TAKEOVER ON THE WEST BANK
Benvenisti, Meron
The following paragraphs are excerpted from a lengthy report by Jerusalem Post correspondent DAVID RICHARDSON of a conversation with MERON BENVENISTI, former deputy mayor of Jerusalem and a...
...Regulations are promulgated and laws amended on a legal basis that is increasingly personal...
...the figure for Jerusalem stands at 3 percent...
...They make territorial compromise almost impossible for any mainstream Israeli political party...
...The quality of life and level of services provided in these suburbs will be higher than in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv and environs...
...In 1969, 46 percent of the West Bank labor force worked in agriculture...
...Precisely the areas it wants to keep have high rates of growth...
...Israel's entanglement in the West Bank is not following some master map...
...This makes nonsense of the Alignment plan to keep only those areas where there is low-density Arab population," Benvenisti says...
...a further 20,000 are unorganized labor...
...the next largest slice, some $31 million, is being spent by the Agriculture Ministry...
...The patterns of employment have also changed drastically...
...in 1980 the figure was 26 percent...
...Twenty-five percent of Israeli exports are sold via the West Bank, which is something of a captive market and the largest single market for Israeli manufactured goods...
...But the housing fair in Jerusalem . . . provided evidence to the contrary...
...It is an auxiliary sector of both the Israeli and the Jordanian economies," Benvenisti concludes...
...In 1969, in the West Bank, 11.5 percent of the labor force was engaged in the building industry...
...The following paragraphs are excerpted from a lengthy report by Jerusalem Post correspondent DAVID RICHARDSON of a conversation with MERON BENVENISTI, former deputy mayor of Jerusalem and a leading Israeli demographer...
...The number of organized laborers is generally agreed to be 40,000...
...The large gap is explained by the high rate of emigration, which over the past 14 years has seen an estimated 100,000 Palestinians leave the West Bank...
...Seeing that 25,000 Jews already live in the West Bank, one can predict that at the present rate of development there will be 100,000 there by 1986...
...For this form of settlement arable land is unimportant —bulldozers and dynamite can prepare the most unsuitable terrain for vast building schemes, such as those now in progress in the West Bank, which are rapidly changing the face of the West Bank and of Israel...
...The current budget for development and building on the West Bank is $100 million, according to Benvenisti's estimates...
...Political opinions aside, one has to admit that socioeconomically Ma'aleh Adumim, for instance, is an integral, organic part of Jerusalem," Benvenisti adds...
...It's an outgrowth of an imperial concept — want this,' combined with the ability to go about taking it," he concludes...
...Prices of housing in the territories are accordingly between one-third and one-half of what they would otherwise be...
...It is not the announcement or creation of eight more dots on the map but the increasing shift of Israel's urban population into 15 [these] areas that guarantees Israeli control over the West Bank and that creates perhaps an insurmountable political problem for any concessionoriented political party in the country...
...Now, under the Likud and their settlement vanguard, Gush Emunim, the emphasis is on urban settlement— dormitories for Jerusalem and Tel Aviv...
...that of Israeli Arabs is much higher3.9 percent...
...The full text appeared in the September 10, 1982 issue of the Jerusalem Post, with whose permission these excerpts are reprinted.—Eos...
...and an estimated 15,000 are employed "at arm's length" as subcontractors inside the West Bank in small industries and other parts of the Israeli production process...
...Scores if not hundreds of young couples are only too willing to accept the highly attractive terms being offered by construction companies...
...The 15 years of association with the Israeli economy have seen significant changes in the structure of the labor force in the West Bank—mainly the emergence of a real proletariat drawn predominantly from the rural Palestinian peasants and from the refugee population in the West Bank...
...Benvenisti repeats his argument...
...Can any party afford to ignore 100,000 people...
...Benvenisti stresses [that] it's not so much the number of settlements as the type of settlement that is the most significant factor...
...It's all a question of cost...
...But more significant is the creation of a political lobby that can effectively tie the hands of any major political party in Israel...
...Emigration is higher from the Nablus area than from the south...
...The same concept will eventually apply to the Arabs—consistent with Israel's view that the autonomy envisaged at Camp David applies to the "inhabitants" and not to the land...
...There are restrictions on exports to Jordan, and restrictions on the import of equipment and raw materials...
...Financing a dream home in Judea and Samaria is also an attractive proposition...
...but the population of the West Bank grows at 1.4 percent per annum...
...An often-heard argument is that there are not enough people to move into the new bedroom communities and settlements...
...The industrial base of the area is undeveloped, since there is no capital investment, no government investment in industrial infrastructure, no credit facilities or capital market, no protection from the import of Israeli goods...
...Examining data collected by the Histadrut, Benvenisti found that one-third of the salaried West Bank labor force has been employed in Israel for more than 10 years...
...A dual legislative, executive and administrative system has already been established, Benvenisti contends, which makes the application of Israeli law irrelevant and unnecessary...
...The social and urban implications of this flow of young couples into the territories mean that the cities are weakened, Benvenisti says...
...Nothing is irreversible," says Benvenisti...
...Population growth in Israel is consistent at some 2.3 percent per annum...
...However, demographic patterns are not consistent throughout the West Bank...
...Parallel to a decrease in the area under cultivation, the introduction of more efficient farming techniques, and the pull of industrial salaries in Israel have resulted in a shift from agricultural to industrial employment...
...The contractors are able to offer apartments at a far lower price than housing inside Israel proper, since the government provides all the infrastructure and basic services free...
...Up to 80 percent can be arranged in long-term loans, some of which are on a never-never basis—as long as one lives there, the loan does not have to be repaid...
...BENVENISTI'S FINDINGS ShOW that, contrary to expectations, the Jews in Israel are increasing at a faster rate than the Arabs in the West Bank...
...When President Reagan talks of 'freezing settlements' he displays an anachronistic approach to the problem...
...Half of the employed labor force in the West Bank works in Israel...
...HOW IRREVERSIBLE, then, is the pattern set in motion by the Alignment and accelerated almost beyond recognition by the Likud...
...He bases his figures on the published budgets of the various government ministries and notes that half of this sum has been allocated to the Housing Ministry for building and infrastructure...
...More than 50 percent of the West Bank labor force in Israel is employed in construction...
...At the current rate of building, 3,000 apartments 14 a year are becoming available...
...The result is that population growth in Samaria is very low (0.4 percent), higher in the south (2.1 percent...
...Benvenisti says this reflects the accelerated pace of settlement construction and the pattern has been described as "building other people's homes" by Bir Zeit sociologist Salim Tamari, who recently published a study of what he calls a peasant proletariat...
...in 1980 this had risen to 22 percent...
...During the period of the Labor government the concept of settlement dictated the building of kibbutzim and moshavim, which meant that arable land had to be found for agriculture...
...A pattern of "ironing out anomalies" that arise when Israelis find themselves living outside the borders of their state is already in existence...
...The economy of the West Bank may be characterized as undeveloped, nonviable, stagnant, and dependent...
...One can now be a pioneer without risk and a speculator without embarrassment, making full use of all of the government incentives to settle Judea and Samaria...
Vol. 30 • January 1983 • No. 1
