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Israelis moving to West Bank despite possible Israeli withdrawal

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A blindfolded Palestinian boy assembles an AK-47 assault rifle, showing off skills he has learned at a two-week summer camp run by the Palestinian Authority, at a graduation ceremony in the West Bank town of Ramallah Thursday Aug. 3, 2000. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat will never drop demands for full sovereignty over east Jerusalem, the Palestinian legislative council was told Thursday in a briefing on last month's Camp David summit. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Larma)

August 5, 2000 

TALMON, West Bank (AP) - Last week, just days after Israeli negotiators discussed handing this part of the West Bank over to the Palestinians, Orly Tel-Kar and her husband moved to a tiny Jewish settlement near the Palestinian city of Ramallah.

They are among about 560 families that have settled in the West Bank this summer, according to the head of one of the regional councils. Some are there to make political statements, demonstrating their belief that the West Bank, part of the biblical Land of Israel, belongs to the Jews, not the Palestinians.

Others are lured by subsidized housing prices and wide open spaces away from crowded cities.

All could lose their new homes if the Israelis and Palestinians reach a peace agreement.

But many settlers, including Tel-Kar, are betting that a deal will not be struck. They took heart from the failure of the Israeli-Palestinian summit in Camp David outside Washington last month, when Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat were unable to agree on a peace framework.

"When we moved in the Camp David talks had already collapsed," she said. "Who knows, maybe Barak's next attempt will fail, too."

About 200,000 Israelis live in 144 settlements in the West Bank and Gaza. Barak favors keeping blocs of settlements under Israeli control, while carving up the West Bank so that the Palestinians would get more than 90 percent of the territory.

The future of settlements like Talmon, near Palestinian cities, would be cloudy under Barak's plan. Either they would be dismantled or the settlers would have to live under Palestinian rule.