The Unmaking of Israel (31 page)

58
Palestinians in the early 1980s:
Gershom Gorenberg,
The End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount
(New York: Free Press, 2000): 116–18, 132–37.

58
“without permission of the owner”:
“Bneh Beitkha Be’ofrah,” 29 Apr. 1976, OA. The settlers originally squatted in an abandoned Jordanian army base, and believed that title to the land had passed to the Israeli government, which had not given them permission to build on it. However, the Jordanian government never completed the process of expropriating the land. It became state property only when the Israeli military commander of the area issued an expropriation order in November 1977, after Menachem Begin replaced Yitzhak Rabin as prime minister and altered settlement policy. The expropriation order violated Israel’s own interpretation of the Jordanian law on expropriation, which was still in force in the West Bank. That interpretation barred taking private land for an Israeli settlement. See Shalev et al.,
Ofrah Settlement
20–23.

58
“greatest triumphs over adversity”:
Jared Diamond,
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
(New York: Viking, 2004): 275.

59
mining, logging, and ranching:
Diamond 211–76, 432–34.

60
into muscular farmers:
Theodore Herzl,
Altneuland
, book 2, www.59.org.il/en/resources/view.asp?id=1600, acc. 13 Apr. 2004, describes Jewish children in Europe as “pale, weak, timid.” Cf. Arthur Hertzberg, ed.,
The Zionist Idea: A Historical Analysis and Reader
(New York: Atheneum, 1973): pt. 5. Describing European Jews, early Zionist writers unconsciously repeated anti-Semitic stereotypes.

60
“rent between ourselves and Nature”:
A. D. Gordon, “people and Labor,” in Hertzberg,
Zionist Idea
374.

60
marking the national homestead:
Tsur,
Mipulmus Hahalukah
31; Yehiel Admoni,
Asor Shel Shikul Da’at: Hahityashvut Me’ever Lekav Hayarok, 1967–1977
(Decade of Discretion: Settlement Policy in the Territories, 1967–1977) (Makhon Yisrael Galili Leheker Hakoah Hamagen/Yad Tabenkin/Hakibbutz Hame’uhad, 1992): 17; Arnon Lammfromm and Hagai Tsoref, eds.,
Levi Eshkol: Rosh Hamemshalah Hashlishi
(Levi Eshkol: The Third Prime Minister—Selected Documents, 1895–1969) (Jerusalem: Israel State Archives, 2002): 239ff.

61
and the first half of 1967:
Zeev Tsur,
Hakibbutz Hame’uhad Beyishuvah shel Ha’aretz
(The Hakibbutz Hameuchad in the Settlement of Eretz Yisrael), vol. 4,
1960–1980
(Yad Tabenkin/Hakibbutz Hame’uhad, 1986): 52; Admoni,
Asor Shel Shikul Da’at
11, 17–18.

61
“war would be a disaster”:
Arnan Azaryahu, interview. Azaryahu, who died in 2008, was known for decades only by his nickname, Sini (Chinaman).

62
“that neither side wanted”:
Avi Shlaim,
The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World
(New York: W. W. Norton, 2001): 236.

62
was unprepared for battle:
Shlomo Gazit,
Peta’im Bemalkodet: Shloshim Shnot Mdiniut Yisrael Bashtahim
(Trapped) (Tel Aviv: Zmora-Bitan, 1999): 15; Eitan Haber,
Hayom Tifrotz Milhamah
(Today War Will Break Out: The Reminiscences of Brig. Gen. Israel Lior) (Tel Aviv: Edanim/Yediot Aharonot, 1987): 147; Shlomo Lahat, interview.

62
expected a one-front war:
Shlaim,
Iron Wall
236–43.

62
rolled to the waterway:
Michael B. Oren,
Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2002): 259; NARA RG 59 Central Files 1967–69, POL 28 Jerusalem, Tel Aviv cable 4019.

62
the entire West Bank:
Lammfromm and Tsoref,
Levi Eshkol
557–58; Shlaim,
Iron Wall
245.

62
ordered an invasion:
Oren,
Six Days of War
195, 278–80; Lammfromm and Tsoref,
Levi Eshkol
559.

62
sending his troops farther:
YAOH 2:22.

63
“the gains of the war”:
Azaryahu, interview.

63
intoxicated secular Jews:
A. Ben-Ami, ed.,
Hakol: Gvulot Hashalom Shel Eretz Yisrael
(Hakol: The Peace Frontiers of Israel) (Tel Aviv: Madaf, 1967).

64
cooperate in a diplomatic solution:
Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) 19:49; Lammfromm and Tsoref,
Levi Eshkol
579.

