Kibbutz Kfar Etzion, one of the region’s first communities reestablished after the Six-Day-War, announced last month that it rejects the building of a wall around the Etzion Bloc, saying it would prefer it be built along the Green Line if it is built at all. In a statement citing the wall's negative impact on the region's Arabs and Jews alike, Kfar Etzion's members demanded to be left outside the fence - i.e., on the "Arab" side - saying alternative means should be found to ensure their security.
Now, the rest of Gush Etzion’s communities must decide how to respond to the most invasive and significant project in the region’s history - but with an astounding lack of information being provided to the residents.
The Gush Etzion municipalities have been meeting government officials on the residents' behalf, wrangling for an improved route instead of Kfar Etzion's rejectionist stance. Kfar Etzion residents are now growing impatient with the mayors, and recently decided to approach each individual Gush Etzion community to determine if a struggle could be waged.
Tuesday, a meeting originally billed as a vote on the wall was supposed to take place in the community of Neve Daniel. The meeting was downgraded to an informational meeting shortly before it was to take place, however, due to pressure from the municipality.
At the meeting, Chananya Nachlieli, a surveyor for the municipality who has extensive first-hand knowledge of the topography of all of Gush Etzion, presented maps and illustrative photographs demonstrating the negative effects of the wall and its proposed route.
So far, the way the fence route has been determined is that IDF officers are first asked to submit the best route, from a security perspective. They are then asked to submit alternative routes that are less preferred, but still somewhat defensible. When the actual building begins, numerous Supreme Court petitions are invariably filed by local PA Arabs. Such petitions regarding the wall's Samaria route saw the Supreme Court rule almost universally in favor of Arab land rights over Jewish security assessments and the preservation of Jewish-owned state lands for future growth.
In Samaria, the communities of Alfei Menashe, Elkanah, and others surrounding the city of Ariel were originally supposed to be included on the “Israeli side” of the fence (a term which accepts the inevitability that if the Partition Wall is constructed, its political backers intend for it to serve as a future international border). Following numerous Supreme Court petitions, the map of the fence around the Ariel bloc now looks eerily like Gaza’s Katif bloc did before the expulsion – with three fenced-on-both-sides roads leading to the communities.
Nachlieli also outlined the fact that there are effectively two walls being constructed. The western wall is being constructed along the Green Line – Israel’s pre-1967 border. The eastern side snugly encases many of central Gush Etzion’s communities, but leaves several of the region's eastern and southern communities out. Between the two walls live 50,000 Jews and 17,000 Arabs.
Communities that will be left outside of the Partition Wall include Hevron, Kiryat Arba, Tekoa, Nokdim, Karmei Tzur, Maaleh Rechavam, Meitzad and Pnei Kedem.
Shimon Karniel of Kfar Etzion presented his community’s categorical rejection of the fence at the Neve Daniel meeting. Karniel stressed the fact that the Gush Etzion municipality, represented by Mayor Sha’ul Goldstein, initially agreed on a set of five red lines - which if not corrected would lead to a joint effort against the wall. The five unacceptable circumstances were:
1. The severing of Route 367, the main road into Gush Etzion from the Ela Valley. The route of the fence on that road will also attach the quiet Arab village of Jabba to the Hamas hotbed of Tzurif.
2. The strangulation of the community of Bat Ayin, as the wall severs the state lands earmarked for expansion of the community. The route also fences residents of the purposely unfenced community in, while leaving the high ground across from their homes in Arab hands.
3. The severance of state lands earmarked for the expansion of Migdal Oz by the wall.
4. The fencing out of the hill overlooking the Gush Etzion Highway (Route 60) near Efrat's northern entrance. The northern entrance is also supposed to be closed once the fence is built.
5. The building of a permanent border along the Green Line, instead of a non-contiguous security barrier using sensor technology to protect citizens of pre-1967 Israel from infiltrators.
“What happened,” Karniel said, “is that all of our demands were ignored aside from the one hill near the northern entrance to Efrat.” Karniel says that the municipality has broken its commitments and refuses to begin the struggle.
The mayors of Efrat, Betar Illit and Gush Etzion have focused on the prevention of a contiguous Green Line fence, asking instead for cameras and obstacles such as prickly-pear bushes. Karniel says, however, that the route has already been flattened out and will be built “within days of any terror attack in the region, as it will certainly be blamed on the lack of a solid wall.”
Karniel insists that the claim that the wall is meant to provide any security to the residents of Gush Etzion is an utter falsehood. “The fact that 17,000 Arabs with free passage to Bethlehem will live within the wall as well, debunks this claim,” he said.
“It is a bad fence – bad for Gush Etzion, bad for Israel and bad for those outside it,” Karniel concluded.
