Among the settlers
Philip Weiss
This is the first half of a piece about my tour of four Israeli settlements in mid-January. The second half is here.
On my first night in an Israeli settlement, David
served chicken soup left over from Sabbath and told me an unsettling
story about the birth of Israel. His great uncle had escaped Europe to
come to a Jewish kibbutz called Ein Harod. On the next hill was a
Palestinian village. When hostilities broke out between Jews and
Palestinians in 1948, the Jews went up to the village and announced that
the next day they were bringing bulldozers to level the place, the
people should leave. The next day they went back and were surprised to
find that the Palestinians had all fled– fearing a massacre like the one
that took place in Deir Yassin. The Jews then leveled the village and
used the stones to build a stadium in their kibbutz. David said his
uncle had told this story “with a twinkle in his eye.”
served chicken soup left over from Sabbath and told me an unsettling
story about the birth of Israel. His great uncle had escaped Europe to
come to a Jewish kibbutz called Ein Harod. On the next hill was a
Palestinian village. When hostilities broke out between Jews and
Palestinians in 1948, the Jews went up to the village and announced that
the next day they were bringing bulldozers to level the place, the
people should leave. The next day they went back and were surprised to
find that the Palestinians had all fled– fearing a massacre like the one
that took place in Deir Yassin. The Jews then leveled the village and
used the stones to build a stadium in their kibbutz. David said his
uncle had told this story “with a twinkle in his eye.”
David was not the only settler to tell me stories of
the Nakba. And the meaning was clear: A previous generation of Zionists
had done terrible things to Palestinians in order to build the state of
Israel. Now David and the other settlers were taking that same project–
Zionism, the renewal of the Jewish people in their land—to the next
part of the land of Israel. And they were doing so without destroying
Palestinian villages, as their socialist predecessors had done.
the Nakba. And the meaning was clear: A previous generation of Zionists
had done terrible things to Palestinians in order to build the state of
Israel. Now David and the other settlers were taking that same project–
Zionism, the renewal of the Jewish people in their land—to the next
part of the land of Israel. And they were doing so without destroying
Palestinian villages, as their socialist predecessors had done.
The settlers told me that the great political
development of the last year or two is that the Tel Aviv elite now
concede that the settlers are never leaving. The elites give lip service
to a Palestinian state because the world wants to hear that. But few in
Jewish Israeli society even want that to happen; it would tear the
country apart.
development of the last year or two is that the Tel Aviv elite now
concede that the settlers are never leaving. The elites give lip service
to a Palestinian state because the world wants to hear that. But few in
Jewish Israeli society even want that to happen; it would tear the
country apart.
