MIDDLE EAST: Strange Way to Seek Peace

Israel builds yet another settlement on Arab land

Even for a parliament that is notoriously rowdy and undisciplined, one session of the Israeli Knesset last week was unusual. Agriculture Minister Ariel Sharon, who is known as his country's "settlement czar," gleefully baited and ridiculed opposition members who attacked the Cabinet's decision to establish a new Jewish settlement at Elon Moreh on the occupied West Bank. Not only will the settlement be located, in part, on privately owned Arab land, opposition M.P.s argued, but it will also be within a mile of the populous Arab town of Nablus. Sharon blithely dismissed opponents of Elon Moreh as a "fifth column" bent on sabotaging the dreams of Zionism. When Labor Party members protested that accusation, Sharon snapped: "While you're heckling me here, we lay another meter of pipeline, another kilometer of road, and build another house." Infuriated, Labor Member Adial Amorai screamed again and again at Sharon: "You're infantile!"

The debate reflected the emotion unleashed within Israel by the Cabinet's 8-5 decision on Elon Moreh, and especially by its timing. The action was announced only a few days before talks between Egypt and Israel on autonomy for the West Bank and Gaza Strip were scheduled to begin in Alexandria. U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance described the new settlement as a "hindrance to the peace process" and warned that the timing of the decision was "particularly inappropriate."

The Cabinet move came at a time when tensions between Jews and Arabs on the West Bank have been on the rise. In the past two months there have been a number of clashes between Palestinians and the settlers, in which several Arabs have been killed or injured. Israeli troops have been more active in cracking down on the Arabs than on the settlers. Bir Zeit University, one of three Arab institutions of higher learning on the West Bank, has been closed since May. When residents of Nablus staged a general strike to protest Elon Moreh, soldiers forced shopkeepers to reopen their stores. The old Israeli practice of demolishing the homes of suspected terrorists has been revived.

Many Israelis seem to agree with the West Bank Arabs that the Elon Moreh decision was particularly unfortunate. The independent Tel Aviv daily Ha 'aretz observed that "it is difficult to imagine an act more injurious to Israel than the location, timing and circumstances of the establishment of the Elon Moreh settlement." Members of an organization called Peace Now, which was formed last year to encourage the government to make concessions to Egypt during the peace negotiations, rolled boulders onto a newly built road leading to the settlement.