“I don’t expect peace”

April 15, 2024

“I don’t expect peace”

Neus Deutschland, Socialist newspaper Interview, 09/02/2010

“I don’t expect peace”
The settler movement in the occupied territories was unwilling to compromise
Yisrael Medad is spokesman for the YESHA Council (YESHA stands for Judea, Samaria and Gaza), an organization of settlers in the occupied territories of Palestine. He himself has lived in Shiloh, a notorious center of radical settlers, since 1970. Medad writes regularly for newspapers and has his own website (myrightword.blogspot.com). Martin Lejeune spoke to him for New Germany.

ND: What do you expect from the peace negotiations between Abbas and Netanyahu that begin today in Washington?
Yisrael Medad: Above all, I don’t expect peace from the peace negotiations.

Why?
Leaving aside the major intractable problems such as a right of return for Palestinians and the status of Jerusalem, I believe that the Palestinian Authority is neither willing nor able to offer Israel the terms of peace that we can accept. At the moment, the Palestinian Authority cannot even ensure peace in the West Bank. Furthermore, they never stop teaching their schoolchildren to hate Israel, to later become resistance fighters against Israel and that cities within Israel would belong to Palestine.

There is currently unrest again in the Silwan district of Jerusalem because Palestinians are being robbed of their land. Does Israel want to force all Palestinians out of Jerusalem?
No person in Israel, whether Jew, Muslim or Christian, has to move anywhere against their will. 20 percent of the Israeli population are of Arab origin and feel comfortable in Israel. The residents of Umm al-Fachem, for example, an all-Arab city in Israel with over 45,000 inhabitants, could stay where they are.

But Palestinians are being driven out of East Jerusalem every day.
Unfortunately, you are fundamentally misunderstanding something here. They think Jerusalem belongs to an Arab country that the Jews took over 150 years ago. But this is a Jewish land that was occupied by Arabs 1,300 years ago and is now gradually being liberated by us.

What will happen to the settlements in the West Bank? Should they all stay, or should some of them be evacuated so that they don’t stand in the way of peace?
All Jewish communities should remain. There is no reason why a Jew should be able to live in Berlin, Hong Kong or London but not in the territory that is the historic land of Israel. Leaving our holy land of Samaria (the occupied West Bank – M L.) is something we can never accept.

However, a Palestinian state would not be viable as a patchwork quilt.
I am not interested in a Palestinian state. I am not in favor of arrangements that could help establish a Palestinian state. But I am for peace and for giving all Arabs as many rights as possible – including autonomy and the right to manage their private property.

Gaza and the West Bank should be connected by a corridor. This was stated in the Oslo Treaty in 1993.
Thank God there is no such corridor through which Hamas operatives could travel unhindered from Gaza to Samaria.

Four settlers were shot dead on Tuesday. What impact will this have?
Very specific! We have just decided to continue building the settlement today at 6 p.m. in response to this crime. The moratorium is over!

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A video-recorded interview, April 14, 2024.

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