Mayor Sha’ul Goldstein, representing the Gush Etzion municipality at the Neve Daniel meeting, outlined his efforts to influence the route of the fence and explained his reasons for not rejecting the Gush Etzion fence completely.
“The fence is a purely political one that does not accomplish anything in terms of security,” Goldstein declared, going so far as to say the fence around Gaza is what directly led to the IDF’s exit from the region. “But if we have learned anything from the Disengagement, it is that when the government of Israel decides on something – it happens.”
“Therefore, I decided to fight for the best eastern route we could get – there will never be a political agreement between the Jews and Arabs, but there will be more unilateral withdrawals and the question is how can we save the most land.”
Goldstein, a senior member of the Yesha Council, believes that a struggle against the fence around Gush Etzion will be detrimental to the region in terms of tourism. “Students will stop coming – the 200,000 tourists who visited Gush Etzion, even during war time, will not come if we are on the other side of the fence. The city of Betar Illit, which is home to 30,000 of Gush Etzion’s residents, will stop growing... It was just recently that [the city’s hareidi-religious] rabbis agreed to bring people there in the first place.”
Asked about the possibility of holding a referendum of Gush Etzion residents regarding the wall, Goldstein dismissed the idea, saying that not only are residents not informed enough on the matter, but that their ability to influence the government’s decision, should they reject the eastern fence, is doubtful. Goldstein worked tirelessly on behalf of a national referendum ahead of the withdrawal from Gaza and northern Samaria.
The Gush Etzion Mayor stunned those calling for a complete rejection of the wall by declaring, “In my opinion, we won big-time with this current map.”
Some Gush Etzion residents are not waiting for the municipalities, saying the fence will be half-built by the time they opt for a public struggle against it.
“Those behind the fence will be offered compensation and expelled from their homes down the road – that’s the plan,” Alon Shvut resident Shimon Yitzchak said. “But those of you who think you are improving the status of Gush Etzion and entering the consensus by agreeing to this fence are in for a surprise. We won’t even be evacuated or be offered compensation – we will just watch the value of our homes plummet and our quality of life melt away as we wait for hours at the new border crossings and sit in traffic while some suspicious bag of garbage is removed from the only road out of Gush Etzion.”
“And you know what?" concluded Yitzchak. "In my opinion, people who would agree to sell out their brothers living in Tekoa and Kiryat Arba, who are currently due to be fenced out, would deserve whatever they get. This is the second stage of the expulsion and just as the expulsion from Gush Katif was misnamed a ‘disengagement,’ this expulsion hides behind the misnamed ‘security fence.’”
Now, the rest of Gush Etzion’s communities must decide how to respond to the most invasive and significant project in the region’s history - but with an astounding lack of information being provided to the residents.
The Gush Etzion municipalities have been meeting government officials on the residents' behalf, wrangling for an improved route instead of Kfar Etzion's rejectionist stance. Kfar Etzion residents are now growing impatient with the mayors, and recently decided to approach each individual Gush Etzion community to determine if a struggle could be waged.
Tuesday, a meeting originally billed as a vote on the wall was supposed to take place in the community of Neve Daniel. The meeting was downgraded to an informational meeting shortly before it was to take place, however, due to pressure from the municipality.
At the meeting, Chananya Nachlieli, a surveyor for the municipality who has extensive first-hand knowledge of the topography of all of Gush Etzion, presented maps and illustrative photographs demonstrating the negative effects of the wall and its proposed route.
Red-current proposed fence route, Blue-originally proposed route, likely to be imposed by the Supreme Court.
So far, the way the fence route has been determined is that IDF officers are first asked to submit the best route, from a security perspective. They are then asked to submit alternative routes that are less preferred, but still somewhat defensible. When the actual building begins, numerous Supreme Court petitions are invariably filed by local PA Arabs. Such petitions regarding the wall's Samaria route saw the Supreme Court rule almost universally in favor of Arab land rights over Jewish security assessments and the preservation of Jewish-owned state lands for future growth.
In Samaria, the communities of Alfei Menashe, Elkanah, and others surrounding the city of Ariel were originally supposed to be included on the “Israeli side” of the fence (a term which accepts the inevitability that if the Partition Wall is constructed, its political backers intend for it to serve as a future international border). Following numerous Supreme Court petitions, the map of the fence around the Ariel bloc now looks eerily like Gaza’s Katif bloc did before the expulsion – with three fenced-on-both-sides roads leading to the communities.
Nachlieli also outlined the fact that there are effectively two walls being constructed. The western wall is being constructed along the Green Line – Israel’s pre-1967 border. The eastern side snugly encases many of central Gush Etzion’s communities, but leaves several of the region's eastern and southern communities out. Between the two walls live 50,000 Jews and 17,000 Arabs.
