Settlers scurry to limit pullout threat

By MARGOT DUDKEVITCH

Settlers in northern Samaria will find themselves surrounded by areas under Palestinian Authority control with the planned handover of the Jenin area today.

The Defense Ministry has allocated some NIS 190 million to boost defenses in settlements throughout Judea and Samaria. Top priority has been given to the 18 settlements affected by the pullback. These are: Itamar, Ofra, Beit El, Ateret, Karmei Tzur, Otniel, Ganim, Kadim, Sa-Nur, Homesh, Bracha, Yitzhar, Beit Hagai, Telem, Adura, Negahot, Mevo Dotan, and Shavei Shomron.

Under the redeployment agreement, these communities are expected within weeks to find themselves surrounded either by Area A, the zone that is under total Palestinian control, or Area B, which is under partial Palestinian control.

Sources in the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza said that in their talks they had succeeded in distancing the borders of Area A to some 200 meters from Karmei Tzur.

In addition, the council is trying to pressure for construction to begin on the planned El Aroub bypass road to improve the safety of Hebron-area settlers.

The IDF has recently put up cement blocks around Psagot near El Bireh and Tekoa. In addition, bunkers and trenches have been dug while watchtowers and electrified fences have been erected.

"The army is more hysterical then the residents in those communities," said council spokeswoman Yehudit Tayar.

"It's obvious that the army anticipates trouble in the future and that's what they're preparing for."

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu promised at a meeting with settlers from northern Samaria yesterday that he would visit there in the near future and deal with their concerns.

Still, residents of Ganim and Kadim, perched on hilltops overlooking Jenin, are angry and feel that the government hasn't explained the full impact of the withdrawal to them.

"They make decisions on the maps without coming to see for themselves the facts on the ground," said Ganim security chief Opher Ashash, a staunch Likud supporter who said he named his cat Bibi.

Ashash, who moved to Ganim from Upper Nazareth in 1993, said that most residents feel helpless and frustrated that their only source of information about what is happening is the media.

Ganim residents are not even sure whether a nearby bypass road will remain under Israeli control after the pullback. For many, their decision about whether to remain will depend on whether they or their children will have to ride to school or work past Palestinian roadblocks, or be escorted by joint patrols rather than only by the IDF.

He added that residents had recently turned down an IDF offer to put up watchtowers, lookouts, and cement blocks around their settlement. "We didn't come here to live in an army base, we came here seeking a quality of life," he said.

But Ashash suggested that the settlement fence be moved to mark the community's real limits, "otherwise the Palestinians may think they can work the land outside the present fence even though it belongs to us." He pointed to a road that the PA recently began paving in the wadi alongside them, and then stopped after the settlers protested.

Alan Bronstein, formerly of Los Angeles, has lived in Ganim for 13 years with his wife Michal, a nurse, and their three children. He said it was low-cost housing which attracted them to the settlement. "The ideology came with time," he added.

Since making aliya in 1971, Bronstein has also lived in communities along the Lebanese border, so he is used to facing security problems. But now he is worried about the prospect of being stopped or questioned by Palestinian police who will be stationed in the area.

Bronstein also said that if he decides to leave the community because of the withdrawal, he would demand compensation, noting that settlers who lived in the Sinai received funds for relocating after the 1982 withdrawal.

Headlines

• Redeployment could alter US role
• IDF wraps up Wye's first stage today
• First Wye pullout to end by tomorrow
• Settlers scurry to limit pullout threat
• IDF poised to implement first Wye transfer
• Wye redeployment begins today
• PM confident he can sell Wye
• Netanyahu flies to capital to avoid protesters
• Right outraged at Wye signing, Left skeptical
• PA officials pleased, extremists reject accord
• Settler leaders weigh next steps
• US Jewish leaders hail accord

• What's in the accord?

• Text of The Wye Memorandum

• Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's speech
• PA Chairman Yasser Arafat's speech

• A patchy deal can easily unravel
• Strained relations
• Clinton deserves praise for job well done
• Wye deal to launch final talks
• Netanyahu turns centrist, but still faces Right
• Now for the tough part
• REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK: Reflections on Wye

• EDITORIAL: A tardy first step
• The next stage

• Sources: There was a tacit deal to release Pollard
• A Pollard chronology
• Pollard's father disappointed that Israel 'caved in' over release