New Documentary Says the Occupation of the West Bank Is Irreversible

June marked the 49th anniversary of the 1967 Six Day War and saw the release of a documentary that recounts the history of the settlement movement that arose in the wake of the war. The Settlers, by Israeli director Shimon Dotan, writes Yossi Melman in The Jerusalem Report (June 27, 2016) is “both horrifying and frustrating.”

In that war, Israel conquered the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip from Egypt, the West Bank from Jordan and the Golan Heights from Syria. The official Israeli policy following the war was that all lands would be returned to their owners, after minor territorial adjustments, in return for peace. In 1982, Sinai was returned to Egypt following the peace treaty between the two countries. Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza in 2005, and the territory was taken over by Hamas in 2007. Against the backdrop of the Syrian civil war, now in its sixth year, there are few demands that Israel return the Golan Heights to the practically non-existent state of Syria. According to Melman, “The major remaining obstacle to peace with the Palestinians is the continued Israeli occup¬ation of the West Bank (known by most Israelis as the biblical Judea and Samaria). The central hurdle to ending the occupation and enabling the creation of an independent Palestinian state is the Jewish settlements.”

Until the Yom Kippur War of 1973, The Settlers shows, the official policy of Labor-led Israeli governments of Levi Eshkol and Golda Meir had been to use the occupied territories as “bargaining chips” to be returned in exchange for peace. The only territorial exception was the “Alon Plan,” which advocated building Jewish urban neighborhoods around Jerusalem and settlements in the Jordan Valley. Still, the Labor governments opposed settlement atop the Judea and Samaria hills and near Palestinian cities.

According to Melman, “… all that changed following the traumatic events of the 1973 war.” Religious zealots formed the Bloc of the Faithful which was “driven by messianic and religious zealotry, they swore to fight the settlement policies of the Labor government by all means — democratic and not so democratic.”

In the film, Israeli journalist Akiva Eldar says he once asked Shimon Peres whether he regrets helping the settlers. Peres, according to Eldar, answered, “Had I known what a monster would grow, I wouldn’t have lent my hand to them.”

Today, the West Bank and greater Jerusal¬em are inhabited by 370,000 Jews and 2.8 million Palestinians. Melman notes that, “Dotan’s film is horrifying because of the contradictions between the tranquil and wonderful landscape and the dreadful conditions of the Palestinians. But also because of the contrast between the soft-spoken words expressed by the settlers — some of them bordering on messianic hallucinations — and the true reality of Israeli colonial¬ism, racism, discrimination and economic exploitation of Palestinians. The film also touches … on how Jewish terrorists emerged in the last 30 years … They assassinated Palestinian mayors, killed innocent civilians, planned to bomb Palestinian school buses and the mosque on the Temple Mount …”

The film also cites Baruch Goldstein, the Brooklyn-born doctor who in 1994 murdered 29 Palestinian worshippers in the Cave of the Patriarchs. His funeral was attended by Yigal Amir, who, a year later, murdered Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Hebrew University philosopher Moshe Halbertal says in the film that the new generation of Jewish terrorists “are envious” of the Palestinian martyrs and want to be like them to sacrifice their lives with murder.

Melman concludes: “The Settlers … places a mirror in front of Israelis like me, Israelis who are secular, patriots, who love this country and believe in human rights and human dignity know that the battle about the spirit and soul of Israel as a free, democratic, Westernized state is over … The settlers won … The West Bank condition is irreversible as politician and writer, Meron Benvenisti, prophesied three decades ago. The two-state solution of an Israel and Palestine living in peace, side by side, is just a virtual reality on paper.”

The chance for a two-state solution is steadily eroding, members of the Middle East Quartet mediation group said early in July. The Quartet is composed of the U.S., the U.N., Russia and the E.U. The latest report calls on Israel to cease construction and expansion of settlements and the designation of land exclusively for use by Israelis. The Quartet said two states, one Israeli and one Palestinian, is the only way to end the occupation and ensure Israeli security. But Israeli policies encouraging settlement growth and squelching Palestinian development are “steadily eroding the viability of the two-state solution,” it said.

Speaking at the annual Herzlya security conference, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said that “a fanatic seed of extreme ideology has taken over the Likud.” He argued that Prime Minister Netanyahu’s priority was not security but “a slow and cunning advancement of the one-state solution agenda.” He said that this would lead to either an apartheid state or a bi- national state “in which the Jews will become a minority within a couple of generations.” •