Hi all,
I just uploaded onto our website, one of the articles from the latest issue of the journal I edit, News from Within.
Thought it might be of interest.
Bryan
For the whole article, go here:
http://www.newsfromwithin.org/free_articles/Where_Next_After_Gaza_Watson_Brous.pdf ------------------
Excerpt:
Where Next after Gaza? Why the State of Israel Wants the Gush Qatif Settlers to Relocate to the Negev
"As plans are underway for Ariel Sharon’s “disengagement” from Gaza and the removal of the settlers there, many have expressed the fear that the settlers will simply be relocated to other settlements in the occupied West Bank. Another possibility is that they will relocate to Jewish only settlements built on Palestinian land in either the Negev or the Galilee. Below, Max Watson talks to Devorah Brous, director of Bustan l’Shalom, about the likelihood of, and the reasoning behind resettling the Gush Qatif settlers to Bedouin land in the Negev."
"With the removal of the settlements from Gaza (plus four settlements in the northern West Bank), the first question on peoples’ minds is “what will happen?”; how will the settlers and their supporters react this summer when they are due to leave? Thousands of soldiers have pledged to refuse orders to remove the settlers, while others have signed up to do their job for them; a whole yeshiva from Kiryat Arba—a settlement in the southern West Bank—has relocated to Gaza in order to support resistance to the removal of settlements, setting the scene for a potentially violent confrontation. Ultimately, however, a few thousand settlers should not prove too difficult for the fourth largest military in the world to evacuate. Perhaps the real question ought to be: where will they actually go after evacuation from the Gaza Strip, and why? Palestinians in the occupied West Bank are fearful the Israelis will build new houses on their soil east of Jerusalem, or in the south towards Hebron. Indeed, there are plans for a new settlement to be built on the land of Al Walaja village, which, it was recently announced, will be separated completely from neighboring Beit Jala and Bethlehem by the new route of the Wall (see News from Within Vol. XX No. 5, August 2004).
But, just as worrying for Palestinians who live inside Israel, is the potential for the relocation of the Gush Qatif settlers onto their land. And, there are good grounds for concern. In June 2004, the government stated their intentions to push through “more than one settlement relocation from the Gaza strip to the Western Negev” (The Frontier Within: Land Politics, Resistance and Bedouin Identity in the Negev, Alexander Koensler, News from Within, June-July, 2004). More recently, in November 2004, Yonathan Bassi, the director of the Israeli Disengagement Administration, the agency responsible for evacuating the settlers, said that the newly removed settlers would be able to spend the compensation paid to them anywhere they choose to: “They are free people,” Bassi said, “they can go where they want. They can go to Canada, Jerusalem or any of the settlements in the West Bank” (Gaza Strip settlers may go to West Bank, Conal Urquhart, The Guardian, November 17, 2004). However, there is a $30,000 (US) bonus for those who move to the Negev or the Galilee, while the settlers who go to the West Bank will receive the same amount as those who choose West Jerusalem or Tel Aviv. It is clear that the State of Israel would prefer they relocate to settlements built on Palestinian land inside so-called Israel Proper."
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