How I became an evil settler
I am the 'other,' the archetype of Israeli evil. Otherness is the darling of people who love to hate. It allows people from any camp, left, right or center, to isolate themselves from certain people, turn them into an inhuman group and hate them without guilt or torment.
By Avinoam SharonI am a "settler." Because I am a settler, artists and members of the academic community - some of whom are my close friends - have decided to boycott my home. I am a settler, the archetypical Other of Israeli evil.
Otherness is the darling of people who hate. It allows people of every stripe, left, right and center, to dissociate from certain people as a dehumanized class without thought or regret, and to hate without pangs of guilt. Throughout history, Jews have played the role of Other. In the world community today, Israel itself often plays the role of Other. Now I am the Other. I am the Other because I am a "settler," and in the eyes of some, that is what defines me.
How did I become this embodiment of all that is wrong and unjust?
When I married, I had hoped to continue to live in Jerusalem, to raise my family in the city in which I had grown up. But the Israeli Government had different ideas. By the time I married, successive Israeli Governments - left and right - had pursued a policy of discouraging young couples from purchasing homes in the major cities, and of directing them to development towns and to the Territories. It was a policy that, for example, made it necessary for a young couple to put up as much as 60 percent of the purchase price of an apartment in cash in order to qualify for a mortgage or other housing loans, while providing free land and subsidized housing assistance of 85 percent and more of the cost of a home in "areas of national priority."
My wife and I did not want to live in an area of national priority. We didn’t want to leave Jerusalem. But after moving from one rented flat to another four times in five years, I wrote to the Minister of Housing. He replied. He advised me that generous incentives were available to those who moved to rural communities and to the Territories.
Like many in our situation, we began to look. We found a small community near the Green Line, overlooking Ben-Gurion Airport - a settlement "in the national consensus." It was a community that had been built after the Government had convinced the Supreme Court that it was absolutely needed to serve vital interests of national security.
Despite the high-sounding pronouncements of the politically correct, greater legal minds than Oded Kotler, Zeev Sternhell, Cynthia Nixon and Mandy Patinkin (among them, the Israeli Supreme Court and the legal advisors of the U.S. Department of State and of the United Nations) had determined that there was nothing illegal about building my home. And even after the Government of the late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin announced a policy of "drying up" the settlements, my community continued to receive preferential loans, grants and generous incentives from his Government.
But things have changed. Negotiations for the establishment of a Palestinian state have turned me and my neighbors into political pawns. The security barrier now separates us physically from the State of Israel. The two policies have contributed to rendering my home a valueless asset, an economic trap - a prison. Yet, no Israeli government, left, right or center, has been willing to state what will become of me or of my neighbors.
Like most settlers, I am a Zionist. I believe that settling the Land of Israel is about national self-determination. I believe - in true Zionist tradition - that Zionism is about Jewish national sovereignty in the Jewish homeland, not about its specific borders. I believe that the so-called "settler leaders" who declare their determination to remain in their communities even if they become part of a Palestinian state, represent a misguided minority that puts the Land of Israel before Jewish sovereignty. Their messianic view is not Zionism at all. It is a betrayal of Zionism.
A Zionist, by virtue of his ideals, must say that if the duly elected Government of the State of Israel has decided that a particular piece of territory is to be relinquished to another sovereign, or that a particular community does not serve the national interest, then he will move to a place where the Jewish national interest will be realized. The opposite statement is anti-Zionist.
Nevertheless, I am now dismissed as an irredeemable Other - unworthy of education, of culture and of support. I am condemned for my choices by those who have robbed me of choice. The signatories of the various petitions and supporters of the boycotts might bear in mind why I have become the object of their anger, hate and condemnation. It is because, like them, I dreamt and continue to dream of a better Israel. It is because, by and large, we value the same ideals. So, when they accuse me, they should bear in mind that I am guilty only by association with them.
Avinoam Sharon is a retired IDF lieutenant colonel, a lawyer and a resident of Nili.
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Just because you live in a country which flouts international law does not give you a justification to do the same. It is your personal responsibility to ensure you are not violating other people's rights, and you cannot blame your government or society. If the IDF commands you to do something illegal under humanitarian law, must you not refuse? The exact same logic applies here. Own up to your mistakes.
The lines of combatants are not necessarily evil people, but still they are committd to kill or be killed. They made that committment when they joined the army. For settlers, the stakes are not so high, but the committment is the same. Missing a play or concert, or being overlooked by some government program is survivable. Maybe the real war will never visit your settlement as it has others. Everything includes an element of risk. Having made a choice, you cannot opt out of the risk.
