Starting next week, the Israeli Army will do the unprecedented: It will begin evacuating, by force if necessary, about 9,000 Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip. Even the resignation of Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former prime minister and Ariel Sharon’s main rival in the right-wing Likud party in protest will not prevent it. This first-time event has brought with it unparalleled situations.
For one, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz now says he will consider holding Jewish extremists bent on derailing the withdrawal without charge or trial, this following the murder of four Israeli Arabs shot to death by a Jewish Army deserter opposed to the pullout. Israel has frequently employed the procedure, known as administrative detention, against Palestinians, but rarely uses it against Jews. “Just as they (Israeli troops) go after Palestinian ‘ticking bombs,’ so should they act against Jewish ‘ticking bombs,’” a Haaretz newspaper story trumpeted.
Here’s another believe it or not. Settler leaders hastened to disassociate themselves from the killer, the very same settlers who have called for the “transfer” of Israel’s 1.3 million Arabs and describing them as a “cancer” and a “fifth column” in Israeli society. These are the extreme religious-nationalist opponents of Sharon’s Gaza plan who have described the removal of Jews from the territory as a crime against the Jewish people, and have called on soldiers to refuse to carry out the evacuation. As a result of the massacre, the settlers and right-wing opponents of the withdrawal are at least for now on the defensive.
The withdrawals could be violent. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Israeli Jews willing to fight for the “land of Israel” in the face of the government’s attempt to disgorge those parts of territory it now deems dispensable to the Zionist project. Massive demonstrations by the settlers and their supporters have shown how easy it is to cross the thin line between what may be called legitimate civil disobedience and outright rebellion. An Israeli audience watching live or on TV as their troops forcibly remove settlers from their homes will be outraged and will call the act reprehensible — without, of course, blinking once over the hundreds of times those same troops brought to the ground Palestinian homes, leaving their owners destitute.
The fears about the West Bank settlements notwithstanding, what is about to take place is a truly decisive and momentous moment, when Palestinians will get a portion of their land returned after more than half a century of occupation. There is no doubt that it is in their best interests to maintain calm during this exodus of settlers from Gaza, and to hope as well that calm prevails on the other side. The Palestinians stand to gain land which is theirs, and which will signal the start of the creation of their homeland. They will also get a chance, and international help, to create a viable economy and improve conditions for more than a million Palestinians. The Palestinians should focus on the bigger, more permanent prize ahead.
