As you can imagine, their situation was even more dangerous.

Netzarim is isolated at the best of times. At that point [the September 'mini-intifada'], it was completely under siege, since the junction leading to it is controlled by the Palestinians, and not by a joint patrol of Palestinians and Israel Defense Forces, as it should have been. The children of Netzarim--which is situated in the northern part of the Katif region--who go to school in Atzmona--which is in the southern part of Katif--arrived home after midnight, having spent the first half of the night with families in Atzmona, and the next day, they did not go to school at all.

The children of Rafiah Yam and Pe'at Sadeh who attend school outside the Katif region came home late at night, after being hosted at Kibbutz Sa'ad, which is near Katif, but inside the "green line."

All suppliers of goods were stuck at roadblocks and couldn't get in, while our agricultural produce could not be sent to market, not to mention the fact that private cars were prohibited from driving the roads. Only after many long hours, after proper authorization was obtained from the army, the regional council organized and began to transport people and guests (since it was just before the holiday) to and from the roadblocks, in buses with special protection.

During the holiday itself, we heard shooting throughout the region. Tanks, helicopters and aircraft overhead all gave us the feeling of being at all-over war, and again we paid with the lives of our soldiers.