What did MK Orit Struk caution Ministers Sa’ar and Elkin about? What ultimately happened? How have inspectors hired to prevent the Palestinian Authority's takeover of Area C been redirected against Jewish settlement activity?
The chairperson of the Religious Zionist Knesset faction, Knesset member Orit Struk, has been promoting pro-sovereignty steps in the Israeli Knesset for years, both as a Knesset member and faction leader and as the director of the Eretz Yisrael lobby. However, this last government presented her with tasks that are virtually impossible. In an interview with “Sovereignty,” she tells of the harsh actions taken by Defense Minister Benny Gantz, against the Jewish communities and in support of the Palestinian Authority’s systematic erosion of Israel's sovereignty in Judea and Samaria. But before that, we ask her to address the housing potential latent in Judea and Samaria – the “Moving Eastward” initiative.
“There is no doubt that from an economic perspective, from the perspective of housing solutions, from the perspective of normalcy, everyone understands that the solution to the housing crisis is found in Judea and Samaria. These are areas on the periphery of the country’s center and Jerusalem. Already today we see many people who work or study in the center who are searching for housing solutions in Judea and Samaria that are adjacent to their workplaces," says Struk. She asserts, “It is clear that this is the policy that a responsible government should pursue, for reasons of addressing the lack of affordable housing and the rise in the cost of living, even before ideological reasons.”
Why then, even in right-wing governments, was a significant construction campaign not promoted in Judea and Samaria? The reason, says Knesset member Struk, lies in “fears whose origins are in the political sphere – concerns about what the Americans will say and how it will be received in the world. When we want to build a few dozen isolated units, we are subject to condemnations from one end of the world to the other. This has instilled in generations of Israeli governments fear of taking the most logical and most necessary step".
“A comprehensive change in the settlement philosophy is required.”
In the hope that her party will be a significant factor in the next coalition, Struk speaks of a wide-ranging settlement plan that the party is preparing for implementation. “We do not intend to tolerate a situation where it is only the Palestinian Authority that is developing and occupying more and more territory, while we withdraw into our communities. Our aspiration is to effect a total change of attitude towards the issue of settlement. The government must develop the communities in Judea and Samaria, not only to provide a solution for the natural growth of the residents, but for two additional important reasons: for the purpose of meeting the housing needs of all Israeli citizens and also to gain control of the territory.”
Regarding the land’s potential for significant construction, she says that it is outrageous that there are so many state lands that remain frozen without plans for construction. “These are lands that have already been declared state lands. Moreover, there are many areas that have not been so declared, because the entire Civil Administration system, which is supposed to supervise the process of determining the status of the land, works at a very slow pace, with a terrible shortage of personnel, and in addition, it is challenged at each and every stage of the process by petitions submitted by left-wing and Palestinian organizations. A change is required in the approach to regulating the status of the land.”
Struk relates that the process of mapping the area and determining the status of the lands began during the British period, continued during the Jordanian period, but since the Six Day War has been frozen by Israel. The person who sought to resume the review of the lands in order to determine their status was none other than Avigdor Lieberman during his tenure as Defense Minister. Gideon Saar, who was then chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, demanded that the Ministry of Justice promote the move. However, it was precisely during his tenure as Justice Minister that he chose to abandon the project, which would have increased the amount of land available for extensive Israeli construction.
However, beyond these lands that are awaiting official determination of their status, "there are many lands that have been classified as state lands. In addition, there are many plots of land with Jewish ownership, some purchased before the War of Independence and some purchased recently, some of which are located in areas that correspond to the “Moving Eastward” program. I am familiar with very beautiful plots of land in the vicinity of Jerusalem. It would have been possible to build and develop large neighborhoods there, and it is a shame we did not do so.”
Struk notes that massive construction like the one under discussion now requires investment in infrastructure and roads that already today are insufficient and are not adapted to the scale of the population in Judea and Samaria. “There is a huge gap between the development of roads and their condition in Judea and Samaria and what is happening in the rest of the country. This must be upgraded so that the area can absorb a steadily growing population. The same is true regarding the electricity and water infrastructure. But the considerable investment will yield profits many times greater in the future.”
However, as stated, MK Struk, is no less concerned by the issue of “do good” than by the issue of “turn away from evil.” She details with great trepidation: “While the State of Israel is ambivalent regarding this territory and is not really developing it, the Palestinian Authority is developing it in an accelerated manner with huge investments and an organized program with ever-growing international support. They do this in a variety of ways, ranging from regulation of the land to landscaping and development of construction and infrastructures. The Palestinian Authority is working on this with massive investment and is proclaiming to us and the world that the objective of this entire initiative is to supplant the Jewish settlement, to suffocate and surround it, and create a continuum of Palestinian settlements. They do not accomplish this in the dark, but in broad daylight and in official ceremonies,” she states, noting a ceremony that was held recently in Yatta in which the Palestinian Authority issued 300 tractor licenses to be used in operations to gain control of state lands. This is merely one of many examples.
The land was ceded with no White House ceremonies and no right-wing protests.
“Although the Palestinian Authority has been promoting this initiative for 12 years, there is a difference between what happened over the last 10 years and what is happening from the moment Gantz entered the Defense Ministry," Struk says. “During the first 10 years, the Netanyahu years, Israel did not do enough to combat the takeover attempts, but from the moment Gantz entered, a reversal took place. The country began to combat, but in favor of the enemy. Gantz is doing everything in his ability, utilizing the Civil Administration, to support the Palestinian plan, to mitigate damage to it as much as possible, and to legalize their outposts. In doing so, he is actually ceding huge tracts of land with his own two hands, with no agreement, no maps and no ceremonies on the White House lawn, but the result is the same. In practice, the territory was ceded.”
Struk relates about her appeal to Gantz's current partners, Ministers Saar and Elkin, during the days of the formation of the government, and her request to prevent Gantz from entering the Ministry of Defense through an analysis of his actions as Defense Minister under Netanyahu. “There will be a withdrawal here that will not be recorded anywhere, but it will happen,” she warned. The warnings were ineffective; however, in their wake, “Sa'ar and Elkin had Gantz sign an agreement obligating him to conduct the campaign over Area C while allocating manpower for this campaign. What Gantz did was transfer the manpower for the needs of the Civil Administration, among other things, for enforcement against the Jewish councils. No Palestinian outpost was treated with even a fraction of what was directed against Oz Tziyon or Ramat Migron in terms of brutality and determination. Gantz is conducting an actual campaign against Jews seeking to settle the land," she says with considerable apprehension regarding what can be expected the day after the elections.