Jewish Settlers in Territories Promise a Stiff Fight Under Rabin Government

One day after the elections, 19 families moved into a new settlement on the West Bank, just outside Kfar Adumim.

The Council of Jewish Settlements in the administered territories claimed that the cluster of new homes technically constituted a new neighborhood of Kfar Adumim.

But the message to the newly victorious Yitzhak Rabin was clear: The struggle over the settlements had just begun.

Leaders of the settlers have sworn they will do everything “legal” to prevent the implementation of a Palestinian autonomy plan, one of the hallmarks of the Labor Party’s platform.

And although they stressed “legal,” only slightly beneath the surface lurked the threat of real trouble.

After a Jewish resident of Hebron was stabbed by an Arab woman on Saturday, Jewish settlers took to the streets, smashed windshields of cars owned by Arabs and caused damage to several houses.

Radical elements within the Jewish population in the territories, particularly those associated with the late Rabbi Meir Kahane’s Kach movement, said the reaction was just a minor reminder to the Arabs not to be led to believe that the victory of Labor would weaken the local Jewish population.

If, under an autonomy plan, which Rabin has promised within nine months of taking office, “the Arabs receive the powers to authorize building and zoning, and approve housing on our account, we shall simply demolish their buildings,” said Benny Katzover, mayor of the regional council of Samaria.

Rabin has said he would support settlements in the territories that have security value, but not those established solely for political purposes.

Settlement leaders have warned that once Rabin marked a certain group of “political settlements” as “beyond the fence,” Jews in those areas would be marked by the Arabs as targets for murder.

MASS DEMONSTRATIONS POSSIBLE

Aharon Domb, spokesman for the Council of Jewish Settlements, said the stabbing in Hebron, which is considered a “political” settlement, and another Saturday in the Jordan Valley settlement of Ro’i, thought of as more vital to security, should prove to Rabin that there is no difference between “political” and “non-political” settlements as far as the Arabs are concerned.

Following the elections, heads of settlers in the territories met in Jerusalem for an emergency meeting. Moderate settlers urged their friends not to lose hope.

For the time being, they said, no one talks of removing Jewish settlements. The only possible development within the next nine months can be restricted implementation of the Palestinian autonomy.

Furthermore, the 120,000 Jews already living in the administered territories have created a powerful status quo that will be difficult to change, certainly for a government that seeks the broadest possible support.

If an autonomy does seem near approval, settlers said they plan to stage mass demonstrations in order to stir Israeli public opinion against any changes.

Israelis still remember painfully the violent struggle waged by settlers of Yamit, in northern Sinai, who were forced to abandon their town in 1981 after the Camp David accords went into effect and most of Sinai was returned to Egypt.

In the near future, the settlers intend to try to prevent undesirable developments by going on with settlement projects, according to old plans.

Settlers in the Gaza Strip are even more nervous about the possible halt to settlements. Although in their view, the Gaza Strip is an integral part of Eretz Yisrael, just like the West Bank, they are well aware of the fact that the Jewish settlements in the strip are further from the national consensus than the West Bank.

One exceptionally moderate voice among the settlers is that of Yinon Ahiman, the mayor of Efrat, a settlement just south of Bethlehem.

In an open letter to residents of the settlements, Ahiman sharply criticized the “boastfulness” of the Council of Jewish Settlements and urged the local Jewish population to say “yes” to Arab autonomy in the territories. Ahiman, an activist in the National Religious Party, urged the right-wing parties to join the Rabin coalition, to counteract the left bloc.

Ahiman seems to be a minority among the Jewish settlers, but the very fact that one of their public figures made a point of supporting autonomy is an indication that the projected debate on the future of the territories will not only take place between the government and the settlers, but also among the settlers themselves.