Forming a government in Israel: The settlers can hope

The new right-wing government alliance in Israel is not yet in place – but the settlers can hope for a strong influence. One of them could get a crucial cabinet post and create facts.

Ilana Shimon lives in Havat Gilad, one of around 90 so-called outposts in the middle of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. She is 48 years old and has ten children. Her house, more of a hut, is poor. And yet she says she is happy here.

Havat Gilad has been around for 20 years. The place is named after Gilad Sar, an Israeli who was shot dead in a Palestinian attack in 2001. His father Moshe Sar has since founded several of these outposts on private land – out of revenge, it is said.

This place is illegal under Israeli law, but the settlers here are protected from attacks by Palestinians by the Israeli military. And Havat Gilad is flourishing: around 80 families now live here.

The result of the general election in Israel is a sign of hope for Ilana Shimon. She would like a better infrastructure: connection to the electricity, water and sewage networks, as well as bus services and regular post. Most important to her is the legalization of Havat Gilad by the State of Israel.

Settlers rely on Bezalel Smotrich

There have already been several attempts to do so – but now the chances are particularly good. Also because Bezalel Smotrich, as head of the Party of Religious Zionism, is one of the winners of the November 1st election.

He will now be one of the powerful men in the new government: in the negotiations with Benjamin Netanyahu, he made sure that he not only became finance minister, but also took on responsibility for the civilian administration of the occupied territories. That means he can do a lot for his clientele – for settlers like Ilana Shimon.

And the fact that he intends to do so is evident from his language: Smotrich doesn’t speak of “illegal outposts” but of “young settlements”. Like much of right-wing politics in Israel, he calls the West Bank “Samaria and Judea” and considers it part of Israel. Regarding the new government, Smotrich told Channel 4 that there was enormous potential for historical change and “a turnaround for the settlements in Judea and Samaria”.

It started with a few tents in the 1970s

Smotrich lives just around the corner, in the settlement of Kedumim. Like Daniela Weiss. The 78-year-old is an important figure in the settler movement and has a lot of experience: in 1975 she came to this hill, almost ten kilometers west of Nablus, with a few tents and two children. There is now a large village with pretty houses.

Weiss believes it is her divine mission to settle the land – so she has started a movement with the aim of building more and more settlements and outposts for young families. After the election victory, there is relief and a spirit of optimism in the movement, she says.

She doesn’t see the Arab population in the West Bank as her problem: like in Joshua’s time, God will find a way to regulate relations between Jews and non-Jews, she says. The biblical narrative of the Old Testament in the book of Joshua is a narrative of very brutal conflicts during the conquest of Israel.

A year of violence

Around half a million settlers now live in the West Bank, excluding East Jerusalem, and the trend is rising. The past year was marked by a particularly high level of violence with many deaths and injuries, from attacks by militant Palestinians, operations by the Israeli military and violence by radical settlers.

Weiss says giving sovereignty over the promised land to non-Jews is out of the question. She considers the forthcoming change of government to be a revolution. And yet she is suspicious when it comes to politics. Instead, they rely on continuing to create facts with their settler movement – which are then legalized. Just like in the past.

The new government seems willing to support this course. The legalization of dozens of outposts was already an issue during the coalition negotiations. This is not a good basis for peace in the Middle East.