Bob - a moderat settler

Visit to Efrata

Bob Lang has worked as an advisor to Benjamin Netanyahu when he was prime minister in Israel. He has a bachelor degree in the art of milking cows from the university of Wisconsin but now he works as the PR person for the israeli settlement Efrata which is located half an hour south of Jerusalem, in the West bank.

I meet Bob a sunny day in october. I get a nice first impression of him. He seems natural and at ease when he smiles and jokes while he is taking us on a tour of the settlement. Bob doesn't think he lives in Palestine but in Israel. He describes himself as a moderat settler -even though he admits not liking the work settler -and says that he does not steal land to espand the natural growth of the settlement. 

At the same time he looks proud when he points to five outposts consisting primarily of caravans on small hilltops a couple of kilometers from Efrata. Bob explains that they are not yet recognized a legal parts of Efrata but when they will be , and this he seems sure of, they will be very easy to sell. Very easy he says and mentions a price well under the market prices inside Jerusalem. 

Israeli law separates legal settlements from illegal ones even though according to international law settlements can only be labled illegal.

Before I came to the middle east I sometimes imagined that the conflict between Israel and Palestine was between two reasonably equal partners. I knew that Palestine wasn't a regognized state but still had the impression that the land east of Israel - that use to belong to Jordan - was a piece of land where there existed a palestinian life and where palestinian people lived. 

A reasonble thought even though I knew there were also israeli settlers living in Palestine, calling the area Judea and Samaria according to biblical times. 

Then I went to the West bank. I travelled through the separation wall (or barrier) to get to Palestine and became confused and though I was back in Israel without having passed a military check-point and showed my passport. The I realized that I had never left Palestine but what I first had thought were israeli cities in Israel were indeed israeli cities and towns. But in the West bank. Settlements.

Israel has since 1972 created very obvious so called facts on the ground by building towns and connecting them in six massive settlement blocks in the West bank and and around Jerusalem. All together they house around 400 000 israelis. Gush Etzion is the biggest and oldest block and Eftrata is part of it.

I knew that according to international law israeli  settlements in Palestine are illegal so this in itself was no surprise. To see them was on the other hand unreal. And even worse was it to see the different stages before an actual town like Efrata is built. In other words the creation of a settlement. A seemingly empty hill is often chosen, very often near an already existing settlement. Here a caravan  or two are placed and it is not unusual that it happends in disguise. Often during the night. A rough road is created, electricity is set up. Water is connected et cetera and as time goes by a permit can hopefully be obtained thorough The joint Settlement Committee of the Israeli Govenment and the World Zionist Organization. 

When the permit has been obtained the caravans can be changed for actual houses and kindergardens, shops and schools can be built on the premises.

All these different stages are easiliy spotted travelling through the West bank. But Bob doesn't think that he is living on occupied land. Israel took back land during the 1967 war that use to belong to jewish people, he says. It was used by Jordan for a period and it is true according to Bob that is has been used by other people that the jews but now that they are back it is legally and morally theirs.

Not all land was jewish admittedly. At one time during the tour Bob points to a line of trees on a hill top and says that that specific formation of trees proves that the land was owned by Jordan and has never been Palestinian and therefor it is not stealing to claim it to Efrata.

I don't understand this logic and how building on land outside your state line makes sense to Bob but I am trying my best to follow his reasoning. Bob actually believes that he is in the right to live where he does. He doesn't seemed bothered by the palestinian villages next to the settlement and tells us that they have a good relationship. They even share the water he says, but admits it is the settlement that provides the village closest to Efrata with water. He also says they rarely meet even though it happends.

Bob is a religious man but I don't perceive him as fanatical. He is also conservative in his reasoning when he talks about the jewish claim to the land. Bob says that he wants peace with the palestinians and even that he would consider living with them in the settlement if they would just  stopped being so violent against Israel. I believe he is honest when he says this.

I am almost beginning to think that I understand Bob but then he starts talking about Gilad Shalit, the israeli soldier that was kidnapped in Gaza in june 2006 and is still kept in captivity.

-I think that Israel should turn off all the electricity in all of Gaza until we get back our citizen. 

I look at him. Does he actually mean that we would be willing to give the order to let 1, 75 million people suffer in Gaza in order for Israel to get a soldier back?

Yes he does. Without a doubt.