Settlements

Dr. Khuloud Dajani
People's Campaign for Peace and Democracy Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ The people working for peace need to be able to give the Palestinians back their legitimate rights. If you work for peace and do not achieve anything, you will never be remembered in history, or you will be remembered negatively. People are for peace, but for a just peace based on international legitimacy, including the 1967 borders, compensation and return of the refugees to the Palestinian state, return of Israeli settlers to Israel, etc.” [Source in Complete Interview]

Nasser Laham
Maan News, Bethlehem Television Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ Failure [to achieve peace] is the result of someone having a vested interest in war. When Palestinian refugees see that every settler received half a million while they lack food, what are they supposed to think about themselves and about the world?” [Source in Complete Interview]

Melisse Lewine-Boskovich
Peace Child Israel Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ The thing about being in the Territories… this is my argument with people, with taxi drivers and such. I say, "Since '93 they've [Palestinians have] been saying if we just get out and give them a state then everything is going to be fine between us, and we'll all get along and there's going to be peace." I want the burden to be on them. I want us to be out. You've been giving us this line for 10 years--now show us! But that means we have to really get out, we have to get all the settlers out, and we can't be there to protect them.” [Source in Complete Interview]

Shlomi Daskal
The People's Voice, Realistic Religious Zionism Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ [Leaving the settlements is] a beginning, the first step. That’s what brought me to the People’s Voice. We came to Israel to establish a democratic Jewish homeland. If we continue to occupy the Territories we will either cease to be a democracy or cease to be a Jewish homeland. We will have to relinquish one of the two and I’m not prepared to do that. I think that for us to realize the dream of a democratic Jewish homeland we must exit the Territories, for example. Religious society is led by the extreme factions, which do not acknowledge this idea. That’s why we are saying, “no, there’s a different option.“ The biggest problem with religious society is that it’s founded on the notion of community -- it could be a synagogue, friends or neighbors. People don’t feel comfortable speaking out against their community. What we’re saying is that we represent a legitimate part of religious society. We want to legitimize that notion.” [Source in Complete Interview]

Daniel Seidemann
Ir Amim Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ I'm a former American. I've been living in Israel for 32 years. I've been a lawyer for 18 years. How did I get into this? In October of 1991 I got a phone call from a friend of mine who was a member of Knesset. The settlers had just taken over 10 or 11 houses in Silwan. He said, "I want you to take it to the Supreme Court." I asked him on what basis, and he said, "Well, why don't we find out." Initially, the office turned it down because it was just too cumbersome and time consuming to do pro-bono work like this, but we couldn't live with ourselves with a clear conscience, so we decided to take it on. In the weeks and months that followed, we were able to crack the genetic code of a covert government policy that targeted Palestinian properties in order to turn them over as ideological trinkets to settler organizations. We were able to expose this, and take it to the Supreme Court. Not by legal means, but by political means, we were able to shut down the policy for a period of about 10 years. […] That was the beginning of my involvement, and as a result of that I was sucked into the very compelling subject of the relations between Israelis and Palestinians in Jerusalem, which is my sandbox.” [Source in Complete Interview]

Adina Shapiro
Middle East Children's Association (MECA) Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ Politically, I happen to disagree with the settlers. But I have an affinity with them, these are people I went to school with, people that taught me, I have family there… it’s not something that’s detached. I have respect for certain things that they do and disagreements with other things. But sometimes the way I hear the way that they are referred to or demonized, is the same kind of demonization of other things I could be upset with.” [Source in Complete Interview]

Shlomo Zagman
Realistic Religious Zionism, Mosaica Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ I grew up outside the Green Line of 1967, though settlement in Gush Etzion began before the State of Israel was established. Lands were legally purchased there, they were barren then and agriculturally-orientated settlements were founded on them. In 1948 Gush Etzion fell and since 1967 the rallying cry of the regional council has been “Your children will return to their own land.” People grow up there with that heritage of clutching to the land, of returning to the settlements, to the lands, to a land that is ours. There’s a path nearby called “Trail of the Patriarchs”, it's the path that Abraham took from Be’er Sheva to Mount Moriah - you are taught to have a religious bond to living there. When you get older it links to having political awareness and naturally to the National Religious Party and the right-wing parties who regard the return to Zion as a historical process of the return of a people to its land. Despite the problem the Arab population living there poses, [this population] is perceived as an obstacle that needs to be faced, but in no way does it suggest that this process – or this "right" - must be relinquished.” [Source in Complete Interview]

Shlomo Zagman
Realistic Religious Zionism, Mosaica Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ I left [Allon Shevut] with my wife and daughter. My reason was ideological, in order not to live under occupation sponsorship. We moved closer to where my wife’s parents live, so for her it was because of practical rather than political reasons. It was a very difficult decision, financially. Housing in Israel is much more expensive and it was hard for us to afford an apartment in Israel. The state encourages people to live in Judea and Samaria and there are grants and loans from the government. It amazes me is that even today when the Prime Minister talks of paying a price for unilateral separation; there is still a very attractive offer to settle in the Jordan Valley, including settlements in Samaria. People who go to live there today get a grant from the state, the state pays their tuition fees, and they get help with rent. Even in Gaza, people received all sorts of financial benefits to settle there. How can the state talk one way and act another? It's very strange.” [Source in Complete Interview]

Meir Margalit
Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ First of all, the belt [of new and planned Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem] severs the continuity of East Jerusalem. Second, it encircles the Old City from all sides so that if, or rather when, a Palestinian state is established, its capital - Jerusalem - will be cut off from the hinterland, from the neighboring cities. Imagine how a state capital is meant to function if travel from Ramallah to Jerusalem entails crossing a series of Jewish outposts? It's all there in order to prevent any chance of a just solution to the conflict.” [Source in Complete Interview]

Riyad Faraj
Parents Circle-Bereaved Families Forum Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ Today if you watch the news or the political situation that we live in, you will find that even the extreme Palestinian parties like the Jihad and Hamas are asking for the lands of '67. It's the Israelis who don't want to give it to us. There's no way that a state will be established in the lands of '67, even though that is what we are asking for now. I mean, there's a settlement one kilometer away from me and there's no way that the Israelis will remove it. It's taking up more than half of Bethlehem's area. The wall that they are building has taken in more land than the lands of '67! So how much is left of the lands of '67?” [Source in Complete Interview]

Sarah Karajeh
Bereaved Families Forum Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ The presence of the settlers within the old city in Hebron is considered a cancer cell, which if not removed, will have negative affects. There are daily confrontations with these settlers and the Palestinians during which the settlers hurt Palestinian children on their way to school, hurt women and hurt youngsters. These confrontations happen on a daily basis and this of course creates hatred among the Palestinian side. It is not easy to tell a Palestinian to shake the hand of an Israeli after what they see.” [Source in Complete Interview]