Mind Your Own Business, Settler Leader Tells Rudd

The Age
15 November 2008
Jason Koutsoukis

Not everyone is happy with our Government's policy reversal, writes Jason Koutsoukis in the West Bank.

NADIA Matar, the leader of the Israeli settler movement Women in Green, has a message for Kevin Rudd. "The incredible audacity of you!" she shouted from her home in Efrat, a Jewish settlement of 7700 people in the West Bank.

Last weekend, the Rudd Government reversed Howard-era policy and voted in support of a United Nations resolution calling on Israel to stop building settlements in the occupied West Bank.

"Who are you to tell me I am not allowed to build here, in my homeland?" Mrs Matar demanded.

The Belgian-born 42-year-old holds views that are considered extreme even by Israeli standards. She believes the 1993-95 Oslo accords with the Palestinians were a "criminal betrayal" of the Jewish people, and says the 1979 Camp David peace treaty with Egypt was a "tragic mistake". Three years after then prime minister Ariel Sharon forced 8500 Jewish settlers to evacuate the Gaza Strip, an orange ribbon of protest remains tied to the rearview mirror of her four-wheel-drive.

In a speech this week commemorating the 1995 assassination of then prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert urged the settlers to give up the dream of a Greater Israel. "We must give up Arab neighbourhoods in Jerusalem and return to the core of the territory that is the state of Israel prior to 1967, with minor corrections dictated by the reality created since then," he said.

Mrs Matar offered a typically defiant response: "Anyone who comes to take me away from my home, I will fight them." She argues that Israel should formally annex the occupied West Bank. "Any Arabs who want to stay, can. But they should have no right to vote and if they don't like it, they can live with the other Arabs in countries where Jews have no democratic rights."

Despite many commitments by Israeli leaders since 1993 to halt settlement growth, only Mr Rabin was able to bring it to a near standstill. In 1996, under his successor Benjamin Netanyahu - a favourite to win elections on February10 - settlement was accelerated. And after the Labour Party's Ehud Barak succeeded MrNetanyahu in 1999, and MrSharon defeated MrBarak in 2001, they grew still more rapidly. Today, there are about 282,000 Jews living in the occupied West Bank, not including occupied East Jerusalem.

Earlier this month, Yuval Diskin, the head of the country's domestic security agency, the Shin Bet, warned the Israeli cabinet that any attempt to withdraw settlers from the occupied West Bank could provoke major conflict.

Mustafa Barghouti, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, believes that the longer Israeli settlements are allowed to expand, the further the chances of peace recede. "How can we have any faith that Israel is sincere about peace when these basic promises are broken?" DrBarghouti asks.

Whether or not a future Israeli leader can find a compromise that Palestinians will be willing to accept, the toughest task might be to unite Israelis behind such a deal.

"Be very careful," warns Mrs Matar of any further attempts by the Australian Government to highlight the settlements issue. "Don't force us to do something. Not because I need your help - I have God on my side. Just for your own sake, because you might be next."

Back to News Index | Back to Home