Israeli settlers see champion in Trump
Many count on him to support West Bank homes
AMONA, WEST B ANK Yoni Binyamin lives on a windy, contentious hilltop slated for demolition, but she is convinced her community will not only remain but also continue to grow after Donald Trump becomes U.S. president.
“Maybe now the world will change its ways a bit and see we are good, simple people who have not stolen anyone’s land,” Binyamin said as she watched her six children on a playground within earshot of nearby Palestinian villages.
Her hopes are based on the assumption that the new president will support her enclave and construction on land in the West Bank also claimed by Palestinians for a future state — even though Trump has not explicitly said so.
By contrast, the Obama administration was critical of Israeli settlements on disputed land.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has tolerated settlement construction that has not been authorized by the government. Hard-right parties in his ruling coalition are moving to legalize the construction. They were unsuccessful in their bid to overturn a court ruling that Amona be dismantled by Dec. 25 because it was built on private Palestinian land.
The debate over the fate of outposts such as Amona has been going on for decades, pitting Israeli settlers against Palestinians and their own government.
The United States and most of the international community consider expanded settlements an obstacle to peace negotiations, which have been dormant for years.
One reason for settlers’ faith in Trump: His Israeli adviser, Jason Greenblatt, who served in the Israeli army guarding a West Bank settlement, told Israel Army Radio that the president-elect does not view settlement activity “as an obstacle to peace.”
In another hopeful sign for settlers, Trump’s son-in-law and close adviser, Jared Kushner, who might become a Middle East envoy, is a director of a family foundation that made tens of thousands of dollars in charitable donations to West Bank settlements in recent years, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported Monday.
During Trump’s campaign, he made many pro-Israel comments, including a promise to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. That would be a major change in U.S. policy, which calls for the future of Jerusalem to be decided in peace negotiations with Palestinians who want East Jerusalem to be part of their state. Trump said he would like to broker a Middle East peace deal.
Among Americans living in Israel, Trump outpolled Democrat Hillary Clinton 49% to 44%, according to a survey released by the non-profit organization iVote Israel. Of the more than 350,000 settlers in the West Bank, 60,000 are Americans.
Right-wing and ultra- Orthodox politicians celebrated Trump’s victory. Shas party leader Aryeh Deri said Trump’s election was a response to the non- Orthodox Jewish “hold on the U.S. government” and a “miracle.”
Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett said “less pressure from Trump” would usher in the end of the “era of the Palestinian state” and an opportunity for Israel to annex the West Bank.
Less than a week after the U.S. election, Bennett championed a bill in the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, that would retroactively legalize more than 100 unauthorized outposts scattered through the West Bank. The bill, revised to allow the court-ordered demolition of Amona, gained initial approval in the Knesset but has to go through more steps before becoming law.
Palestinian official Saeb Erekat said the legislation, if it passes and is upheld by Israeli courts, would perpetuate “the systematic denial of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people.”
Avihai Boaron, 43, a publisher who has lived in Amona since it was founded 20 years ago, predicts his community ultimately will prevail, as did the president-elect. “Like Trump, who won against all odds, we will survive here in Amona,” Boaron said. “With Trump’s influence on Israel, we will finally allow ourselves to be free from fear.”
“Maybe now the world will change its ways a bit and see we are good, simple people who have not stolen anyone’s land.” Yoni Binyamin, West Bank settler