The Unmaking of Israel (34 page)

114
“Israeli” side of the fence:
“Revised Route of the Security Fence According to the Government Decision of April 30, 2006,” www.seamzone.mod.gov.il/Pages/eng/seamzone_map_eng.htm, acc. 28 Sept. 2006.

114
separated from their farmlands:
Yehezkel Lein,
Behind the Barrier: Human Rights Violations as a Result of Israel’s Separation Barrier
(Jerusalem: B’Tselem, 2003), gave initial estimates of 11,700 Palestinians on the west side of the barrier, 128,500 Palestinians in enclaves surrounded by the barrier, and 72,200 separated from their farmland and dependent on Israeli permits to pass through gates to cultivate their crops. The fence route was subsequently altered in response to High Court of Justice decisions and political developments, altering these numbers but not eliminating the issues.

114
an Israeli-Palestinian border:
Dany Tirza, interview.

114
“border of the state of Israel”:
Yuval Yoaz, “Justice Minister: West Bank Fence Is Israel’s Future Border,”
Ha’aretz
, 1 Dec. 2005.

114
both sides of the fence:
Tirza, interview; www.seamzone.mod.gov.il/Pages/Heb/mivne.htm, acc. 23 Nov. 2010.

115
at the closed gate:
Abdulkarim Ayoub Ahmed, interview.

115
“won’t be a diplomatic process”:
Ari Shavit, “Beshem Marsho,”
Ha’aretz
, 8 Oct. 2004, www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/pages/ShArtPE. jhtml?itemNo=486151, acc. 24 Aug. 2005.

115
600 residents:
Interior Ministry listing of Israeli population in “Judea, Samaria and Gaza,” communicated July 21, 2005.

116
burn before the holiday:
Ha’aretz
, 22 Apr. 2005, www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/pages/ShArtPE.jhtml?itemNo=568351, acc. 26 Aug. 2005.

116
“It will not be”:
Arutz Sheva Hadashot
, 23 June 2005, www.inn.co.il/News/News.aspx/115887, acc. 24 Nov. 2010.

116
crops were harvested:
“Keren Ma’amin Vezore’a,” www.group.co.il/donation/katifund/CreditInput.asp?type=zore, acc. 26 Aug. 2005; Nadav Shragai, “Hodshayim Lifnei Hahitnatkut, Alafim Samim Kaspam Al Keren ‘Ma’amin Vezore’a,’”
Ha’aretz
, 17 June 2005.

116
orange six-pointed stars:
“Disengagement Timeline,” www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArtDisengagement.jhtml?itemNo=614898, acc. 22 Aug. 2005.

117
over sacred soil:
Ma’ariv, Yediot Aharonot,
19–21 July 2005.

117
philosopher Avishai Margalit:
Avishai Margalit,
On Compromise and Rotten Compromises
(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2010): 57.

117
doubt, self-castigation, failure:
See, for instance, Hagai Huberman, “Hakhi Rehok She’efshar,”
Eretz Binyamin
, Feb. 2008, www.binyamin.org.il/?CategoryID=537&ArticleID=1060, acc. 21 Aug. 2008.

118
law-abiding for “Jews”:
This is a brief summary of interviews and informal conversations over five years. See also Gershom Gorenberg, “Religious Zionists Facing Deep Rifts after Evacuation of Amona Outpost,”
Forward
, 10 Feb. 2006; Gershom Gorenberg, “Religious Zionists Feel Anger, Alienation as Israel’s Political Map Shifts Leftward,”
Forward
, 5 May 2006; Meron Rapoport, “Me’akhshav Zeh Yehudim Mul Yisraelim,”
Ha’aretz
, 6 Jan. 2006; Nahum Barnea, “The Neighbor’s Winery,”
Yediot Aharonot
, 28 Aug. 2009; Nahum Barnea, “Wallerstein: I Was Silent for Too Long,”
Yediot Aharonot
, 12 Jan. 2010.

118 Y
itzhar near Nablus:
The yeshivah was originally located at Joseph’s Tomb inside Nablus.

118
after a plea bargain:
Eitan Felner and Roly Rozen,
Law Enforcement on Israeli Civilians in the Occupied Territories
(Jerusalem: B’Tselem, 1994): 17, 62; Gershom Gorenberg and Myra Noveck, “West Bank Settlers Go on a Rampage,”
Middle East Times
, 6–12 June 1989: 1. The killing occurred on 29 May 1989. Three weeks later, on 20 June 1989, one of the same students from Od Yosef Hai opened fire on Palestinian workers waiting for rides on Gehah Highway outside Tel Aviv. Gershom Gorenberg and Myra Noveck, “Underground Determined to Thwart Peace Efforts,”
Middle East Times
, 4–10 July 1989: 3; “Jews at Slain Settler’s Funeral Call Shamir ‘Traitor,’”
New York Times
, 21 June 1989, www.nytimes.com/1989/06/21/world/jews-at-slain-settler-s-funeral-call-shamir-traitor.html, acc. 2 Jan. 2011.