Communities that will be left outside of the Partition Wall include Hevron, Kiryat Arba, Tekoa, Nokdim, Karmei Tzur, Maaleh Rechavam, Meitzad and Pnei Kedem.
Shimon Karniel of Kfar Etzion presented his community’s categorical rejection of the fence at the Neve Daniel meeting. Karniel stressed the fact that the Gush Etzion municipality, represented by Mayor Sha’ul Goldstein, initially agreed on a set of five red lines - which if not corrected would lead to a joint effort against the wall. The five unacceptable circumstances were:
1. The severing of Route 367, the main road into Gush Etzion from the Ela Valley. The route of the fence on that road will also attach the quiet Arab village of Jabba to the Hamas hotbed of Tzurif.
2. The strangulation of the community of Bat Ayin, as the wall severs the state lands earmarked for expansion of the community. The route also fences residents of the purposely unfenced community in, while leaving the high ground across from their homes in Arab hands.
3. The severance of state lands earmarked for the expansion of Migdal Oz by the wall.
4. The fencing out of the hill overlooking the Gush Etzion Highway (Route 60) near Efrat's northern entrance. The northern entrance is also supposed to be closed once the fence is built.
5. The building of a permanent border along the Green Line, instead of a non-contiguous security barrier using sensor technology to protect citizens of pre-1967 Israel from infiltrators.
“What happened,” Karniel said, “is that all of our demands were ignored aside from the one hill near the northern entrance to Efrat.” Karniel says that the municipality has broken its commitments and refuses to begin the struggle.
The mayors of Efrat, Betar Illit and Gush Etzion have focused on the prevention of a contiguous Green Line fence, asking instead for cameras and obstacles such as prickly-pear bushes. Karniel says, however, that the route has already been flattened out and will be built “within days of any terror attack in the region, as it will certainly be blamed on the lack of a solid wall.”
Karniel insists that the claim that the wall is meant to provide any security to the residents of Gush Etzion is an utter falsehood. “The fact that 17,000 Arabs with free passage to Bethlehem will live within the wall as well, debunks this claim,” he said.
“It is a bad fence – bad for Gush Etzion, bad for Israel and bad for those outside it,” Karniel concluded.
Mayor Sha’ul Goldstein, representing the Gush Etzion municipality at the Neve Daniel meeting, outlined his efforts to influence the route of the fence and explained his reasons for not rejecting the Gush Etzion fence completely.
“The fence is a purely political one that does not accomplish anything in terms of security,” Goldstein declared, going so far as to say the fence around Gaza is what directly led to the IDF’s exit from the region. “But if we have learned anything from the Disengagement, it is that when the government of Israel decides on something – it happens.”
“Therefore, I decided to fight for the best eastern route we could get – there will never be a political agreement between the Jews and Arabs, but there will be more unilateral withdrawals and the question is how can we save the most land.”
Goldstein, a senior member of the Yesha Council, believes that a struggle against the fence around Gush Etzion will be detrimental to the region in terms of tourism. “Students will stop coming – the 200,000 tourists who visited Gush Etzion, even during war time, will not come if we are on the other side of the fence. The city of Betar Illit, which is home to 30,000 of Gush Etzion’s residents, will stop growing... It was just recently that [the city’s hareidi-religious] rabbis agreed to bring people there in the first place.”
Asked about the possibility of holding a referendum of Gush Etzion residents regarding the wall, Goldstein dismissed the idea, saying that not only are residents not informed enough on the matter, but that their ability to influence the government’s decision, should they reject the eastern fence, is doubtful. Goldstein worked tirelessly on behalf of a national referendum ahead of the withdrawal from Gaza and northern Samaria.
The Gush Etzion Mayor stunned those calling for a complete rejection of the wall by declaring, “In my opinion, we won big-time with this current map.”
Some Gush Etzion residents are not waiting for the municipalities, saying the fence will be half-built by the time they opt for a public struggle against it.
“Those behind the fence will be offered compensation and expelled from their homes down the road – that’s the plan,” Alon Shvut resident Shimon Yitzchak said. “But those of you who think you are improving the status of Gush Etzion and entering the consensus by agreeing to this fence are in for a surprise. We won’t even be evacuated or be offered compensation – we will just watch the value of our homes plummet and our quality of life melt away as we wait for hours at the new border crossings and sit in traffic while some suspicious bag of garbage is removed from the only road out of Gush Etzion.”
“And you know what?" concluded Yitzchak. "In my opinion, people who would agree to sell out their brothers living in Tekoa and Kiryat Arba, who are currently due to be fenced out, would deserve whatever they get. This is the second stage of the expulsion and just as the expulsion from Gush Katif was misnamed a ‘disengagement,’ this expulsion hides behind the misnamed ‘security fence.’”