Israel uses the settlement enterprise, together with their very substantial financial benefits as an instrument of national policy. The settlers are people who are tempted and choose just as anyone might. Once they have donned the mantle of "settler", they are forced into a position of "defending" their homes and families just as anyone would. This includes taking a strong position against the Palestinians. If America had a settler program of taking land in Mexico and giving it to Americans , there would be a line of applicants five miles long in spite of the unrest and violence in parts of Mexico. My point is that the settlers are not necessarily evil, but they did make a questionable choice. Like everything, you must take the bad with the good. In your case, the good was very good. You should not be surprised if the bad gets worse over time.
Decisions must often be made between the easy path and the difficult path. Between the expensive path and the cheaper path. There are always advantages and disadvantages to each and every path. Once having considered the pros and cons, a decision is made and one must live with it. The process is as common as dirt. Personally, If I was offered a house for next to nothing, I would be quite skeptical and suspicious. You have a great advantage over people in other places that have made irrevocable decisions. This advantage is that you do not have a massive amount of your capital tied up in your home. You may actually have an option of moving to Israel and leaving the troublesome territories which have become a burden to your thoughts. You have been paid in advance for taking a path that made you a pawn of national policy. You did this with eyes wide open. Now you are complaining. It is unlikely that you will find either understanding or sympathy except from others in your situation. (Actually, I do have both sympathy and understanding for your situation. I may have made the same choices. You gambled, and we don't know if you won or lost yet. I wouldn't get too worked up over the actors boycott. Sorry for the lecture)
Perhaps you should read Isaiah Chapter 11, verses 10 through 14 with special emphasis on verses 13 and 14. (13) "Then at last the jealousy between Israel and Judah will end. They will not be rivals anymore. (14) They will join forces to swoop down on Phillistia to the west. Together they will attack and plunder the nations to the east. They will occupy the lands of Edom and Moab.' Take courage, Col. Sharon. You have made the right choice.
very reasonable and moderate.With settlers like you,a peaceful deal would be possible.The ME needs peace to flourish, what it is better for all.
I
but they never tried to make the money by hard work
You're an illegal settler under the GCs which are there to protect all civilians, even you. You cite advisors. However, their advice was not valid according to the final decisions of the various bodies . Rather deceitful of you, no? Habit? You are an ILLEGAL Israeli settler. Get over it and get out. Go to Israel, it was after all created for those of us who're in need of a safe refuge, even from the ghastly policies of successive Israeli Governments and their putrid enticements designed to put YOU in the front line of so called 'defense'
if you are still making excuses for yourself get over it and grow up....that you weree born jewish does not give you the right to steal
People in Europe or in the USA who cannot afford to buy property keep renting, they do not have the opportunity of going to live in illegal settlement because they do not practice colonialism. I understand that the temptation was there, but you should have been strong and resisted. Some Israeli citizens do, so why didn't you too? is real estate above your honor?
The claim that " legal advisers of the U.S. State Department and the United Nations, determined that there was nothing illegal about building my home" is - bluntly - a lie. The US State Department officially ruled in 1979 that ALL settlements over the Green Line are illegal, and that ruling has never been revoked. See http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/16/AR2009061603285.html. The International Court of Justice, in its advisory opinion on the separation fence, ruled the same way (see http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/index.php?p1=3&p2=4&k=5a&case=131&code=mwp&p3=4).
Interestingly enough Lefties embrace this arch-imperialist institution . And screw the "International Court of Justice" ,silent on Gypsie expulsions but defending suicide bombers "right to perform ,unimpeded by the fence"
Seems to be a pathology inherent in illegal settlers, their supporters and successive Israeli Governments.
You are correct that the State Department made such a ruling in 1979. It has largely been ignored in the legal literature, inter alia, because it was based on a highly idiosyncratic construction of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Every now and again the press drags it up to embarrass a politician.
You will not fight to stay, should the decision be made. In that respect , you are most certainly not the object of hate. Pity, I would say most empathicly. Let us hope that the compensation will be swift and generous. Only those who reject it, and hoist weapons, will we hate.
for returning stolen property?
Who are you to hate anyone? God has placed Col. Sharon where he is supposed to be. God's purpose is to have His nation of Israel reclaim their land from the sojourners and trespassers and unify it within the borders He specified. The Jews who live in the cities are no better than those who live in the so-called settlements and vice-versa. Stop the pointless rivalry and reclaim your entire heritage.