Jewish settlers in Palestine?

Jewish residents of a Palestinian state would need cast-iron assurances and safeguards for their physical security and basic legal rights.

By AMIEL UNGAR
Settlers hold a protest close to the scene of an attack by Palestinians near the West Bank settlement of Tekoa. A Jewish woman sustained moderate burns after her vehicle was hit by Molotov cocktails (photo credit: NIR ELIAS / REUTERS)
Settlers hold a protest close to the scene of an attack by Palestinians near the West Bank settlement of Tekoa. A Jewish woman sustained moderate burns after her vehicle was hit by Molotov cocktails
(photo credit: NIR ELIAS / REUTERS)
When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu broached the idea of some Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria remaining under Palestinian rule in the context of a two-state deal, he ran into a hail of criticism from left and right.
Particularly acrid was the response from Naftali Bennett, the leader of Bayit Yehudi, the party most closely associated with the settlement project, who accused Netanyahu of having “lost his moral compass.” Bennett definitely spoke for the overwhelming majority of the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria. Only a small minority – which included the rabbi of my community Tekoa, the late Menachem Froman – thought that the idea deserved a chance.
A great deal hinges on what it would mean in practice.
Ideally, many residents would want to stay in communities they nurtured from difficult infancy to sizable and thriving towns, replete with institutions that serve the entire country. The Talmud instructs us that one should live in the Land of Israel, even among a non-Jewish majority, rather than outside it, even among a Jewish majority. Now, as then, it is necessary to maintain a living Jewish affinity to the land. As the Arabs after 1967 practiced sumud (steadfastness), and maintained a steadfast presence despite Israeli control, it may now be the Jews’ turn to adopt the practice.
However, this aspiration must be balanced by a sense of realism about what life under Palestinian rule presages. Anybody remotely aware of the contemporary Middle East knows that this is not the most propitious time to be a religious minority – unless you happen to live in Israel.
It is not even a good idea to be the wrong type of Muslim. I recently listened to the heroic Canon Andrew White, popularly known as the “Vicar of Baghdad,” describing the travails of his church under constant physical threat, and of Iraq’s decimated Christian community, waging a struggle for survival.
I read the Hudson Institute researcher Samuel Tadros’s tragic description of his Egyptian Coptic community that is effectively going into self-imposed exile due to the persecution that has remained one of the few constants under Egyptian leaders Mubarak, Morsi and Sisi. White also mentioned the Arab aphorism “after Saturday comes Sunday,” meaning Iraq was first cleansed of its Jews and now it is the Christians’ turn. Iraq’s Jewish and Christian communities antedated Islam’s arrival. I have few illusions that the fate of a Jewish minority would be any better under Palestinian rule.
Therefore, at the very least, the Jewish residents of a future Palestinian state would need cast-iron assurances and concrete safeguards for their physical security and basic legal rights. Any attempts to cleanse us, either by the direct actions of the official forces and agencies of a Palestinian state, or by their non-intervention and indifference in cases of mob or other violence, would need to be defined as a casus belli justifying an IDF response. Moreover, the story does not end with physical survival and well-being. If the Jewish minority in Palestine is meant to serve as a counterweight for the Arab minority in Israel, then that reciprocity must extend all the way.
In other words, Jews would expect to enjoy the same rights under Palestinian rule as, say, Israeli Arab Knesset Member Ahmad Tibi does in Israel (although we would not aspire to membership in a Palestinian legislature).
Indeed, Jews should be allowed to maintain Israeli citizenship and enjoy free access to Israel.
On Israel’s Independence Day, they should be able to fly an Israeli flag over their homes, the way Arab citizens of Israel wave Palestinian flags on their Land Day. The Jewish minority should not be compelled to participate in condemnations of Israel and servile protests of loyalty to Palestine, as the now extinct Jewish communities in Arab lands were often forced to do. If treated fairly, the Jewish minority would behave the way it has everywhere else – as a law abiding community that seeks amicable relations with the non-Jewish majority.
Unfortunately, this arrangement, while eminently feasible in the EU, remains a distant fantasy in our turbulent region. Therefore, all things considered, I join Naftali Bennett in rejecting the idea as impractical and unworkable.
Contributor Amiel Ungar is also a columnist for the Hebrew weekly Besheva.