“One could save millions of words and mountains of paper, if one could bring a million Israelishere, It would change their outlook in a minute!” exclaimed a woman when she reached, worn outand breathing heavily, the top of the hill.
The hill is called, in occupation-speak, “Palm’s Hill”. Very high, very steep. It belongs tothe village of al-Khaddar, south of Bethlehem. The settlers of Efrata targeted it a long timeago. The slogans are nationalist, saving another chunk of land for the Greater Israel. But themoney, too, is not to be sneezed at. As real estate, the hill is worth hundreds of millions forthe speculators, who, as usual, wrap themselves in the Zionist flag. The villagers who own theland have put up a protest tent at the foot of the hill, and we – about fifty Israeli peaceactivists – went there to demonstrate our solidarity.
I know this particular hill well, having climbed it several times in the past. Five years ago,the Efrata settlers tried to take it over. Then, too, we went there to help the villagers. Dayafter day we confronted the soldiers, who were commanded, quite openly, by MK Hanan Porat ofthe settlers’ party (he who said “happy Purim” after the massacre committed by BaruchGoldstein in Hebron). There, for the first time, I met Alik Ron, then the commander of theSamaria-Judea police (under whose command 13 Arab citizens of Israel were recentlymurdered.) After several non-violent confrontations on the hill, a very violentconfrontation erupted below it, shots were fired by the army and several people – myselfincluded – were arrested. But we won a rare victory: the Rabin government gave up the plan tobuild a settlement on Palm’s Hill.
From the top of the hill, one has a wonderful view – a sea of hills divided by valleys, reachingthe horizon in every directions. At a glance, one can learn a lot.
One can learn, for example, how Shimon Peres is trying (again) to hoodwink the whole world. Heis ready to freeze all building activity in the settlements, except within the “built upareas”. From the top of Palm’s Hill, one can see what that means. It looks like this: Severalmiles behind me, there lies Efrata settlement proper, a 10 kilometer long sausage. In front ofme, about two kilometers away, there is a settlement of mobile homes, called Cereal’s Hill. Tothe right of me, some kilometers away, the red roofs of another settlement. All these belongofficially to Efrata and define its “built-up area”. Between them there lie many kilometers,on which one can build housing projects for tens of thousands of settlers. And that is only onesettlement among more than a hundred.
But when Israelis hear about “building only within the built-up area”, they imagine an emptyplot between two houses on Dizengoff street in Tel-Aviv. So if a settler wants to build there aroom or a veranda for his son, why not? As Sharon’s propaganda minister, Peres excels incheating. It’s a mitzve (good deed) to cheat the Goyim.
One can learn there, also, about the face of the occupation. When we reached the top of the hill,we were stopped by a line of soldiers. Fifty meters before us we saw the mobile homes of the newsettlement. It is illegal under Israeli law (and defined as a “war crime” by internationallaw), but the army sent its soldiers to defend it.
The soldiers were men from the reserves. The demonstrators started to argue with them, one ofthe young women engaged a soldier, 35 or so years old, in a friendly conversation. He lookedlike a nice person. Suddenly he saw a Palestinian advancing a few yards. In a split second, thenice soldier turned into a brutal robot. He changed before our eyes, as if by magic. Hisexpression and body language changed, changed. He treated the Arab as if he were a dog – withoutspaking, with a threatening gesture of his hand. It was easy to imagine what would havehappened if we, the Israelis and the cameras, had not been there.
A few days ago the army took over a big house on the edge of al-Khaddar, The people living therewere thrown out, soldiers moved in, an Israeli flag was hoisted. Beyond it, we saw the clouds ofdust raised by moving tanks. Al-Khaddar is completed cut-off, totally blockaded. In it, allwork has ceased.
That is called a “cease-fire”.
In the green protest-tent, at the foot of the hill, we heard the story of an old Arab woman. Fromher, too, one could learn a lot. She lives at the nearby refugee camp, Dheishe. She isoriginally a refugee from Kubeibe village, which she called by the present Hebrew name,Lakhish. In the first intifada, one of her seven children was killed. Then, after 50 years ofpossessing nothing, she succeeded in buying a little plot of two dunams (2000 sq. meters) onthe hill, to grow sorghum. Now she cannot go there, the land has been taken away.
Thus another lie is being uncovered. The Sharon-Peres line is that the refugees should besettled where they are. It seems that this does not apply to the hundreds of thousands ofrefugees living in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. They are condemned, so it seems, to becomerefugees for the second time.