The Shindman’s live in Efrat in Gush Etzion, a scenic area of comfortable, middle-class suburban houses a half hour commute from Paul’s office in Jerusalem, where he works in high-tech.
When politicians talk about Israeli settlers on the West Bank, the mental pictures they evoke are not normally ones of people like Paul.
It was here in the Judean hills around Bethlehem and Hebron that Judaism began 3,000 years ago and the Biblical character of the dusty, rocky landscape is a daily reminder of those ancient roots. The settlers who live in West Bank communities like these are an eclectic mix of new immigrants and Israeli-born ‘Sabras’ who adhere to varying camps of religious affiliation and work in a wide variety of professional fields. Some, of course, do typify the image of the Israeli settler most people conjure up in their minds, but Paul Shindman says that most of the Israelis who returned to live here are perfectly normal people just like him.
“We’re basically akin to suburbanites,” Shindman told The Media Line as the kids warmed up on the practice mound behind him. “We’re just south of Jerusalem. This was an area that was owned by Jews before 1948, so we don’t look at ourselves as settlers. A small town is often a lot better for raising kids. You know everybody here. The schools, we think, are a lot better than they are in the big cities.”
The image of settlers living in a caravan on a windswept hilltop couldn’t be further from the reality of Eve Harow’s beautiful home overlooking the Judean landscape. Efrat was established in 1980 and it is certainly no caravan site; it’s a modern town housing more than 8,000 residents who live in newly-built homes. This is one of the areas U.S. President Barack Obama, as well as many other world leaders, wants the Israelis to stop building on, as he claims that by continuing to do so, the hope of ever achieving peace in the Middle East is impossible.
But the residents of Gush Etzion feel differently.
“We are not obstacles to peace,” said Eve as she watered the small forest of houseplants in her elegant salon. “If I left here, it wouldn’t lead to peace. We’re actually symbols of peace. Say there’s going to be a Palestinian state and Jews can stay as a minority. That’s a sign of co-existence and peace. Twenty percent of Israelis are Arabs. Nobody’s saying they should leave.”
Earlier this month the local mayor invited former President Jimmy Carter to visit Gush Etzion and meet the settlers for himself. Carter, who had never been to a settlement before and always denounced them as illegal, surprised his hosts when he emerged from the meeting saying he had learned a new perspective.
“This particular settlement area is not one that I envision ever being abandoned or changed over into Palestinian territory,” Carter told reporters.
The Obama Administration has demanded a total freeze on building in these Israeli communities in the territory captured by Israel in the 1967 war. The Israelis who live here know they have a bad image abroad but most of them they say they just want to live normal lives, and many newly-weds who want to stay and raise families in their own community will, if the freeze is implemented, have no possibility of doing so unless the exception of ‘natural growth’ is permitted.
The deep-seated ideology of settling the land has not been the basis for everyone’s decision to move to the West Bank. Benny Raz moved to Karmei Shomron near Nablus in 1992 due to financial incentives offered by the Israeli government. When Israel built the security barrier to stop Palestinian suicide bombers coming into Israel from the West Bank, Raz’s home was left on the wrong side of the fence. Raz said there are thousands of Israelis like him who would leave tomorrow if the could get compensation to start again.
“We didn’t have enough money and they said the government would help people to buy apartments in Judea and Samaria,” Raz told The Media Line as he looked out over the rolling hills. They were told “There are beautiful apartments; a lovely place. We could live with the Palestinians. It’s a wonderful apartment— a lovely view. So we settled here. Seventy or eighty percent of the people in Judea and Samaria didn’t come here because of ideology. They came here for economic reasons and also for quality of life.”
But now the situation is different. The world is pressurizing Netanyahu’s government to freeze building; the settlements at Gush Katif were evicted in 2005 and 8,000 residents lost their homes, and people like Benny now live in political limbo.
“If I am going to be evacuated from here and that will help peace, why not?” Benny said. “I’ll take the money and go and build a house inside our own Land of Israel. There are 150,000 people here who want to leave tomorrow.”
“I want today to build my future inside Israel and return to my own country,” he said.
“As far as quality of life, it’s wonderful. I have good weather; I have a lovely view. It’s quiet for the children. But I have no inner peace. I don’t know when I will be evacuated from here. I live under a huge question mark. I am a hostage of the Israeli government. I am a pawn between the Israeli government and the Palestinians. Don’t do it on my back. Don’t do it on the back of the American people. Take a decision and start to move the people out of here.”