The Israeli occupation, and the growing separation between the settlers and the Palestinians

West Virginia native Rachel Braslavi says she moved to her new home so her family could have more space, and more of a sense of community. But he’s facing bigger questions than buying a typical home. Their community is the Israeli settlement of Karnei Shomron, which is within the occupied West Bank.

Asked if he sees his immigrant family as obstacles to peace, Braslavi replied, “No. I don’t. I don’t really know. I feel that we have a right to be here. And I feel that the Palestinians have a right. to be here.”

“In this world?” I asked.

“Not this house,” said Braslavi. “But I’m going to the place.”

This settlement, like hundreds of others, is carved out of Palestinian land, surrounded by a protective fence. The border separating the West Bank from Israel is called the Green Line. It was drawn up as part of a defense agreement following the Arab-Israeli war of 1948, which broke out when the modern state of Israel was created.

But after the stunning success of the Israeli military in the Six-Day War of 1967, Israel occupied more land, occupying Palestinian lands, and Israeli citizens began to build settlements.

Today, more than 700,000 Israelis live in these communities, which the United Nations calls illegal. They are scattered in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. About 15% of American residents.

But Rachel Braslavi does not see herself living in the land of Palestine: “No. I don’t see. part of our birthright to be here.”

I asked, “How much of your decision to move here to live was the cost of living against ideology?”

“I left America at the age of 20 to live in Israel,” he said. “And I thought of that movement as my contribution to the Jewish people in my country. It didn’t matter where I lived in Israel.

“And my husband grew up here, and he saw it differently. He really thought, to contribute in a meaningful way, was to cross the Green Line and establish, like, the facts on the ground.”

“What do ‘earthly facts’ mean?”

“Just to strengthen the existing Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria,” replied Braslavi.

“West Bank?

“Yes.”

The number of immigrants has grown more than 200 percent since 2000. The Israeli government promotes these measures, pays the military to monitor them, and funds public services such as buses and schools.

Judith Segaloff moved to Karnei Shomron seven years ago from Detroit, and says she could afford a bigger house here than she could on the other side of the Green Line. He took us and visited us. “Across the street is our shopping mall,” he said. “We have an ice cream shop. Here is our sushi shop.”

I asked, “Do you have friends or family who don’t agree with you living in an apartment?”

“Absolutely,” Segaloff said. “Some of them will not visit.”

Segaloff says he is excited about plans to expand the residential area along the road. He believes that Israel’s presence provides security.

“But it is also a contested area,” I said, “an area that is considered inhabited.”

“For others,” Segaloff said.

“It’s the international community.”

“Well, they’re going to have to get over that,” Segaloff said. “You can’t live among people who want to kill you. They have to move us in.”

But not far away, on the other side of the checkpoints and the security barrier, we met Saher Eid from Palestine, who lives in the West Bank village where his great-grandfather was born.

When asked about the settlers claiming that – according to history, according to the Bible – the land belongs to them, Eid said, “We have documents that prove that we are the owners of this land, which we have been cultivating forever. Ask these settlers where they come from?”

He and his wife, Tamador, a high school science teacher, invited us to tea. They say they are very concerned about the increase in violence from Israeli immigrants, reinforced by Benjamin Netanyahu’s increasingly right-wing government. Since October 7 last year, according to the UN, there have been 1,400 attacks by extremists against Palestinians or their property.

The Eids are also frustrated that the fences and checkpoints around the settlement have cut them off from their olive trees. Saher said his freedom was taken away: “You stole my land. You stole my olives. You stole everything.”

I asked, “Is there room for introspection here? Do you ever think, ‘Maybe we’re not the best partners to try to find a way to peace’?”

“We believe that if there was a Palestinian state without settlements, there would be a lot of support for peace,” said Saher.

The difference on this side of the protective barrier is noticeable. The revenue is a fraction of that of Israel, and Israel controls the water and a large amount of tax revenue.

Saher said he would accept an Israeli living in Tel Aviv in his home, but not an immigrant: “No, because he is a thief.”

Assaf Sharon, a professor of political philosophy and law at Tel Aviv University, noted, “James Carville coined the phrase, ‘The economy, stupid.’ In Israel-Palestine, ‘It’s settlements, fools.’

Regarding the settlers who said that they did not take anyone’s place, that there was no one who lived there before them, Sharon said, “Of course, it was not done by others. Living in an area does not mean you have a house. It can be a design area. It can be a building area for the future.

“The settlers are making a security argument, that Israel is safer in the settlements,” I said.

“The security argument is completely bogus,” Sharon replied. “Residential properties are not security assets; they are collateral burdenbecause to protect, to protect a large number of civilians, deep in dense Palestinian territories, is a heavy burden for the military.”

He added, “The best way to ensure Israel’s security is to have a relationship with a government or a government-like organization that has an interest in preventing this type of hostile activity.”

David Makovsky, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said, “We have views on both sides of this equation that are determined to block any accommodation.”

In 2013, Makovsky was part of a group trying to negotiate a peace deal. That failed proposal, along with two others, would have seen the Palestinians retain about 95% of the West Bank.

But today, with a growing number of settlements – blue dots on the map, some far from the Green Line – it may be even more difficult to determine the boundaries of a two-state solution.

Negotiations changed under Donald Trump, said Makovsky: “Until Trump, all US peace processes were the same. Under Trump, working with Prime Minister Netanyahu, he does not want to pick and choose which settlements will do and which ones will not. Therefore, the prime minister assured the president that the entire settlement is called Israel Now that creates an impossible situation for Swiss cheese that will now fill the settlement.

Now, the settlers may have another ally in President Trump’s choice to be the next ambassador to Israel: Mike Huckabee, who has said he is open to taking parts of the West Bank.

But there is a historical precedent for residential migration. About 20 years ago, The Israeli government advocated that an exit from Gaza was the path to peace.

According to Makovsky, “2005 belongs to the residents of their Waterloo, their defeat.” It was then that Israel removed all 8,000 residents from Gaza.

Back then, I described a 17-year-old boy who was forced to leave Gush Katif, his home in Gaza. Nineteen years later, the settlement is still front page news. “Yes, that’s how it is in Israel,” said Rachel Yechieli Gross. Today, she is now a mother of three children, and no longer lives in a shelter.

I asked, “The fact that you left your home, the place where you live as a teenager, shows that the places of residence can be closed. Could that be a step towards peace?”

“After that October 7I’m not sure anymore, because I really believed there could be a change,” Gross said.

Makovsky blamed the terrorist group Hamas, which he said “has really led to the growth of the Israeli right. If the people of Israel thought that the land of Palestine was Costa Rica, they would line up to sign, ’cause they want to end the conflict. They just want to be safe but when they hear that the land of palestine is a small iran, you can’t get enough people on the fence.

Back in the West Bank, Rachel Braslavi and her family are 700,000 Israeli residents working to change, as she puts it, “ground realities.”

“I wouldn’t leave willingly, because I’m raising my family here and I know how to build the home of my dreams,” she said. “Why does the peace agreement have to be at my expense, I gave up my house?”

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Story produced by Sari Aviv. Editor: Ed Givnish.