Israeli Colonists Wary Of "Road Map To Peace"

by Ferry Biedermann

In its first phase, the roadmap would freeze construction in the settlements, but according to most interpretations, only after several other conditions have been fulfilled. The final phase in which a Palestinian state would be established would bring the removal of scores -- but not all -- of Jewish settlements.

"I'm sure this government will sell us out," says Akiva Markovich, a Jewish settler at this hilltop settlement near the Palestinian town Nablus.

"They will not offer us sufficient compensation to move," he said. "That is our big worry."

Markovich, a minibus driver, says many settlers he knows would be "more than happy" to pack up and leave if they are properly compensated. Some may be reluctant to leave the scenic but isolated and often dangerous hilltop, but most say they will leave if the government so decides.

That willingness has much to do with the dire economic situation in which the settlements find themselves. They have suffered more than most from the economic downturn that accompanied the outbreak of violence in 2000.

Markovich once had his own transport company with six minibuses, driving people from his neighborhood to Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. But many have been killed in attacks down that road, and few still brave the journey.

Pinchas Vallerstein, on the other hand, thinks large-scale evacuation can be avoided. He heads the regional council, and he controls a vast amount of land between Ramallah and Nablus.

"You see that tower, that is Ariel," he says pointing from a hillside overlooking a large part of his domain to the largest West bank settlement. "If we could just connect Ali here to Ma'ale Levona over there and Shilo over there and then to Ariel, we'd have one huge piece of land that connects to the green line, and this could all stay in Israel."

Vallerstein is not alone in his dream to keep large tracts of land for Israel on the West Bank, and allowing a Palestinian state in a few isolated tracts. Some settler leaders say this is the master plan that Ariel Sharon had been working on since the early seventies.

But in the isolated settlement of Maale Efraim, high above the northern Jordan Valley, there is a begrudging acknowledgement that settlements have little or no more support.

"This is much worse than the Oslo accords," says local mayor David Koplovitch. "Oslo was pushed by the left, by Rabin and others. We always knew the right would resist and eventually stop them. Now it is our own people who are doing it and it's much more frightening."

Koplovitch is a member of the central committee of Sharon's right-wing Likud party. He will fight the government's decision to accept the roadmap but he has little hope he can succeed. "There was nobody in the leadership who stood up to Sharon to vote for what they believed in." Koplovitch thinks Maale Efraim will cease to exist.

Claudia Giraca, an immigrant from Argentina who came to Israel and Maale Efraim 13 years ago, has accepted the inevitability of the closure of settlements. "I've had my suitcases next to my bed since we arrived," she says. "We came here because of the conditions they offered but it's okay with me to live somewhere else. It's just very difficult for us financially to move."

Seductive deals to Argentinean families who want to settle at Maale Efraim are still on offer. Like free housing for a year, free education, and free access to local facilities such as a swimming pool and tennis courts.

Giraca looks after new immigrants. In March and April, five families arrived, unfazed by the West Bank's reputation for violence, or by the prospect that they may have to move again soon. "It is peaceful here, nothing like we read in the papers in Argentina," says Sylvia who arrived two months back.

Koplovitch agrees. He points at the industrial park down the hill from the settlement. "Maale Efraim is proof that co-existence works. In the industrial park, 130 of the 200 jobs are being filled by Palestinians from neighboring villages."

"This is the ideal situation," he affirms. "We are in their cities and are fighting the terror. In the meantime we can drive on the roads again, even at night, and we continue to expand."

A construction plan for Maale Efraim is due to come up for approval in July. Koplovitch is asking permission form the housing ministry to build 55 houses on a plot of land adjacent to the settlement where he has already obtained zoning permits for 650 units. That about a dozen houses in the settlement of some 1,800 people are standing empty does not deter him.

"In July we will know if the government is serious or not," says Koplovitch. "If they really want to freeze construction, then we won't get the permission."