Subscribe to Print Edition | Tue., November 25, 2008 Cheshvan 27, 5769 | | Israel Time: 20:09 (EST+7)   Back to Homepage web haaretz.com Haaretz Toolbar Diplomacy Defense Jewish World Opinion National Print Edition Car Rental Books Haaretz Magazine Business Real Estate GA 2008 Travel Week's End Anglo File

Last update - 00:00 17/11/2008 When all is forbidden, all is permitted By Nadav Shragai Tags: settlers, IDF, Israel News  It is hard to remember when Defense Minister Ehud Barak last visited the settlements, when he last sat face to face with a teacher, nursery school teacher, parent or child, and not with the head of a council or settlement. Or when he last honestly and truly asked to learn about what is going on there. If Barak were to trouble himself and visit those areas, where about 300,000 Israelis now live, he would find hundreds of nursery schools, day care centers and schools filled to capacity along with thousands of young people and hundreds of young couples who want to build their homes next to their parents. But they are being forced to leave the settlements due to a lack of housing. There has never been anything like it in Judea and Samaria. The freeze is almost total. To enclose a porch, a family has to jump through five hoops, the last of which is the defense minister's signature. Advertisement The authorities are tightfisted even when a health clinic, school, youth center or public toilet is involved. Barak may have recently eased up slightly, mostly in the case of "settlement blocs" that according to the plan will remain under Israeli sovereignty after a permanent agreement. He was even generous enough to approve a cemetery near Ma'aleh Adumim, but this more resembles a joke on the living. When everything is forbidden, everything is permitted, a wise man once said. In other words: When it is impossible to transport even a trailer to be used as a school bathroom without the Central Command head's approval, or when the legal authorities rush to destroy every improvised little petting zoo set up by children to stop the serious threat to the rule of law from chickens or sheep, no one takes those authorities seriously anymore, and everything concerning construction is wide-open and allowed. This is how an industry of small mobile homes has developed. You build the walls in the backyard, and they turn into an illegal home. This is how entire neighborhoods have been built without permits, and why government representatives are met there with fury bordering on hatred, just as they are greeted in the Arab and Bedouin communities. After all, everything is forbidden there, too, so everything is permitted. It is crowded in the settlements. Annual growth is impressive, a bit more than 5 percent a year, more than twice the rest of the country. Two-thirds are the result of births, but even the formula of "natural growth" that was meant to allow those born in the settlements to continue living there - the policy Ariel Sharon's government stuck to at the beginning - has disappeared as if it never existed. When the Israeli government institutes a "white paper" policy in Judea and Samaria, it has implications well beyond the question of whether Israel is meeting the absurd international commitments it took on itself. A growing public, in particular the younger generation, is being forced to leave the settlements. This is a form of quiet population transfer. They would remain if they had the choice. The bitterness and insult will show one day: if not today then tomorrow. Many of them are joining the Israel Defense Forces in droves and even volunteering for the most elite units, while others are serving in places like Yeruham, Sderot, Ramle and Lod. They are also contributing in groups that work in social or religious education in these towns. All of them are getting married and starting families, and have nowhere to return home to. They are not the hilltop youth withdrawing from the Israeli state, or the expellees from Gush Katif. But anyone who thinks that this forced exile - the result of decrees of freezing and hanging the settlements out to dry - does not leave its traces on them is wrong. The state is driving away another segment of the public, whose natural inclination is to tie its fate to the State of Israel and contribute all it can. That is why it is so hard to decide whether to laugh or cry over the excitement taking hold of the left and its spokesmen as a result of what is called "Barak's settlement document." Barak, heaven forbid, approved 400 houses in the settlements. If there is a real reason to become excited, it lies in the little amount of construction that was unfrozen, at a time when thousands of young people are leaving Judea and Samaria every year as part of the big freeze. After all, who needs an evacuation if it is possible to simply drain the water from the aquarium? Bookmark to del.icio.us   Spy chain Iran: We smashed espionage network linked to Israel. Poultry dilemma Will U.S. Jews have kosher Turkey this Thanksgiving?   1.   Hard Times. 16:55  |  M. Franks-Lhermann 17/11/08   2.   Cruel to own people,servile to mortal enemy, 17:24  |  Absolute Sweden 17/11/08   3.   Only @war is the DM signature needed=Human Rts must B observed 19:06  |  sam 25/11/08

