Expansion abroad similar to 3CDC

The first day of my trip to Palestine and Israel, I met with a representative from the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions. After a short presentation, complete with very useful maps (all of which you can find on the organization’s Web site, icahd.org), she took us on a tour of the settlements.

The first one we saw was Nof Zion, which reminded me of gentrified townhouses in my city’s neighborhood, Cincinnati’s Over the Rhine. The settlement, built by and advertised to wealthy Jewish internationals, illustrates a clear view of Jerusalem, the City of David and Mount Zion.

Similarly,  prefabricated   communities in Over the Rhine are built by and advertised to wealthy, white suburbanites. Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation’s projects here, the ones with 3CDC signs out front, like Nof Zion, boast of development, historical significance and security.

More importantly, they both lack even simple recognition of the communities they are overtaking and ousting. A block away from the aforementioned Over the Rhine complex is a predominantly black ghetto. The valley across which residents of Nof Zion might view important cultural and religious sites houses a Palestinian community, which Nof Zion cuts off from other Palestinian communities in the West Bank. As my ICAHD representative put it, these development industries “manipulate the view to create this myopia.” You see what you want to.

In fact, Nof Zion is east of the Green Line within the West Bank. It is part of a ring of settlements around the Old City of Jerusalem, surrounding the area like the layers of an onion.

Nof Zion changed my perspective on settlers. I thought all settlers were gun-toting religious fanatics. While there are many of those folks, most settlers have little knowledge of the geopolitical game they’re involved in. They’re unaware that settlements cut between Palestinian territories. Nof Zion and the park leading up to it didn’t look or feel like Palestine. There aren’t physical boundaries. I wouldn’t have known I was in the West Bank if no one had told me.

This deception is purposeful. For example, the ring around Ramallah makes it impossible to get to or from Palestine without going through a settlement. And, excluding Nof Zion’s exorbitant $500,000 price tag, most settlers are broke. Nof Zion’s gargantuan sum wouldn’t even be a big deal if you, as an Israeli citizen, chose to live there, because the government of Israel subsidizes all settlements heavily. Most settlers can’t afford to live in the main cities and move to settlements because of the government subsidies. In return, settlers function as the eyes and ears on the ground for the Israeli government.

Speaking of the Israeli government, they actually own all the land. Even if you pay the hefty sum for a five-bedroom home in Nof Zion, the state of Israel owns the land beneath it. This is what makes settlements so problematic. The moment they are built, that land is instantly annexed to Israel. It’s easier to act first and ask questions later: If you physically change the map, you force legal change. Settlement naturalizes the occupation.