With the evacuation underway, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he would build a settlement somewhere in the West Bank to house the families of Amona—the first new one in nearly 26 years. This followed announcements that Israel would build 5,500 housing units in the West Bank and another nearly 600 in East Jerusalem. Estimates place the overall settler population in the West Bank and East Jerusalem between 600,000 and 750,000.
In the past, such behavior would have drawn intense rebuke from the U.S. administration for undermining the two-state solution. But Donald Trump has broken with decades of American foreign policy by declaring that he views settlements as no obstacle to peace, although the White House recently warned that building new ones “may not be helpful.” [...]
The Amona evacuation was nowhere near the scale of Gush Katif, where 8,600 settlers were uprooted, but it contained a similar motif: settlers disillusioned at the leaders who were supposed to protect them. As the evacuation drew near, Naftali Bennett, a champion of settlers in the Knesset, was issued a bodyguard because of threats from right-wing activists for his failure to save Amona. [...]
At sensitive times like the Amona evacuation, the two groups join together with adults in protest that is impossible for the politicians to ignore. Paradoxically, these protesters who rally against the government are also the government’s base. When they speak, Israel’s right-wing politicians, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, listen.
No comments:
Post a Comment