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Nofe Nehemia settlement outpost confident it will survive roadmap
Jordan Times, 5/29/03
NOFE NEHEMIA SETTLEMENT OUTPOST, West Bank (AFP) — Residents of the Nofe Nehemia outpost in the West Bank seem unfazed by the peace roadmap which calls for their evacuation and confident that the 11 caravans they have set up on this dusty hilltop will soon develop into a permanent settlement.
The kippa of religious Jews clipped on their heads and handguns tucked in their trousers, a handful of young men living in the little cluster of grey prefab houses guard this rogue settlement, near the autonomous Palestinian city of Nablus.
Standing in front of his camper, Ziv Lifshitz, a 25-year-old father of two who studies computer science, says he came to Nofer Nehamia “because it's quiet.”
The roadmap? He heard about it, but seems unimpressed and is still making plans for the future on his hilltop in the heart of the West Bank.
The internationally drafted document submitted to Israel and the Palestinian government a month ago is aimed at ending the violence, resuming negotiations between the two parties and paving the way for the creation of a Palestinian state by 2005.
While all Jewish settlements are considered illegal by the international community, outposts are even forbidden under Israeli law.
But whether Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon turns up the heat or not on radical settlers to evacuate the outposts will be seen as a test of his willingness to implement a roadmap he accepted reluctantly.
Ironically, Sharon is considered the architect of Israel's settlement policy and was the man who, upon returning from the Wye River negotiations in 1998, called on settlers to “seize the hills.”
“We already went through a dismantlement,” Lifshitz said, explaining that Nofe Nehamia was cleared last fall by order of then-Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer. There were only five prefab homes at the time.
“We left and didn't make a fuss about it,” he said, then added: “But we came back at the beginning of the year.”
This time around, the number of trailers doubled, even if they house only three families and a few singles.
Officially, the outpost is a mere “neighbourhood” of Rehelim, one of some 160 settlements recognised by the government and home to more than 200,000 people.
But Nofe Nehamia is one of the 116 so-called wildcat settlements counted by the Peace Now organisation in the West Bank, 62 or 63 of which were set up since Sharon came to power in March 2001.
Rehelim, home to some 60 people, can be seen around 800 metres to the west on the other side of the road which leads to the large city of Nablus. Just like Nofe Nehamia, Rehelim was founded when a few trailers set up camp on a hilltop back in 1992.
Ten years later, the first proper houses were built and the settlement, although very small, is today well-established even if some of its residents still live in prefab caravans.
Residents have access to running water, which attests to the fact they are supported by the regional council, linked to the Council of Settlements.
A generator provides electricity.
The outpost settlers see themselves as the pioneers of their community, conquering more land to achieve their dream of Eretz Israel, a Greater Israel stretching from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River.
“If we're told to leave, we'll leave. And we'll come back later,” said Lifshitz calmly.
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| Earth, a planet hungry for peace |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |