Splinter group bids to keep the outpost movement alive

Headed by Rabbi Moshe Levinger (photo) , the American-born founder of the current Jewish neighborhood in Hebron, members of the Land of Israel Faithful say they hope these settlements will grow and foil any possible future peace deal with the Palestinians. May 18, 2002, Wikipedia. Israeli Shin Bet officials announce they have arrested six Israelis for conspiring to bomb Palestinian schools in April, including Noam

Fiamma Nirenstein,
Ma’ale Adumim settler
from Italy

Federman, a leader of the Kach movement of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, and Menashe Levinger, son of Rabbi Moshe Levinger. Rabbi Moshe Levinger has been arrested and charged at least 10 times starting in 1975 in relation to incidents in Hebron or Kiryat Arba. Wikipedia

Dina Kraft, Jewish Telegraph Agency, 14.12.07. The ambiguity of Israel’s policy toward these outposts was highlighted at a September meeting of the government committee charged with dealing with them. "Everything was done with the government's permission, even if it was with a wink, therefore everything is legal,” Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s minister for strategic affairs, was quoted as saying. “You can't pave roads and transfer water and electricity lines in the dead of night. It is inconceivable that today people are suddenly denying this." Foreign Minister Tzipi Linvi said a government commitment to remove the outposts was not up for debate. Israeli human rights activists long have complained that settlers act with impunity in the West Bank. "It's clear that if Palestinians seized land that was not theirs, they would not be allowed to stay for more than five minutes, but the approach to settler youth is very different," said Lior Yavne, director of research for Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights group. "Basically the law enforcement system is nonexistent when it comes to handling repeated offenses related to settlers taking over land."

"If we want the land to be ours, then we have to come and settle it. This is the first step toward what I hope will one day be a community here," Ayana said, looking out at the sloping, sand-colored hills across from Ma’ale Adumim, one of the largest Jewish settlements in the West Bank located just a few miles outside of Jerusalem. Ayana and her comrades were the foot soldiers in a campaign launched by a splinter settler group to take over nine hilltops across the West Bank over Chanukah. Overall there are some 100 illegal outposts across the West Bank. This one, its supporters say, is meant to ensure neighboring Ma’ale Adumim is expanded into an area called E-1 -- a controversial swath of land many say cuts off the northern and southern parts of the West Bank. If this land is annexed by Israel -- most Israelis expect Ma’ale Adumim to become part of Israel in a final-status agreement with the Palestinians -- Palestinians say their state could not be contiguous.

In the past, what would begin as a small cluster of tents or trailers often evolved into de facto settlements with homes, fields and even running water and electricity. Sometimes they would be set up by the government itself. In recent years, however, the mainstream settler movement, represented by the Yesha Council, has begun focusing more on preserving existing settlements than creating new ones, given the increasingly likelihood of a future Israeli withdrawal from most of the West Bank. As a result, a new settler organization called the Land of Israel Faithful has set out to continue occupying as many hilltops as possible -- specifically ones near existing settlements, so the existing settlements grow to other hilltops.

Headed by Rabbi Moshe Levinger, the American-born founder of the current Jewish neighborhood in Hebron, members of the Land of Israel Faithful say they hope these settlements will grow and foil any possible future peace deal with the Palestinians.

The former mayor of the Jewish West Bank settlement of Kedumim, Daniella Weiss, who is on the group’s board, said that in meetings at homes and hilltops across the West Bank, people of all ages are coming together to strategize on how to best stake out what they see as their biblical birthright.

"Politics are very much influenced by what we, the settler movement, do on the land,” Weiss said. “With our building more outposts and more settlements, we prevent the government from fulfilling the idea of giving away territories." The youth who settle the outposts say they are not deterred by the illegality of their actions.

"There is a clear commandment to settle the Land of Israel according to the Torah. It has been ours since the time of Abraham, so we don't need permission," said David, 17, his kipah covered partially by a black wool hat.