On Thursday, 7 April 2005, at 11 p.m., a unique encounter took place in Kedumim, a Jewish settlement in the Shomron (Samaria), the northern part of the West Bank. Ten senior fellows and researchers from the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) made their way to the settlement in order to engage with local settlers in a candid dialogue. With tensions running high due to the pending evacuation of the Gaza Strip and of four additional settlements in the northern part of the Shomron, the event was quite unusual.
The incentive for the meeting followed the publication of an article written by IDI President, Dr. Arye Carmon, and IDI Director of International Outreach, Uri Dromi, which ran in Nekuda, the official newspaper of the Jewish settlers in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza. In the article, Carmon and Dromi urged their "brothers and sisters from the religious-Zionist movement" not to disengage from the mainstream of Israeli society. The religious-Zionists, argued Carmon and Dromi, were always at the forefront of the Zionist enterprise. For the last four decades, they felt that by settling Eretz Yisrael (Greater Israel) they were the new pioneers. However, as the majority of Israelis, through their duly elected Knesset and Government, now wish to return some of the settlers to Israel proper, they should cooperate and not fight to foil this move. "We need you in the future," Carmon and Dromi concluded, “for the greater challenges of shaping Israel's character as a Jewish and democratic state.”
Following the article, the people of Kedumim invited the IDI fellows to share thoughts and anxieties vis-à-vis the pending evacuation in a meeting at the settlement. At the start of the meeting, Dr. Carmon set the framework for the discussion by reiterating the article’s theme and calling upon the settlers to ponder future possibilities. Were the settlers to succeed in changing the decree of the state by using force, they would in fact be putting an end to democracy in Israel. This argument automatically raised the issue of the legitimacy of the initial decision to evacuate the settlers.
Local resident Rabbi Daniel Shilo called Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s decision a deception that was “legal but not legitimate.” After all, Sharon’s party, the Likud, rejected the idea of evacuating settlements; but instead, Sharon fired two ministers that did not agree with him. This quasi-dictatorial conduct was followed by the dismissal of a referendum. Rabbi Shilo conveyed his dismay at the arbitrary majority that he felt was simply crushing the minority in Israel.
IDI Senior Fellow Professor Mordechai Kremnitzer empathized with the Rabbi’s feeling and stated that he too felt uneasiness at how the process occurred. Nevertheless, Professor Kremnitzer stated that once the Supreme Court accepted the government’s decision, all citizens must accept it as well. Uri Dromi urged the settlers not to repeat the mistake made by the French settlers in Algeria who fought to keep their settlements after France had decided to pull out. Those settlers were eventually forced to leave in a hurry and were greeted in France with resentment.
Osnat, the Rabbi’s wife, impressed the crowd by sharing her feelings of being torn between her devotion to democratic values and her attachment to the place where she had raised her children. Many settlers expressed their feeling of betrayal from both major governmental parties – both the Labor and the Likud – who had a sudden change of heart after having previously supported and even encouraged growth of the settlements.
Professor Yedidia Z. Stern of the IDI expanded the horizons of the debate by stating that a central problem with the evacuation is that religious institutions in Israel have not given serious thought to the question of Jews living under Jewish sovereignty. Professor Stern referred to the Jewish law, the Halakhah, and asked if Jews know how to rule themselves according to Jewish law.
Moshe Feiglin, famous for protesting the Oslo process in 1995 by blocking major routes of transportation, contributed his opinion in this meeting. He felt as if the settlers represented the majority of Israelis who were now standing by as democracy in Israel gets hijacked by the leftist elite which controls the media.
An emotional speech was given by IDI Senior Fellow Professor Aviezer Ravitzky who shared how he had begrudgingly served in the army reserves while the government was carrying out a policy which he had completely objected to. He now felt betrayed by a group of troops in the army who had the audacity to refuse to evacuate settlements now that the tide has turned.
The substantial exchange of ideas in this event was conducted in such a way that participants listened patiently to each other even when they strongly disagreed. Such civilized gatherings are most unusual to Israeli discourse. At the close of the meeting, slightly after 3 a.m., participants both from Kedumim and from the IDI expressed their interest in continuing this dialogue at future meetings.
Osnat Shilo and other settlers at the meeting in Kedumim
Courtesy of Yediot Aharonot, from the article by Ariella
Ringle-Hoffman in the Shabbat Suppliment
Click here to view an English translation of the article by Arye Carmon and Uri Dromi printed in Nekuda, which led to this meeting
Click here to view an English translation of an article on this encounter by Ariella Ringle-Hoffman published in Yediot Aharonot Shabbat Supplement, Friday, 15 April 2005