64
Arab birth rate was higher:
Israeli population: Central Bureau of Statistics,
Statistical Abstract of Israel 2003
, www1.cbs.gov.il/shnaton54/st02_01.pdf, acc. 14 July 2004. Note: 1967 figures include Arab noncitizen residents of annexed East Jerusalem. Postwar Israeli estimates of the population of the occupied territories went as high as 1.5 million (ISA 153.8/7921/2-Alef, doc. 331). Later documents (ISA 153.8/7921/3-Alef), including October 1967 census figures for West Bank and Gaza, lead to an approximate total of 1.1 million. The discrepancy is due in part to refugees leaving the West Bank during and after the war.

64
had fallen in 1948:
David E. Eisenstadt,
Hatmurot Bigvulot Ha’ironiim (Municipaliim) shel Yerushalayim, 1863–1967
(The evolution of Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries, 1863–1967) (MA thesis, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, 1998): 121, 130–51; David Eisenstadt, interview.

64
citizenship on another’s citizens:
Uzi Benziman,
Yerushalayim: Ir Lelo Homah
(Jerusalem: City without a Wall) (Tel Aviv: Schocken, 1973): 203–5.

64
annexing the land:
In legal terms, the annexation was effected by extending Israeli Jerusalem’s city limits and applying Israeli law to the new areas of the city. The word
annexation
was not used, with the hope of reducing international backlash. At the time, the State Department instructed the U.S. ambassador in Israel to inform the Israeli government that international law forbade not just unilateral annexation, but also changes in local law of occupied territory, with the exception of changes needed for military purposes (NARA RG59 Central Files 1967–69, POL27 ARAB-ISR, cable 218573). At an Israeli cabinet meeting on 10 Sept. 1967, justice minister Ya’akov Shimshon noted, “In relation to Jerusalem, we strode with our eyes wide open and violated the Geneva Conventions in the clearest possible fashion, on a one-time basis.” Reuven Pedatzur,
Nitzahon Hemukhah: Mdiniut Memshelet Eshkol Bashtahim Le’ahar Milhemet Sheshet Hayamim
(The Triumph of Embarrassment: Israel and the Territories after the Six-Day War) (Tel Aviv: Bitan/Yad Tabenkin, 1996): 195. A leading Israeli scholar of international law, Tel Aviv University law professor Yoram Dinstein, argued in his classic 1970 article, “Tzion Bemishpat Beinle’umi Tipadeh,”
Hapraklit
27 (1971): 5–11, that Israel lacked any basis in international law for annexing East Jerusalem unilaterally. However, Dinstein’s article came in response to an Israeli Supreme Court ruling that East Jerusalem had in fact been annexed by Israel’s actions in 1967. The court thereby undercut the claim made for diplomatic purposes that extending the municipal limits was not intended as annexation.

64
“and Israel’s security needs”:
YTA 15 Galili/2/3/115; Pedatzur,
Nitzahon Hemukhah
55–56.

65
to protect the straits:
ISA 43/7234/7-Alef, doc. 287.

65
“the dowry comes the bride”:
ISA 153.8/7920/7-Alef, Eshkol speech to Ihud Hakvutzot Vehakibbutzim, 22 Nov. 1967.

65
“not be citizens of Israel”:
ISA Cabinet minutes, 19 June 1967, 65.

65
and few of the people:
ISA Cabinet minutes, 19 June 1967, 41–50; ISA 153.8/7921/2-Alef, doc. 192; YAOH 7:22.

65
decided not to decide:
YAOH 3:20–21.

66
“done with the Zionist enterprise”:
ISA Cabinet minutes, 19 June 1967, 39–40.

66
“every colonial regime”:
Leibowitz,
Judaism
226.

66
“say in the same breath”:
LPS, 9 Nov. 1972, 33–35.

67
“will not be printed”:
YTA, 15 Allon/17/4, 30 Oct. 1967.

67
a democracy—its borders:
David Newman, “The Territorial Politics of Exurbanization,”
Israel Affairs
1.1 (Aug. 1996): 74–77.

67
only 37 percent could draw:
Larisa Fleishman and Ilan Salomon, “Lashe’elah ‘Heikhan Hakav Yarok?’ Hateshuva ‘Ma Zeh Hakav Hayarok,”
Alpaim
29 (2005): 26–52.

69
contiguous Palestinian state:
Yossi Alpher, “Sharon’s Coercion, Arafat’s Fantasies,”
bitterlemons
, 2 Dec. 2001, www.bitterlemons.org/previous/bl101201ed4.html, acc. 24 Nov. 2010; Yossi Alpher, interview; Jim Hoagland, “Sharon Sees Time Ripe to Regain Defense Post,”
Washington Post
, 7 Nov. 1988, A25. Sharon’s idea of fingers dividing Palestinian land dates back to his time as head of the IDF’s Southern Command. Ariel Sharon, with David Chanoff,
Warrior: An Autobiography
(New York: Touchstone, 2001), 251–58; Yair Douer,
Lanu Hamaggal Hu Herev II
(Our Sickle Is Our Sword: Nahal Settlements from 1967 until 1992) (Ministry of Defense and Yad Tabenkin, 1997): 220.

69
“ended up on the Jewish side”:
Aluf Benn, “Behitnahaluyot Yesh Element Shel Zmaniut,”
Haaretz,
4 Apr. 2004.

70
jobs for the unemployed:
Admoni,
Asor Shel Shikul Da’at
, 23–24; YAOH 6:11–12; MGA 502-10-01-01, Rafael Ben-Yehudah’s diary; KMA, Mazkirut Hakibbutz Hame’uhad, box 15, book 90; KMA 5/26/1, Mo’etzet Hakibbutz Hame’uhad decisions, 23–24 June 1967;
Alei Golan
32 (16 July 1968): 2–4;
Alei Golan
185 (30 June 1972);
Merom Golan: Reshit
(Merom Golan: 1977): 2–10; Yehudah Harel, “Meharamah Hasurit Leramat Hagolan,” author’s ms.; Vardina Shnurman, “Esrim Vehamesh Shanim Le’ahar Quneitra,”
Eretz Hagolan
, 15 May 1997, 12–14; Tsur,
Mipulmus Hahalukah
85; Naor,
Eretz Yisrael Hashlemah
43; Eytan Sat, Yehudah Harel, Gershon Meinrat, and Carmel Bar, interviews.

71
Division received its budget:
Yehiel Admoni, interview; Peter Robert Demant,
Ploughshares into Swords: Israeli Settlement Policy in the Occupied Territories, 1967–1977
(Ph.D. diss., Universiteit van Amsterdam, 1988): 205.

71
Porat sent the guns:
Porat, interview. Yehiel Admoni, in Admoni ms. 76:36, describes Zevulun Hammer citing the incident in the cabinet meeting of 9 May 1975; Admoni, treating the incident as well known, comments that moving army-issue guns from Kfar Etzion to Hebron “violated all instructions and directions concerning use of weapons provided to settlements.”

72
approval of a ministerial committee:
The first cabinet decision requiring cabinet approval for establishing settlements was made on 1 Oct. 1967; see Pedatzur,
Nitzahon Hemukhah
201. Sasson,
Havat Da’at
(Beina’im)
Benose Ma’ahazim Bilti Murshim
(Opinion Concerning Unauthorized Outposts) (Jerusalem, 2005): 55–58, describes subsequent decisions reaffirming this requirement, and stresses that it has legal force.

72
did not become a settlement:
IDFA 1510-89-491, 28 April 1975, 29 April, 1975; YTA 15Galili/2/2/52, 29 April, 1975.

72
refurbishing the Jordanian buildings:
IDFA 1510-89-491, 22 May 1975, 3 June 1975, 8 June 1975, 19 June 1975, 23 June 1975, 10 July 1975. Declassified in response to my High Court of Justice suit against the IDF Archives.

72
the Israeli electricity grid:
Admoni ms. 75:23; Moshe Netzer,
Mishoreshav: Sippur Haim
[Life Story] (Ministry of Defense, 2002): 292.

73
under Orthodox pressure:
Porat, interview;
Yediot Aharonot
,
Ha’aretz
, and
Jerusalem Post
, 28 Sept. 1967.

73
settlements that fell in 1948:
ISA 153.8/7921/2A, doc. 317; ISA 153.8/7921/3A, doc. 289–91, with unnumbered cover notes; ISA 153.8/7920/7A, docs. 5–69, 8–67; YLE 5/31; Pedatzur,
Nitzahon Hemukhah
, 33, 190.

73
“provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention”:
ISA 153.8/7921/3-Alef. Legal opinion numbered as doc. 289–91, with unnumbered cover notes, which show that Meron’s memorandum was forwarded to Defense Minister Dayan and Justice Minister Shapira.

74
“the same opinion today”:
Donald Macintyre, “Secret Memo Shows Israel Knew Six Day War Was Illegal,”
Independent on Sunday
, 26 May 2007, www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/secret-memo-shows-israel-knew-six-day-war-was-illegal-450410.html, acc. 26 May 2007. In an interview with CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour for the documentary special
God’s Jewish Warriors
, aired 21 Aug. 2007, Meron again stressed that legally, “you cannot settle your population in occupied territories.” transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0708/22/cp.01.html, acc. 28 August 2007.