“Unoccupied” Israeli Settlements

Although more and more people in the West are hearing about illegal Israeli settlements in the media and the problems they are causing for the peace process, most people don’t know that there are reasons other than political and religious ones for occupying someone else’s land.

“Quality of Life” Settlers

This term is used for those Israelis who decide to move to settlements for economic reasons, instead of political or religious ones. They tend to live closer to the Green Line (the internationally recognized 1967 border between the West Bank and Israel).

Ideological Settlers

Israelis who use religious and nationalist reasons to defend living in West Bank settlements—most of these live right in the middle of Palestinian territory and cause the most problems for their Palestinian neighbors.

Ultra-orthodox Settlers

Could be under the category of “quality of life” settlers, because they live in West Bank settlements because of the cheap and segregated (ultra-orthodox only) housing that is close to the Green Line. (Ultra-orthodox housing in Israel is expensive and overcrowded).

Short History of the Settlement Movement

The settler movement was started, as would be expected, by religious ideologists who were and still are fanatically attached to “reclaiming” the biblical Land of Israel as a state for Jewish people. What Israel consists of right now is only a small part of the larger “Land of Israel”—who’s border varies according to which ancient scripture you read but could extend as far as the Nile River in Egypt to the Euphrates River in Iraq.

Shortly after the settlement movement began, the Israeli government began to heavily subsidize the settlements for political reasons, to cater to settlement leaders and to support the right-wing national-religious groups inside Israel. Ideologically, the subsidization of settlements supported the settlement of key areas in the West Bank that had historical connections in Judaism (including the Etzion bloc) and that were in strategic locations (Jordan Valley and anywhere that is high elevation).

Because there weren’t enough fanatical Israelis to populate the necessary areas inside the West Bank for purely ideological reasons, the government decided to motivate settlers economically. Because of this, a new group of Israelis became  drawn to the settlements because they could find cheap housing, tax breaks, subsidies on transportation, education, etc…

“Unoccupied” Settlements

According to a Peace Now survey, about 77% of the almost 500,000 Israeli settlers living in the West Bank said they had moved there mainly for economic reasons. There is a large percentage of these “quality of life” settlers who register themselves with the government as living in West Bank settlements, but who do not actually live there full time.

If you visit some of these types of settlements during the middle of the day, you will find that the schools and streets are empty. There are actually not many people who live there full time. Instead, they enjoy the economic benefits of being registered as living there without the hassle of commuting from Israel to the settlements for work and without the security risk of living in occupied territory.

Palestine Monitor (Palestinemonitor.org) is currently working on a story to find out how many settlements are actually inhabited full time. So watch for the story in the next couple of weeks.