Jewish settlers in the administered territories, increasingly nervous with the reports from Washington of progress in the Middle East peace talks, appear to be growing more militant, with violent clashes reported this week between activists and soldiers.
A minor controversy over a 650-foot road near the West Bank settlement of Beit El developed into a violent confrontation Monday between settlers and soldiers.
It was reminiscent of clashes that took place in 1982, when the Israeli army forced Jews to evacuate the Sinai settlement of Yamit, in compliance with the Camp David peace accords signed with Egypt.
The scene this week of soldiers using force against Jewish settlers, many of them children, seemed like a minor prelude to possible clashes in the future with settlers, if a political settlement with the Palestinians is worked out.
The conflict began when a bulldozer, escorted by a group of soldiers, arrived at Beit El to block part of the road linking the settlement with the Ramallah-Nablus main road.
The work was ordered, according to the army, because the settlers had paved the road on private Arab land, without the necessary legal permits.
The settlers regarded the army’s intervention as proof of their complaints that in preparing for Palestinian autonomy, the government has been siding with Arabs at the expense of Jewish interests in the territories.
The settlers regard the road as essential for security, as it would be the only emergency alternative to the main access road to the settlement.
Minutes after the army bulldozer and the soldiers arrived on the scene, they were confronted with hundreds of young Jewish settlers, summoned from nearby schools.
The youths lay down on the road, preventing the soldiers from carrying out any work.
Rabbi Shabtai Sabato instructed his students not to move, no matter what.
“Thanks to you and your struggle, Eretz Yisrael will be built,” he said. “The weak ones who have no strength for struggles are not worthy of Eretz Yisrael,” the term commonly used by settlers to refer to Greater Israel.
Suddenly, for reasons unclear, the confrontation developed into a physical struggle. Soldiers began removing the youths by force from the road, as younger children cried and one pregnant woman lost consciousness.
The incident ended when settler leaders telephoned Deputy Defense Minister Mordechai Gur, who instructed that the bulldozing work be suspended until the entire issue is resolved.
An upcoming meeting of the settlers in the West Bank is expected to focus on how far they are willing to go to disrupt the process leading to Palestinian autonomy.
A leaflet distributed by the settlers this week called for a tougher stand against the government policy now, before the situation becomes irreversible.
The confrontation this week came amid reports that Jews in the administered territories, as well as the Golan Heights, have begun hording arms for a possible armed resistance against their evacuation, if stipulated in a political settlement.
Attorney General Yosef Harish instructed Israeli police this week to launch an investigation following a weekend television report which depicted armed settlers carrying out drills in the framework of a self-appointed “Judea Police” and carrying out armed patrols inside Arab villages.
SHIN BET MONITORING SETTLERS
The Shin Bet domestic security agency was also said to be keeping “a close watch” over the “troublemakers” among the settlers.
The Shin Bet reportedly has begun to trail and tap the phones of the settlers who have been the most vocal in opposition to the government’s handling of the peace process and the autonomy proposal.
Harish said the ministers were in agreement that the authorities would apply the law against any “attempt to disrupt the democratic process.”
Knesset member Ran Cohen of the dovish Meretz bloc, who is also deputy minister of construction and housing, demanded that the army “detain all those involved in erecting an army of political hooligans.”
He demanded an investigation into why the intelligence forces had not prevented the development of armed Jewish patrols.
In the face of these concerns aired by politicians on the left, leaders on the right tended to minimize the radical statements by settlers, claiming that those settlers who say they would resist a possible withdrawal were only a “loud minority.”
Gur also tended to downplay the settlers’ threats, saying that by and large, the Jewish population in the administered territories has shown maturity and used arms for personal protection only.
Gur said the authorities were committed to guaranteeing the safety of the settlers “as long as they are there — and they are there.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
