Two Standards of Justice

God said to Jacob: "Arise, go up to Beth-El, and dwell there."

-- Genesis 35: 1

God's command to Jacob is being obeyed by his Jewish descendants. High on a hilltop above the valleys of the West Bank, 35 families belonging to Israel's ultranationalist Gush Emunim are building a new settlement named Beth-El. They claim that 120 Jewish families are waiting to move into the settlement, nine miles north of Jerusalem, in territory that Israel has occupied since the 1967 war. There are plans for schools, a religious study center, an industrial area and even a holiday resort.

One mile south of Beth-El is the Palestinian town of Al-Bireh (pop. 22,000). Last month the Israeli military governor issued an order closing 7,000 dunams (1,750 acres) just north of Al-Bireh to Arab development and construction. The order further decreed that all construction work presently under way must be stopped. Al-Bireh officials and residents are angry because the ruling effectively prevents any kind of expansion for the town's growing population.

Al-Bireh, whose slogan is "City on the Move," has always prided itself on its progressive image. In 1972, pressed for more space, townspeople asked Israeli permission to expand municipal boundaries to adjacent lands owned by Al-Bireh residents. The Israelis not only rejected the request but forbade development in two areas, including a site on which Arab businessmen wanted to build a resort.

Israeli officials claim that the latest Al-Bireh order was necessary for security reasons. They point out that the disputed land adjoins the military governor's headquarters. As one official explained, "We do not want to be confronted one morning by houses on the borders of our military camps." That may be a valid point, except that Beth-El, meanwhile, is being built on land originally expropriated by Israel solely for military purposes. Abdul Jawad Hussein, a retired businessman who owns part of the land where Beth-El is being built, says that since 1969 the Israelis have fenced off the land and prevented his family from using it. In return, he has been paid one Jordanian dinar ($3) per dunam, or $141 in annual rent for his twelve acres.

Just across the road from Beth-El, a cooperative composed of 62 Arab schoolteachers who organized to buy land and build homes, has also run into trouble. Now much of their land too has been restricted by the Israelis. Says Ahmad Thalji, a retired schoolteacher: "I bought one dunam 20 years ago. Now I am told I cannot build a house. I hear people always speaking about human rights. Where are the human rights in this injustice?"

To West Bankers, who have sent complaints to the U.N. and to President Carter, the Al-Bireh case is the latest evidence that Israel is pursuing a policy of creeping annexation of the West Bank. Despite protests from the U.S. and elsewhere that Israeli policy contravenes the Geneva convention forbidding civilian settlements in occupied territory, construction at Beth-El continues.

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