The pullout has already begun. Piece by piece, steadily and without fanfare, Israeli soldiers have been dismantling the apparatus of nearly 27 years of occupation in Gaza. In recent weeks, some military camps have disappeared. Even as the killing continued-by Jews against Arabs and Arabs against Jews-out went the computers. the rolls of barbed wire, the portable prison cells. Files and tents were loaded and trucked away. Israeli withdrawal from most of Gaza and Jericho can now be finished in just 72 hours, Israeli officers say. The army only awaits the word from Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin to begin “Operation Rainbow,” the final pullback of soldiers and materiel from areas that will come tinder limited Palestinian self-rule.
Palestinians still hope that autonomy will begin by the original deadline of April 13. Many key details are yet to be negotiated, including the size of Jericho and the legislative powers of Palestinian councils. But an advance team of Palestinian police is due to arrive in Gaza and Jericho this week to prepare for a handover. Gazans are, eager to see the last of Israeli troops-even more so after members of an undercover unit mistakenly shot dead six members of Yasir Arafat’s mainstream Fatah group in the Jabaliya refugee camp last week.
Arabs in Hebron are supposed to be shielded from army and settler violence by 160 observers due to arrive soon from Norway, Denmark and Italy. The “temporary international presence” is intended to promote stability in Hebron, where 400 gun-toting Jewish settlers live among 110,000 angry Palestinians. The foreigners, who will wear distinctive uniforms and carry side arms for self-defense, will report to a joint Israeli-Palestinian committee; their three-month mandate can be renewed only with the approval of both sides.
Now the focus is shifting to finding a lasting solution for Hebron’s troubles. Because the issue of Jewish settlers on occupied lands is so emotionally charged, it’s not on the negotiating agenda vet. But the Hebron Jews are a special case: unlike the 115,000 other settlers in the West Bank and Gaza, who live in fenced communities. Hebron’s Jews live smack in the middle of a city of Arabs. “The surgery has to be done,” says Nabil Abu Znaid, an Arafat supporter in Hebron. “The cancer has to go.” Rabin insists that he isn’t considering an evacuation of Jews from Hebron “at this stage.” But nobody can say what happens at the next stage. According to the framework accord signed last September, Palestinian autonomy is supposed to expand from Gaza and Jericho to other Arab population centers in the West Bank within months. That includes Hebron. Jewish settlers, determined to remain where King David established his throne 3,000 years ago, flatly reject the idea of living under Palestinian authority.
Right-wing leaders plan to block the evacuation of settlers by all means possible. short of fighting fellow Jews. Three prominent rabbis last week issued the highly controversial judgment that soldiers should disobey orders to remove Jewish settlers “just as they would refuse an order to eat pork.” Other leading rabbis disagreed, and Rabin said such dictates are tantamount to “the destruction of the basic fabric of Israeli society.”
But at Goldstein’s grave, the man with the long beard rejects the prime minister’s views. “The Land of Israel doesn’t belong to Rabin,” he says, “it belongs to the God of Israel.” There’s still opportunity for God’s self-appointed soldiers, both Arab and Jew. to wreak more havoc before Palestinian autonomy can begin. But many other Israelis and Palestinians are praying for their own vision of the divine will: peace.
