Israeli settlers make last stand on a West Bank hill

On a wind-blown hill in Palestinian territory, Elad Ziv, wearing sandals, a T-shirt and a Jewish skullcap, stands outside his home and speaks about the Old Testament's Book of Joshua.

Across the dry, rocky valley that slopes behind him, Fuad Maadi says he just wants his land back.

Both men have become embroiled in a drama which has now taken on international importance because of concern over Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967.

An Israeli court has ruled that the wildcat Jewish settlement of Amona, where Ziv lives alongside around 40 other families in mainly caravan homes, is on Palestinian property and must be evacuated by December 25.

But Israeli nationalist politicians, settlement advocates and Amona residents have resisted the move, and the international community is watching closely over whether the court order will be obeyed.

There are concerns over how any evacuation will play out. In 2006, the demolition of nine permanent houses in the outpost led to clashes between settlers and Israeli forces.

This time, there have been suggestions that the court order could be complied with -- by simply moving the settlement nearby.

That's where Maadi comes in.

Maadi says part of the land being considered as a new location for the outpost belongs to his family and he has been unable to access it since the building of nearby Israeli settlements.

Standing near his home in the Palestinian Christian village of Taybeh, he points to the spot across the valley and downhill from Amona where he says his family once grew olives, grapes and figs.

"It's difficult to hear about that, that your land will just go," said the 60-year-old shopowner, former mechanic and father of five who has a picture of the Virgin Mary on his living room wall.

- 'Cut the West Bank' -

Israeli settlers began to arrive on the hilltop they would call Amona around 20 years ago.

The settlement takes its name from the Book of Joshua and is in the central West Bank, northeast of Ramallah, the Palestinian political capital.

All Israeli settlements in the West Bank are seen as illegal under international law, but Israel differentiates between those it has approved and those it has not.

Settlements such as Amona are called outposts -- those that Israel has not approved. Outpost residents hope such authorisation will one day be provided, as has occurred in other cases.

Amona, one of the largest outposts with between 200 and 300 people, has come to represent a list of issues at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The United States and European Union have grown increasingly frustrated by Israel's settlement building and the retroactive legalisation of outposts.

They have warned that the expansion of settlements is eating away at the possibility of a two-state solution, and many analysts say it contributes to the frustration of Palestinian youths who have carried out knife, gun and car-ramming attacks in recent months.

Gilad Grossman of Israeli rights group Yesh Din, which is helping Maadi and others in their legal fight, said it seemed the Israeli authorities were trying "to find a way to cut the West Bank from east to west with Jewish settlements".

"And that way there won't be an option -- a viable option -- of creating a Palestinian state in the future," he said.

Amona is next to the Israeli settlement of Ofra, which houses around 3,500 people. 

More than 370,000 Israeli settlers now live across the West Bank, compared to around 2.6 million Palestinians.

- 'This is our home' -

Ziv, a 46-year-old father of seven, is like many Israeli religious nationalists.

He points to Jews' historical connection to the land from the biblical era, and sees Israel as extending from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.

That includes the West Bank, leaving no space for an independent Palestinian state.

He moved to Amona more than 18 years ago, when only three other families were there.

"This is our home," he said at his caravan house overlooking the valley, patio furniture outside and grapevines growing nearby.

"We are not going anywhere from here."

One of Ziv's neighbours, Nahum Schwartz, grew up nearby in the Ofra settlement.

A bearded 42-year-old with six children who runs a sheep and raspberry farm, Schwartz said Amona was started as an expansion of Ofra, but he believes it has since developed its own character.

The land was considered by those who started the settlement to be abandoned, he said. 

The Israeli government eventually helped connect it to the electricity grid and instal other infrastructure, residents and anti-settlement activists say.

Asked why he felt so strongly about living there, Schwartz mentioned his belief that Jews should return to their ancient land, as well as practical concerns since he had made his home on the hill.

"I don't think there's a place for a Palestinian state there," he said, referring to the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean.

While many Israelis view Amona residents as particularly hardline, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also presides over what is seen as the most right-wing government in the country's history.

Prominent members of his coalition also do not support an independent Palestinian state.

Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman has said the order to evacuate Amona must be obeyed, but how that will be achieved has not been answered.

After nearly 50 years of Israeli occupation, Maadi and other Palestinians have little faith. His land will be returned to him "if there is justice", he said.

But "I don't think that there is justice", he quickly added.

Source: AFP