Read & React Olmert: History will owe Bush for setting Mideast on path to peace Responses: 97 Top UN official: Israel's policies are like apartheid of bygone era Responses: 124 Shas to seek payout for Jews deported from Arab countries Responses: 91 Policeman filmed head-butting East Jerusalem residents Responses: 22 Top UN official: Israel's policies are like apartheid of bygone era Responses: 124 Two Israelis sentenced to death in Thailand for drug smuggling Responses: 39 More Headlines 19:43 Olmert: U.S. never advised Israel to use restraint against Iran 15:49 Two Israelis sentenced to death in Thailand for drug smuggling 17:36 Tehran seeks death for three Iranians accused of spying for Israel 16:37 IAEA chief ElBaradei: Let Syria have nuclear aid 16:29 Iran's Khamenei: Lebanon needs unity to 'confront the Zionist regime' 19:06 Noam Shalit to Olmert: Redeem your failures and bring Gilad home before your term ends 18:17 Israeli 'beauty machine' helps optimize photographed faces 15:07 Top UN official: Israel's policies are like apartheid of bygone era 17:32 Jewish Agency panel urges sweeping changes to improve lives of new Ethiopian immigrants 19:01 Israel closes Gaza crossings again after humanitarian supplies let in 18:14 Fatah clan leader returns to Gaza after four months in exile 12:27 Thanksgiving in the Holy Land - Grace and 4 Questions 17:20 Abbas aide: Palestinian elections will be in April whether Hamas agrees or not 13:19 'There will be war over House of Peace,' vow Hebron settlers 14:25 Survey: 72% of public think Israel is rife with corruption 13:44 Finance Ministry unveils NIS 11 billion bailout for economy Previous Editions Select Day 24 nov 23 nov 21 nov 20 nov 19 nov 18 nov 17 nov 16 nov 14 nov 13 nov 12 nov 11 nov

Special Offers Advertisement Living in Israel Studying in English Click & Meet our students from all around the world Living in Israel Studying in English Click & Meet our students from all around the world Dan Boutique Jerusalem New Dan Hotel in Jerusalem Young, Fun & Distinctively Dan Book Now Online! Fattal Hotel Chain Perfectly located hotels on best resorts of Israel. Car rental in Israel Shlomo Sixt Receive $15.00 from our low rates. Dial 013 for your long-distance calls and get all your money back US CITIZENS Vote for real change. Request your ballot today! Eldan Rent a Car Israel's leading car rental company offers you a 20% discount on all online reservations Jewish Singles Personal Ads Find the love of your life on JDate.com Israel's Premier Real Estate Website www. israel-property.com Hebrew Summer courses From $39.95 Junkyard Junk a car - get free towing nationwide and a tax-deductible receipt

Home | TV | Print Edition | Diplomacy | Opinion | Arts & Leisure | Sports | Jewish World | Underground | Site rules |

Real Estate in Israel | Travel to Israel with Haaretz | Hotels Israel | Restaurants Israel | Tourist attractions Israel | Shops Israel

birthright Israel | Search engine marketing

Haaretz.com, the online edition of Haaretz Newspaper in Israel, offers real-time breaking news, opinions and analysis from Israel and the Middle East. Haaretz.com provides extensive and in-depth coverage of Israel, the Jewish World and the Middle East, including defense, diplomacy, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the peace process, Israeli politics, Jerusalem affairs, international relations, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Israeli business world and Jewish life in Israel and the Diaspora.

© Copyright  Haaretz. All rights reserved