119
“total travesty of justice”:
Alan Cowell, “An Israeli Mayor Is Under Scrutiny,”
New York Times
, 6 June 1989, query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE1DD1631F935A35755C0A96F948260&scp=1&sq=Yitzhak%20Ginsburg&st=cse, acc. 2 Jan. 2011.

119
mass murderer of Hebron:
“Yeshivat Od Yosef Hai Berashut Harav Yitzhak Ginsburg Shlita,” www.odyosefchai.org.il, acc. 25 Nov. 2010. Eulogy originally published in 1994 as a pamphlet by Ginsburgh,
Baruch Hagever: Hamesh Mitzvot Klaliot Shehen Hebetim Pnimi’im Bema’asehu Shel Hakadosh Rav Baruch Goldstein, Hashem Yikom Damo
, and republished in Michael Ben-Horin, ed.,
Baruch Hagever: Sefer Zikaron Lekadosh Dr. Baruch Goldstein
(Jerusalem: Yehudah, 5755 [1994–95]). See also Ehud Sprinzak,
Brother against Brother: Violence and Extremism in Israeli Politics from Altalena to the Rabin Assassination
(New York: Free Press, 1999): 268–71.

119
grow up to harm us:
Yitzhak Shapira and Yosef Elitzur,
Torat Hamelekh: Dinei Nefashot Ben Yisrael Le’amim
(Hamakhon Hatorani Sheleyad Yeshivat Od Yosef Hai, 5710 [2009]): 17–27, 158–98.

120
caused national controversy:
RNPO, financial reports of Beit Hamidrash Od Yosef Hai; “Perut Tmikhot,” via www.tmichot.gov.il, acc. 25 Nov. 2010. Shapira and Elitzur were arrested and questioned in the summer of 2010 on suspicion of inciting racism and violence, but were released and have not been charged as of this writing.

120
the number of its students:
In 2010, the Education Ministry budgeted 1,279,318 shekels ($342,705) for Od Yosef Hai but actually transferred only 945,368 shekels ($254,318). The Welfare Ministry, which provided Od Yosef Hai with 92,352 shekels in 2009 ($23,484), did not give it funding in 2010. www.tmichot.gov.il, acc. 25 Nov. 2010. The letters from attorney Einat Hurvitz of the Israel Religious Action Center to the directors-general of the Education Ministry and Welfare Ministry are dated 8 Apr. 2010. A letter of 8 Aug. 2010 from Education Ministry director-general Shimshon Shoshani to IRAC states funding for Od Yosef Hai is under review “following your letter.” (Correspondence provided by IRAC.) However, on 5 Jan. 2011, the Education Ministry’s spokesperson, responding in writing to my questions, said the suspension followed an inspection showing that the yeshivah had fewer students than it had reported. The Welfare Ministry spokesperson wrote on the same date that funding was suspended because “the results of an audit showed need for additional examination.”

121
after marrying Yitzhak:
Sasson,
Havat Da’at
, appendix 1:31, and the Spiegel Report, www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/images/printed/P300109/uriib.mht, acc. 30 Apr. 2009, give the founding date as October 1998. In late 2009, however, Skali said that she and her husband had been there ten years. Hagit Ofran, Peace Now Settlement Watch, lists the founding date as “early 1999.” Hagit Ofran, “Outpost List,” e-mailed 24 Nov. 2010.

121
never been approved by the government:
Sasson,
Havat Da’at
, appendix 1:31; Ofran, “Outpost List.” Sasson lists the Housing Ministry outlay on “infrastructure” and “public buildings” as 800,000 shekels. The exchange rate has fluctuated; giving an exact dollar amount is not possible.

122
suspected of attacking Palestinians:
Lior Yavne,
A Semblance of Law
(Tel Aviv: Yesh Din, 2006): 117–21.

123
sewage lines to classrooms:
Ronny Goldschmidt, interview.

123
remove those outposts:
Office of the Spokesman, Department of State,
A Performance-Based Roadmap to a Permanent Two-State Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
, 30 Apr. 2003.

123
her report is incomplete:
Talia Sasson, interview.

124
hiding the ministry’s role:
Sasson,
Havat Da’at
113–14, 139, 149.

