Albawaba.com - Amman
A Knesset member on Tuesday confirmed reports that hundreds of families of “economic, secular” Israeli settlers had fled from the Occupied Territories.
Although MK Mossi Raz of the Meretz Party predicted that more settlers would flee from what he called “Palestinian violence,” the parliamentarian said that other Israelis were waiting to fill the places of the relocated settlers.
“More settlers are going to leave, but more settlers are going to join,” Raz told Albawaba.com in an interview.
Although the MK did not provide exact numbers for the fleeing settlers, he did say that “those who left are not going to come back.”
The Palestinian news agency (WAFA) quoted the MK on Monday as saying that 400 Jewish families had fled their homes into Israel.
“I don’t expect any impact on Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s talks with the Bush administration,” added the MK.
Some 200,000 “settlers” live on land confiscated from Palestinians. There is near-unanimous consent around the globe that the settlements violate international law, and the recent report by the Mitchell Commission on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict recommends an immediate freeze on settlement construction.
Despite agreements to the contrary, Israel has continued to expand its settlement activity in recent years.
According to a report issued by Raz this spring, and based on information provided by Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics, and the ministry of housing, the year 2000 witnessed a significant growth in Israeli settlement activity compared with the year 1999.
But settlers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, outraged as over what they see as the failure of Sharon’s so-called “policy of restraint” toward Palestinians, have become increasingly agitated during the nine months of uprising against 34 years of Israeli occupation.
AFP, citing a poll by Yadiot Aharanot, reported last week that one in five settlers in the West Bank and Gaza had agreed with the idea of leaving his house if he was given a replacement home inside Israel.
But flight has not been the only response. Some settlers are well armed and are turning to violence, and others are calling for an all-out war on the Palestinians.
Last week, Jewish settlers rioted against Palestinians in the West Bank, blocking traffic, burning crops and beating up journalists, Palestinian witnesses told reporters.
The settlers, furious at the Israeli government's continued “restraint” after the killing of three settlers despite a ceasefire, demonstrated with placards calling on Sharon to launch an all-out war against the Palestinians.
A witness told Al Jazeera satellite channel that the Israeli soldiers acted passively “while pretending to curb” the belligerent settlers.
Fateh's leader in the West Bank, Marwan Barghouthi, said last week that the Palestinians would continue the pressure on Israeli settlers that has caused many of them to leave the Occupied Territories, Israel’s Army Radio reported, cited by Haaretz.
"We will continue to besiege the settlers until all of them leave the territories," Barghouti added.
Israel views Fateh’s military wing, or the Tanzim, is one of the main groups responsible for Palestinian attacks on Israelis in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The leader also said that "The Palestinians are not obligated to (observe) a ceasefire in areas under Israeli control."
Since the outbreak of the latest Israeli-Palestinian conflict last September, CNN reports that Palestinians have killed at least 112 Israelis with weapons ranging from stones and knives to machineguns and car bombs. Israeli military sources have reported well over 600 injuries to Israelis of Jewish descent.
In the same time period, according to CNN, Israeli soldiers and armed Jewish settlers have killed 13 Arab Israelis and at least 458 Palestinians with weapons ranging from machineguns and tanks to US-made Apache helicopter gunships and F-16s.
According to Amnesty International, nearly 100 of the Palestinians killed were children.
In addition, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society has reported over 14,000 Palestinians wounded, and over 500 killed.
Jewish author Noam Chomsky, who according to a New York Times Book Review article is “arguably the most important intellectual alive,” has been quoted as saying: “State terrorism is an extreme form of terrorism, generally much worse than individual terrorism because it has the resources of a state behind it.”
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
