In the wake of a petition filed by the Israeli Arab legal center Adalah about a year ago, the High Court of Justice ruled that the government must abolish the "national preference" regions in education. The Education Ministry's chief scientist, Prof. Sidney Strauss, is currently formulating a new budgeting index for educational institutions. The primary - and apparently only - institutions that will be negatively affected by this will be the educational institutions in the settlements.

Governments that are interested in encouraging the population of certain areas declare them to be areas of national preference and give the residents direct benefits such as grants and indirect benefits in education, mortgages or other areas, as well as tax breaks. To prevent residents from abandoning the North, for instance, many communities in the Galilee receive major tax and education benefits. The same holds for the Negev. In addition, kibbutzim with few students also receive funds from the "settlement education" budget.

Many communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza were also included in the national preference program. But around four years ago - at the height of the terror war, in an expression of a perfect sense of timing - a key benefit was abolished: a 7-percent reduction in income tax. Those who had expected that monetary damage would do what terrorism hadn't - spur an abandonment of the settlements - demonstrated their own values while showing the extent to which they don't recognize the values that lead such a large population to settle in the heart of a hostile region and take the mortal risk of terror attacks in their communities and ambushes on the roads. Few, if any, were influenced by the worthless step.

	Advertisement

Later, Judea, Samaria and Gaza were removed from the national preference map regarding tourism. Some people were damaged by that move, such as the owners of hotels in Gush Katif and Samaria. But despite the security risks, the motivation to continue to visit the regions where the Israeli nation was born - where its culture, religion, identity and language developed and where some of its sons took hold once again of places where their forefathers had lived - did not diminish, including the motivation of tens of thousands of Christian tourists.

Indeed, the suburban communities in Judea and Samaria do not have to be included under a national preference plan in any sphere. By contrast, the mountain ridge communities, whose residents risk their lives daily, do need to be included - and not just in education. In these communities, traveling to regional schools is dangerous, which is why they have classrooms with fewer students than the norm. The sweeping, discriminatory decision to abolish the national preference regions, apparently also in relation to these communities, will only intensify the bitterness that this sector feels toward the government, and in extreme cases, it will intensify the bitterness that members of this sector feel toward the state in general.

Abolishing the educational benefits for settlers comes after the traumatic events of the uprooting of 25 communities in Gush Katif and the failure, to this day, to adequately cope with those who were uprooted. It comes after the construction of residential units was banned in the settlements, and not just in the outposts - an illegal and non-humanitarian order. It comes after the High Court ordered the destruction of houses in Amona in the wake of a Peace Now petition - a command that led to the serious police violence against youths who holed up there and generated anger against police, the army and the judiciary. And it comes as 42 families are meant to be evacuated from Migron, once more following a Peace Now petition to the High Court.

It's difficult not to see this ever-tightening circle in which most branches of the government are participating as part of a general trend - which will not succeed - to subdue the entire settlement enterprise.