Infamous Netzarim Israeli Colony Feeling Isolated, Betrayed

by Ferry Biedermann

Settlers face a string of pronouncements by senior government figures that hint at possible evacuation of the most isolated settlements.

Both Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his deputy Ehud Olmert have started talking about unilateral steps Israel may take if the peace process remains stuck. Evacuation of isolated settlements "to improve the security of our country" as Sharon put it, is a central feature of their recent remarks.

Leader of the settlers in Gaza Avner Shimoni says they feel betrayed by the two right-wing politicians they regarded as their allies. "We are very disappointed especially that Sharon does not seem to appreciate the security contribution of the settlements," says Shimoni.

At the entrance road to Netzarim from the edge of the Gaza strip, army jeeps waited last week to accompany the next convoy to the settlement. An armored bus maintains an hourly service, and people in cars change into bullet-proof jackets at the entrance.

"Don't stand up," the driver cautioned as the bus lumbered through the opening in the electrified fence that surrounds the Gaza strip. An experienced passenger explained that only the lower part of the windows is bullet-proof glass.

Last May a bus was blown up on the road between the settlement and the border. "It was a miracle nobody got killed," said a settler.

Opposite the fortified gate to Netzarim the ruins of two large apartment buildings loom in the sands. The flats were blown up by the army when a gunman infiltrated the settlement in October and killed three soldiers, including two women who were asleep.

That incident started off the latest round of discussions about the future of the settlement. Many Israelis see isolated settlements, and particularly Netzarim as a burden they are no longer willing to bear both in economic terms and in terms of loss of life.

Some 400 soldiers are now stationed in the settlement to protect an equal number of settlers. Residents who all tend to the religious nationalist side of the political spectrum argue that they have a right to live "anywhere in the land of Israel" and that they are a security asset.

The road to Netzarim cuts the main north-south road in Gaza in two. The infamous Netzarim junction was a focal point for clashes between Palestinians and Israelis at the beginning of the Intifadah.

The Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem says at least 44 Palestinians have been killed around Netzarim in more than three years of the Intifadah. Most of them were armed, or were involved in action against Israelis, says B'Tselem.

Netzarim junction is now closed to Palestinian traffic, which has to use a narrow coastal road instead. This artery too is sometimes closed by the army, making north-south movement in Gaza impossible.

The settlers see themselves in the front line in the fight against terror. "We are like the little boy with his finger in the dike," says spokesman for the settlers Eran Sternberg.

He dismisses the debate over evacuation of Netzarim as idle talk. "In 1942 the Jews in Europe also boarded the trains voluntarily because they thought they were going to be evacuated," he said.

The Palestinian population of the Gaza strip is more than 1.2 million, most of them living in severe poverty. Some 7,000 Jewish settlers live among them in heavily fortified enclaves on about 20 percent of the land.

At the edge of Netzarim, settler Dina Abramson points to suburban houses with red-tiled roofs and green, spacious walkways. "This is a symbol for the land and the people of Israel," she says. Behind her were armored vehicles, a watch-tower and soldiers patrolling the settlement.

Abramson who is 21, religious and very outspoken, came to Netzarim three years ago just after the outbreak of the Intifadah. She grew up in Beit El, a West Bank settlement near Ramallah that is of Biblical importance to the Jews.

"I did not come here to fight but I did come to be in the frontline," says Abramson. Beit El may have more Biblical importance than Netzarim but "for now this is more important," she says. "Everybody talks about Netzarim and not about Beit El."

Orly Ifrah has lived in Netzarim since 1982 and remembers the time she and her husband could go shopping in Palestinian stalls in Gaza City. Like many other settlers she blames the Oslo peace accords of 1993 rather than geographic or demographic realities for the isolation of Netzarim.

"We are isolated only because the army withdrew from around us," says Ifrah, an elementary school teacher. "Before Oslo we could go everywhere and we didn't have any problems with the Arabs."

Ifrah too rejects talk of evacuating Netzarim. "If they evacuate us, they should first evacuate Tel-Aviv."