SETTLER / SETTELMENTS
Settler by Ruslana Lichtzier
A person that is living beyond the Green Line (a border between Israel and the occupied territories of ‘67). Most of the people that are living there belong to one of two major groups. The first one is a group of ideological settlers, most of whom have a connection between the right wing orientation and Jewish religious approach.
The second group is the “new immigrant” that is encouraged to live there by the state, because of the cheap apartments/ground based homes. My own parents are living beyond the Green Line. When they moved there it wasn’t for ideological reasons, back then they were belonging to the group that searched for a cheap living solution. With time they started to be more and more religious because of their personal changes, which led to a more right wing perspective.
The life with a right wing family, as one that has a left wing perspective, is not easy. Now, I understand that my conversation with them is limited because when you are mixing between politics and religion, the vocabulary of your own perspective becomes to be more and more narrow and extreme. But they are still important conversations for me. Through them I can try to understand a sector in the society that has much power over our situation here, and that I don’t have any other connection to in my life as a secular artist in a city. I can understand their needs and wishes, but most of the time I cannot accept them. Sometimes it makes me be very depressed about the internal gaps in our society, the ignorance and the fear that we are having for each other. Other times, rarely, I think that maybe through words and patience we can solve something of this complex problem.
Settlement: villages beyond the Green Line. Most of them started to rise after the 1967 war. Began as a part of a state strategy to “jewdise” the occupied area. At the same time (till today) there are other settlements that the state doesn’t approve of, and it is a private ideological act of the settlers that believe for different reasons that they are their “natural” territories. My family, for example, is living in the biggest settlement, a city called Ariel. For me it’s a place that shows physically the deepest problems in the area.
As an Israeli I’m trying to be sensitive to what can what can bee seen from a simple ride in a car to the settlement city: Palestine villages whose entry was blocked by the Israeli army, and the people there finding alternative solutions of going in and out of the village. Burned or cut down olive tries that belong to those villages and were the main economical resource. Sounds of gunfire at night. The settlers ignore this reality in general. Either they don’t see it, or they have their own story for it. For example, that from that village terrorists were going out and damaging the passing cars. Sometimes it’s true and sometimes it’s not. The possibility of turning your look aside from one reality and finding more discomfort is terrifying. The idea of such different realities in the same geographical area can emphasize why the dialogue can be very hard.
Ruslana Lichtzier, Künstlerin aus Israel.
