MIGRON, West Bank, 22 December 2003 — Jewish settlers on a hilltop in the occupied West Bank prepared for siege yester, stockpiling supplies as they vowed to fight to the end against any Israeli government attempts to remove them.
Migron, a 150-strong community near the Palestinian city of Ramallah, is a prime target for removal either under the US-backed “road map” peace plan, or if that fails, under promised unilateral steps by Israel toward separation.
Settlers are fuming at schemes put forward by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, their champion for decades, that would involve uprooting some of them whatever happens. Settlers are outraged at a plan set out by Sharon, to move some settlements for security reasons but hold onto chunks of occupied territory where Palestinians seek a state.
Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel was committed to a US-backed peace “road map”, but if that failed, then steps would be taken that involved moving settlers and the number would probably be “in the tens of thousands”.
“I don’t think I am ready to go into specific numbers but there will be a considerable number of Jewish inhabitants in the territories who will have to move and a considerable number of settlements,” Olmert said.
There are at least 230,000 settlers among 3.6 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Palestinians see the settlements as the main obstacle to a viable state, but they also oppose Israel’s “Disengagement Plan” — under which Sharon has said they would get less land than they might through talks.
The settlements are viewed as illegal under international law. Israel disputes this.
At Migron, settlers prepared supplies of food and water, tents, generators and portable toilets for the thousands of sympathizers they expect to join them.
“How can a Jew leave his home in the land of Israel? We will resist to the end,” said Itai Harel, 29, at Migron, where he lives in a cramped, cream-colored caravan with his wife and a seven-week-old baby boy.
Activists displayed banners reading “the struggle begins with Migron” opposite Sharon’s office yesterday. One settler advocate told Israel Radio he was “very fearful over the possibility of civil war” if anyone tried to remove Migron.
Yehoshua Mor-Yosef of the settlers’ YESHA council told Reuters they would use “every possible means” to prevent the eviction of Migron.
Settlers argue that despite the lack of a formal decision, government authorities have recognized outposts such as Migron by hooking them up to Israel’s water and electricity grid.
Palestinians say the 145 settlements and more than a dozen isolated outposts in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are the main obstacle to their hopes of achieving a viable state on land occupied by Israel since the 1967 Middle East war.