124
fictitiously designated outposts:
Sasson,
Havat Da’at
24, 113, 125–30.

124
neighborhoods of older ones:
Sasson,
Havat Da’at
125–26, 129–30; “Hityahasut Hahativah Lehityashvut Behistadrut Hatzionit Ha’olamit Lehavat Da’at (Beina’im) Benose Ma’ahazim Bilti Murshim,” 2005: 15, provided by the WZO Settlement Division. Appendix 8 of this document is Avigdor Lieberman’s letter of 10 Feb. 1997 to Sallai Meridor, head of the Settlement Division. Lieberman describes “neighborhoods” of existing settlements built at a distance from them and having their own communal organization, and instructs him to treat them as separate settlements. Sasson accurately assesses the letter as evidence that labeling outposts as neighborhoods of existing settlements was a deliberate fiction. The specific “neighborhoods” listed by Lieberman were established before the wave of outposts, but the instruction was applied as a general rule for such “neighborhoods.”

125
by Israel’s own standards:
Sasson,
Havat Da’at
63–66.

125
guide government officials:
Sasson, interview.

125
began under Netanyahu:
Sasson,
Havat Da’at
, appendix 1, lists several outposts apparently established during Rabin’s term. Sasson also included in her report several settlements established illegally before the Rabin government’s freeze on settlement planning—that is, before the government’s public position was that no new settlements would be established.

125
land in peace negotiations:
Wallerstein, interview; Nadav Shragai, “Ma’ahaz Ve’od Ma’ahaz—Kakh Yotzrim Bagadah ‘Retzef Hityashvut’ Yehudi,”
Ha’aretz
, 6 Sept. 2004, www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=474206, acc. 2 Nov 2009.

126
to Palestinian Authority rule:
Wye River Memorandum, www.state.gov/www/regions/nea/981023_interim_agmt.html, acc. 26 Nov. 2010.

126
“will be in their hands”:
“Provocative Words Raise Mideast Tensions,” CNN, www.cnn.com/WORLD/meast/9811/15/mideast.wrap/, acc. 11 Mar. 2003; “Briefing by Foreign Minister of the State of Israel Ariel Sharon, National Press Club, Washington, D.C., December 7, 1998,” www.israel-mfa.gov.il/mfa/go.asp?MFAH08su0, acc. 11 Mar. 2003.

126
interaction between two states:
Menachem Klein,
The Shift: Israel-Palestine from Border Struggle to Ethnic Conflict
(London: Hurst, 2010): 119.

126
approval or building permits:
Sasson,
Havat Da’at
, appendix 1:43, states that Amonah was established in 1995, on private Palestinian land. Ofran, “Outpost List,” dates it to 1997.

127
a row of houses:
Yifat Ehrlich, interview; on-the-ground observations.

127
end of the ridge:
Sasson,
Havat Da’at
, appendix 1:43. The houses were photographed by Peace Now Settlement Watch director Dror Etkes repeatedly in early 2005.

127
housing minister Effie Eitam:
Sasson,
Havat Da’at
139–68. Sasson states that the decision on buying the mobile homes was made in 2002 or early 2003, and that she was informed that Eitam made the decision. I note that Eitam became housing minister on March 3, 2003, so there may be a discrepancy in the timing.

127
state land to outposts:
Sasson
Havat Da’at
22, 27–31, 40–41, 161–68.

127
was far from completing:
Sasson, interview.

128
“setting up unauthorized outposts”:
Sasson,
Havat Da’at
148.

128
did not find evidence:
Sasson, interview; Uri Glickman, “Sharon Lo Kashur Lehakamat Hama’ahazim,” www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART/866/799.html, acc. 24 Nov. 2010.

128
to pore over maps:
Amos Harel, “Mofaz Makshiah Et Yahaso Lema’ahazim, Sharon Megabeh Otam,”
Ha’aretz
, 16 May 2003, news.walla.co.il/?w=//388380, acc. 27 May 2003.

128
where to build outposts:
Shragai, “Ma’ahaz Ve’od Ma’ahaz.” Quoting unnamed settlers, Shragai also describes how Sharon, as infrastructure minister under Netanyahu, instructed them in subterfuges to establish an outpost on what he regarded as a strategic hilltop.

128
overlooking the Jordan River:
See sources at
contiguous Palestinian state,
p. 264; “Ma’ahazim Mekashrim Ben Hitnahaluyot Biyehudah Veshomron” (map), www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/images/daily/D060904/map_maahazim.jpg, acc. 24 Nov. 2010; “Degem Hashlitah Haterritorialit Bagadah Hama’aravit,” map (Jerusalem: Peace Now, 2005).