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The State of Israel has reached an important crossroad. For some months now
the nationalist camp, aided by the media, has been trickling into the public
discourse the idea of expulsion -- branded in Israel as “transfer” --
despite the fact that it is antithetical to both international norms and
human rights covenants. There are, of course, various formulations for how
the transfer of the Palestinian population should be carried out, ranging
from the aggressive version proposed by ex-minister Avigdor Lieberman,
through the 'soft' version of “voluntary transfer” according to the right
wing party "Moledet," and all the way to the idea of abrogating the
political rights of the Palestinians and transferring them from their
land and homes “only at a time of need,” as suggested by Minister and
inner Cabinet Member Efi Eitam.
Accordingly, the idea of expelling Palestinians from their land is already
deeply entrenched in the political discourse, and has acquired legitimacy
within broad sectors of the Israeli public. Labor Party Minister Ephraim
Sneh’s new plan, which proposes territorial exchange of Arab localities in
Israel with West Bank Jewish settlements, suggests that even segments within
the Israeli peace camp are prepared to adopt political programs inspired by
the “transfer” idea.
Recently, the transfer proponents have been handed the chance to begin
implementing an expulsion at the expense of a particularly weak Palestinian
population, the cave inhabitants living in the South Hebron region of the
occupied West Bank. The impact of such an expulsion, particularly as a
political and legal precedent, cannot be overstated. A “small” transfer now
is likely to sanction more extensive expulsions in the future, just as the
first entry of the Israeli military into Area “A” during summer 2001
prepared the ground for the massive and deadly invasion dubbed “Defensive
Shield.”
Here are some of the facts. The cave dwellers live off of agriculture and
tending flocks, and have preserved a unique cultural way of life since the
early 19th century. After the 1948 war they lived under Jordanian rule,
while losing all their land located on Israel’s side of the border.
Following the occupation of the West Bank in 1967, Israel set up military
bases on parts of their property and closed off a whole section for training
purposes. The inhabitants’ living space was accordingly already small when
the government began (in the early 1980s) to establish Jewish settlements
in the region -- such as Carmel, Maon and Susiya -- a considerable number
of which were founded in an attempt to create territorial contiguity beyond
the Green Line. During the 1990s, particularly when Ehud Barak was prime
minister, Jewish ranches were established alongside the settlements, causing
additional friction with the Palestinian population.
In May 1999, Barak’s government, in coordination with settler leaders,
carried out the first organized expulsion, in which 750 local residents
were driven out of their homes on the pretence invading state land. Despite
a Supreme Court injunction permitting the Palestinian residents to return to
their land, the cave dwellers continued to be exposed to pressure from the
Israeli military and Jewish settlers; pressure that included the destruction
of houses, tents and caves, ruining water holes, uprooting olive trees, and
preventing the residents from reaching their land for purposes of
cultivation and grazing. Simultaneously, the government continued to
expropriate more land, setting up illegal Jewish outposts and issuing writs
limiting the stay of Palestinian residents in the area. The principle was to
establish facts on the ground.
It was Shakespeare who wrote somewhere that “there is method behind the
madness.” And indeed, all these actions were carried out by the military --
whether the Defense Minister was Arens, Barak or Ben-Eliezer -- with the
aim of exhausting the residents and forcing them out. It seems that the
Defense Ministers acted according to a premeditated plan whose practical
purpose is to annex the whole area to Israel “clean” of Arabs in order to
create a corridor from Be'er Sheva to the Jewish settlement Kiryat Arba.
This claim is not a figment of our imagination, since it appears on the
maps the Israeli delegation presented the Palestinians during the Camp
David talks.
The threat of transfer has been hovering over the cave dwellers’ heads even
since the 1999 expulsion, and it is at the end of this June that the Supreme
Court is scheduled to convene in order to discuss their status. Underlying
the verbal ‘laundering’ of ‘security considerations’ or ‘illegality’ is a
vital question: Will the Supreme Court permit the Sharon- Ben Eliezer -Eitam
government to carry out a “population transfer.” If the Court decides to
expel the Palestinian residents it will create a dangerous precedent,
essentially granting legal, political and moral legitimacy to transfer. A
decision of this sort will shake the precarious barriers still holding back
the expulsion option, and the inevitable horrific consequences of escalating
the bloody conflict. It is with great apprehension that we wait to see
whether the Supreme Court will turn a blind eye to the cave dwellers’ plight
or whether it will prevent the further deterioration of ethnic relations in
this troubled land.
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