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| Anyone catch Bill Moyer's "Now" on PBS the other day? They did a segment featuring interviews with the refuseniks that was very well done. The soldiers explained how they felt manipulated and used as an extension of settler policies. Apparently their numbers are growing, and about a dozen of them have been jailed thus far. Also, there was a segment on the settlers themselves; most of them are orthodox Jews from the US who emigrated under Israel's "Law of Return" that grants automatic citizenship to anyone who is Jewish. Also, the Israeli govt.grants massive housing subsidies to the settlers as a form of encouragement, land can thus be bought and built on on the west bank for a pittance. Many of the larger settlements are right between two major Palestinian areas, cutting them off from each other. The way the settlers talk of their right to inhabit the land there is truly stomache-churning, every thread of conversation winds up inevitably back at the bible as the sole reason for their right to maintain a "manifest destiny" style approach to what is effectively colonization. The occupied territories were originally captured in '67 to be used by the Israelis as "bargaining chips", the settlers movement came later with the full backing of many in both the orthodox Jewish communities and the Israeli right-wing, which only further complicated an already fucked-up situation. The settlers may have to be removed by force one day, if not by the Israelis then by an international peace-keeping force, either that or the Palestinians will do it simply by population growth. Apparently the Palestinians have a much higher birth rate than the Israelis, and will outnumber them 2:1 by 2010. As one of the refuseniks put it: "If people think things are bad now, imagine how they will be in ten years...the Israelis in the govt. will shake their heads and say, what were we thinking?" |
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