Who are the settlers?

Tonight I want to take a closer look at Israeli settlers. There are currently 479, 500 Israelis living in settlements in in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

But first a map from B'Tselem. The dark blue areas are settlements (homes, schools, synagogues, medical clinics etc...). The light blue areas are the municipal boundaries. The dark brown areas are Palestinian towns and villages. The light brown areas are administered by the Palestinian authority. The even lighter brown areas are under Israeli security control and Palestinian civilian control. And the white areas are controlled by Israel.

Settlements

Israelis choose to live in settlements for economic, religious and ideological reasons, all strongly encouraged by political parties and the government (through both financial incentives, infrastructure and other support). Peace Now defines ideological settlers as those who live in settlements to settle Eretz Israel and prevent implementation of a two-state solution. A second category choose to live in settlements for their low housing prices and relatively high quality of life. The third category are ultra-Orthodox Jews who live in settlements built especially for them, for example, Modi’in Illit and Beitar Illit, but who are not ideologically motivated.

There are no official statistics, but Peace Now estimates that 40 percent are ideological settlers and 60 percent are there for economic reasons, both the ultra-Orthodox and secular Israelis.

All this is good and bad news. The good news is that the majority of settlers are not there for ideological reasons, which means that if the time comes to establish an independent Palestinian state, it will be relatively easy to move these people back into Israel (so long as the government provides financial incentives).

The bad news is that these figures show just how extensively the settlement enterprise is driven by government policy and support (and not by a bunch of whacky Jewish cowboys). The majority of Israelis move to settlements because it is financially more attractive for low-income families.

So it makes me wonder: why does the government provide such strong support for settlements? Why are they supported by both the left and right? And what does this mean for the prospects of an independent Palestinian state?

17 days to go...