A love for control over the land
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/551164.html
By Zafrir Rinat



Next month will mark 30 years since the founding of Ofra, the first settlement
of
Gush Emunim. Now, as a political and legal debate is being conducted about the
outposts - new extensions of older settlements - a more fundamental question
should also be addressed: the settlers' treatment of the landscape they are
supposed to love with all their might. After all, in the name of this love, they
continually drag trailers from one place to another and send tractors to every
vacant hilltop.



When the settlers arrived in Judea and Samaria following the Six-Day War, they
found a strip of land that still preserved an amazing likeness to the landscape
of Second Temple days, as far as this can be imagined, and even a likeness to
the
landscape of biblical times. There were some settlers who, while hiking in
Samaria, excitedly recited biblical verses that came to mind when viewing the
farmlands of a Palestinian village like Dura al-Qara, near Ofra, or Bittir, near
Bethlehem.

Today, one must search for this scenery, because it hides in the shadow of the
controlling presence of the outposts, settlements and bypass roads. Love of the
land is the last thing one thinks of when encountering the sight of settlement
construction.

We are not talking here about the aesthetics of the settlements themselves,
though one can make a certain generalization that most of them express a dreary
uniformity or look like an unplanned mishmash of houses that spread out in every
direction. This is particularly true in the larger settlements.

The main thing is the impact the settlements and their associated infrastructure
have on their near and distant surroundings, especially the landscape that has
been used for agriculture and grazing for thousands of years. This landscape,
more than anything else, should connect the settlers to the period of the
biblical patriarchs. Settlements like Eli or Ariel are spread over large
territories and their houses are scattered in every direction, slicing up the
typical landscape of Samaria and damaging cliffs and hills.

The attitude of the founders of outposts and settlements toward this landscape
reflects the outlook of many settlers on the significance of settlement
expansion. What we have here is a case of control, land grabs and incursions.
The
landscape is broken from every direction with heavy equipment, the hills lose
their tree and shrub cover, the slopes become naked and full of discarded dirt.
Fences surround the settlements and outposts from all sides, well behind the
security range required to protect homes, and this creates a feeling of a
detached and imprisoned landscape. Only when you escape to a hidden hilltop near
the illegal outpost Amona and the adjacent settlement, Ofra, do you discover
green hills and gardens.

There are additional examples of scattered and single-story construction that
have not benefited the landscape. This is true of the "mitzpim" that conquered
the hilltops of the Galilee, as well as the "kochavim" communities along the
Green Line. But the momentum of establishing the mitzpim and kochavim
communities
has almost stopped completely, and there is not the same lust for paving new
roads and highways there.

Territories that were saved from the settlers' lust for expansion are, in most
cases, nature preserves and forests whose legal status makes it hard to build
there. In addition, most of these places are not located at strategic positions
of control, but rather along riverbeds.

It seems the settlers have made a clear distinction between the landscape that
constitutes the battlefront for control against the Palestinians and the
landscape that has been neutralized in this battle - nature preserves and
forests. The latter, because of their special status, allow the settlers to also
express love for flowers and animals in their natural environment. But when they
feel there is also a burning need for a Jewish presence in these territories,
the
settlers do not hesitate to invade them or build with the authorities' consent.
This is what they did, for example, in the Ein Prat nature preserve.

In recent months, in their struggle against the disengagement, the settlers have
spoken about their great love for the people and the land. But when one looks at
the outposts and settlements, and what their presence has done to the landscape
and shape of the land (something the settlers prefer to ignore), the conclusion
is that what primarily drives them is not love for the Land of Israel, but
mainly
love for control over the Land of Israel.





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