Road maps aren't always much help traveling to -- and through -- the West Bank, unless you can unlock the coding that will lead you in the proper direction. Driving on the main highway between Tel Aviv and the large settlement of Ariel, an unknowing driver could become confused. There's a fork in the highway where you can head off to Ra'anna, a well-heeled suburb in the heart of Israel, or continue on to Ariel, leading you 14 miles deep into the West Bank, counting from the “Green Line.” (The Green Line designates the 1967 borders between Israel and the Palestinians. In this case, it is literally a green line; driving through the hilly terrain, you move from green to brown, Israel to the occupied territories.) But there's nothing on the large highway to inform an uninformed driver that Ariel is in the West Bank and Ra'anna is not.
Most Israelis don't travel to Ariel unless they live there or in one of the surrounding settlements. In fact, when it was established in 1978, few Israelis settled there at all. In 1989, unknowing Russian immigrants were sent there by the Israeli government, allowing them to accomplish two goals at once: settle a large new immigration of Jews from the former Soviet Union in inexpensive surroundings (apartment listings are a third of what they are in Tel Aviv), and create facts on the ground by populating this far-flung settlement.
Most Israelis don't drive through the West Bank much at all. If they aren't part of the settlement project, or if they don't live in a settlement or have family there, it's unlikely that they see what's been built in their name. The only non-settler segment of the population that does spend time in the West Bank are the army recruits and reservists, many of whom are sent to guard both legal settlements and illegal outposts (legal in this case means that the Israeli government authorized the creation of a settlement; illegal means that it didn't officially authorize it). Additionally, since the last intifada, Israeli citizens are not allowed by Israeli law into the Palestinian-controlled areas.
But if you do travel there from Israel, it's likely you'll be driving on the settler bypass roads that were built by the Israeli government to circumvent the Palestinian villages. The signs for the Israeli settlements will be on these roads, but not signs for all of the settlements.
One day this past week, I drove to Ariel and its environs with Dror Ettkes, the head of Peace Now's Settlement Watch and an expert on settlement activity. (For the record, I am a longtime member of the board of Americans for Peace Now, which is the U.S. support organization for Peace Now in Israel). He wanted to get off of the main settler highway, Route 446, to check out illegal outposts that dot the hilltops throughout the West Bank. (According to a report issued this past March for the Israeli prime minister's office by Talia Sasson, a state prosecutor, there are at least 105 illegal outposts today).
For that, we couldn't count on the highway signs, at least not the official signs. Ettkes wanted to see the progress of Bruchin, an illegal outpost settled in 1999 with students from the yeshiva at the nearby settlement of Peduel. Just after the turn off from 446, we saw a sign pointing us up a hill to Bruchin. We headed off the paved road and up a rocky dirt road so that we could drive into the settlement through the back.
There, we found a collection of trailers with a little convenience store and a playground (with kids playing outside). And, farther up the hill, we saw a villa neighborhood with several dozen brand-new suburban-style houses already inhabited. It looked like things had stopped midway, but there were paved streets, street lamps, and manicured lawns already in place. There were also people in the houses, and cars on the street. According to the Sasson report, 23 new structures were built in Bruchin last September. There were Israeli soldiers positioned to guard this illegal settlement (it really doesn't qualify as an outpost anymore with its new infrastructure), as they were also guarding other illegal outposts nearby.
Most of these illegal outposts were built on hilltops with some sort of strategic plan in mind. In Bruchin's case, it butts up against the back of the massive Barkan industrial zone just outside Ariel. Its existence helps create contiguity between Ariel and the Green Line and the established settlements of Pedual and Alei Zahav.
These outposts were created and settled by “hilltop youth.” Among the most radical of the West Bank settlers, these are young people who were born in settlements and who rarely recognize the Israeli state's rule of law, or even the legitimacy of the Israeli army that is sent there to guard them. They will be difficult to evacuate, no doubt, but according to another road map -- the one instigated by President Bush and agreed to by the Israelis -- the illegal outposts need to be evacuated in total.
The peace process can't proceed to a successful ending without evacuating these 100-plus settlements. They are built on land that the Palestinians need to create a viable state, and they are inhabited by the very residents who are the most hostile to the existence of a Palestinian state -- or to any state at all. Driving with the road map as a guide is going to be a difficult trip for the Bush administration, yet the only hope for peace and stability in this region is for the United States to push for a return to negotiations based on a map that points in the direction of a viable two-state solution.
Correction: In an earlier version of this article, one of the settlements was misidentified. It is Alei Zahav.
Jo-Ann Mort, who writes frequently about Israel, is co-author of Our Hearts Invented a Place: Can Kibbutzim Survive in Today's Israel?
