Israelis Prepare to Return to Evacuated West Bank Settlement
by Julie Stahl
Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - Hundreds of Israelis hope to rebuild a West Bank settlement uprooted a year and half ago as part of Israel's unilateral disengagement.
The plan is to take 10,000 people to Homesh -- in the northern West Bank -- and then plant 30 to 40 families there before the Passover holiday, which begins in the first week of April, organizers said.
If necessary, the people will fight for their right to settle there, said Tsafrir Ronen, who heads a group of non-religious Jews who tried to prevent the uprooting of settlements in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
According to the army, the entire Homesh area is off-limits to Israelis.
One Israeli official who asked not to be named suggested that any effort to re-settle the community could be met with a harsh response. He stressed that any illegal action would not be tolerated and would be met with "appropriate measures."
This is not a religious issue, Ronen said in a telephone interview.
The Israeli-Palestinian peace process was based on the idea that Israel would give land to the Palestinians in exchange for peace. But Israel should not give up any land, he said. He questioned whether the U.S. would give up land to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in exchange for a promise of peace.
Many Israelis believe that God promised the Jewish people the entire land of Israel, including the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) and the Gaza Strip as part of their divine, eternal inheritance as recorded in the Bible.
But the Palestinians want all of the Gaza Strip and West Bank, including part of Jerusalem, for their future state. Some factions, including Hamas, which won last year's Palestinian parliamentary elections, want all of Israel to be part of an Islamic Palestinian state.
No Arab army could destroy Israeli settlements, only the Israeli army could do it, Ronen said. Doing so taught the surrounding Arab nations that they don't need their armies because Israel will dismantle itself for them, he said.
It is not clear how many Israelis would support the move to rebuild Homesh.
Rebuilding Homesh is just the start -- a symbol that Israel will return to Gush Katif (in the Gaza Strip), Ronen said, adding that his group plans to build many more settlements.
'Illusions
Etti Rozenblat, who lived in Homesh for 21 years before being forced out by her own government, said she did not believe the settlement would ever be rebuilt. The government would never allow it. The religious Jews have "illusions," she said in a telephone interview. They think they can change the politicians.
She said long-time residents of Homesh probably wouldn't go back there: "We can't bear another evacuation."
There were some 50 families living in Homesh prior to its dismantlement - 38 non-religious and 12 religious, she said.
Pawns of politicians
Dr. Amy Rosenbluh, a spokeswoman for the conservative advocacy group Professors for a Strong Israel, said her group is among those that hope to resettle Homesh.
"We don't view this as an extreme act," she told Cybercast News Service. "It is a healthy response of people who want to live and survive in their homeland."
Rosenbluh said Israelis are tired of being pawns in the hands of politicians who could decide at any time to order another expulsion. "It is time to take our destiny into our own hands."
It's not clear how many people are involved in the resettlement movement. Five groups, including Professors for a Strong Israel (PSI), were named in Israeli press reports.
PSI describes itself as a "non-partisan organization of academics united by a shared concern for the security and the Jewish character of the State of Israel." Its membership includes more than 400 Israelis -- about 50 percent secular and 50 percent religious, said Rosenbluh.
Topple Olmert instead
Israeli Knesset member Yuval Steinitz of the rightwing Likud party said the idea of rebuilding Homesh was not a particularly good one at this time.
The "main target" should be to topple the government of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Steinitz said in a telephone interview.
Most of the public is now opposed to Olmert's leadership, Steinitz said. (A recent opinion poll showed that Olmert had only 3 percent of public support for his continued leadership in the country.)
Beginning the settlement struggle all over again would only serve the interests of Olmert by dividing those who oppose him into leftwing and rightwing camps, he said.
"Olmert would be happy to struggle with the settlers about a new settlement," he said. It would rally the leftwing and the media behind him, he added.
It was Olmert's predecessor, former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who pushed through the disengagement plan, which was carried out in the summer of 2005. Four West Bank communities and 21 in the Gaza Strip were unilaterally evacuated in an emotionally wrenching spectacle.
Some of the communities had been in existence for as many as 30 years and all of them had been approved by the Israeli government.
According to supporters of disengagement, the withdrawal was meant to diminish contact -- and the resulting friction -- between Israelis and Palestinians. That supposedly would give the road map peace process a chance to work. But it never happened.
