Palestinian settlement workers carry on building

By Joseph Nasr

BEITAR ILLIT, West Bank, Sept 23 (Reuters) - From up here in the hills beyond Jerusalem, President Barack Obama might get a different view of Israeli settlements frustrating his ambitious drive to resolve the 60-year-old Middle East conflict.

Whether their construction is "frozen" or just "restrained" seems too fine a point for Palestinians to whom the fenced-off, red-roofed towns all over the West Bank are immovable facts on the ground that have been part of their lives for years.

Even if peace were agreed, they know, Israel would hold onto its biggest West Bank settlements in a land-swap with a new Palestinian state.

Building work continues as usual on the breezy slopes, regardless of Tuesday's damp squib summit in New York where Obama failed to persuade Israel to stop building so stalled peace talks might resume.

Many of the workers are Palestinians, men who say they long for an end to Israeli occupation and a state of their own, but also need to earn a livelihood and refuse to let their families go hungry when there are jobs to be had, even from Israelis.

"If Obama came here of course it would give him a different view of reality because hearing about it is not like seeing it," said Abu Saeed, a contractor who undertakes work in the settlement of Elazar, near Bethlehem.

From the rocky edge of the Palestinian village of Wadi Nis (Porcupine Valley) he points to five Israeli settlements on the nearby ridges and hilltops south of Jerusalem, towns that would be either have to handed over to a new Palestinian state or bought in land swaps elsewhere on the borderline.



STEADY GROWTH

Settlement began after Israel seized the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war, and advanced rapidly in the 1980s. About 300,000 Israelis inhabit 100 settlements, in plush villas with leafy gardens and spartan apartments still smelling of concrete.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas insists he will not resume peace talks with Israel which broke off late last year until the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agrees to freeze all settlement activity.

Netanyahu has offered no more than a 9-month suspension.

Obama had also insisted on a "freeze" until this week when, facing a stalemate that threatens to keep negotiations suspended indefinitely, he urged Israel to show "restraint".

The nuance was lost on workers at Beitar Illit, one of the newer settlements south of Jerusalem, where orthodox Jewish families of modest means occupy flats in 6-storey blocks made presentable by honey-coloured facades of cut Jerusalem stone.

"It's empty talk, this settlement freeze," said the ganger of a six-man Palestinian squad building sidewalks for the community. "Yesterday we had this summit about freezing settlements and here we are today back at work as usual."

"The Jews will never leave the settlements," said a co-worker. "This is a false dream. What was taken by force will only be won back by force."

The men do not give their names but do not object to talking on camera. They come from Hebron, a town proud to be considered a stronghold of Palestinian nationalism, where nevertheless, they say, neighbours show understanding for the choice they made.

Like Abu Saeb, whose says his business earns enough to support his extended family "and educate my kids to stay on the land instead of giving up", the labourers say the wages they can earn here are vital.

"We work here to the highest standards," one winked as they sat on the roadside eating a simple meagre lunch off a scrap of discarded carton. "You see, we hope that one day the Israelis will move out of here and we will move in." Link...