Ma'ale Adumim

On Monday we visited Ma’ale Adumim to see my cousin who was sitting shiva for the death of his mother. My Auntie Dora was a strong woman who died at the age of 93, and she was alert almost until the end.

We were impressed by Ma’ale Adumim, that incidentally means “red heights,” and is a town “over the border” in the West Bank. It is on a high narrow plateau that could be regarded as a protection for Jerusalem from the East. The drive there took ca. 2 hrs using the quite new bypass road around the north of Jerusalem that goes thru a tunnel under the mountain and connects with the road going east near Mt. Scopus (Har Tzofim).

Ma'ale Adumim now has 38,000 people and is quite modern and built of stone (not brick) like Jerusalem. We stopped at the mall in the center of town and saw that they have every amenity. Since the town is in the West Bank there can be no building without Government approval, and the Govt. is not giving its approval now because of political considerations, due largely to pressure from outside that regards all “settlements” as illegal. This is of course wrong. Israel has the right to settle its citizens there, or rather they as Jews have every right to settle there. The only proviso is that they buy land legally and do not deliberately oust the Palestinian Arabs.

The West Bank passed from Turkish sovereignty to British sovereignty in 1920 under the British Mandate of the League of Nations that was granted in order (according to the Balfour Declaration of 1917) to establish a homeland for the Jewish people. Although the WB was occupied by Jordan illegally from 1948-67, this occupation was not recognized by any countries except Pakistan and Britain, and consequently was never recognized as Arab sovereign territory under international law. Therefore the territory is officially designated as “disputed land” and as such is not covered by the Geneva Convention that declares it illegal for a nation to settle its citizens in a conquered territory. The fact that mainly Arabs lived there is immaterial, it is the actual sovereignty that counts.

It is strange that many liberals and Jews take the Palestinian side when in fact their claim to sovereignty is not stronger than that of the Jewish state of Israel. In any case, why can’t both peoples live there, as they do in Israel proper (20% of Israel’s population is Arab). Or would the opponents of Israel’s presence prefer an exchange of populations? In any agreement between Israel and the PA this town would certainly remain within Israel. No Israeli Govt. would or could give it up and/or displace this many people. A letter from Pres. Bush to PM Olmert specifically recognized that there would have to be some border alterations on the WB recognizing the realities on the ground including major Israeli population centers, such as Ma’ale Adumim, Ariel and the Etzion bloc.

From my cousin’s living room there is a wonderful view of the Judean desert, stark, bare, rolling hills with no trees and hardly a bush in sight. So the conflict here is over a small area the size of Greater London or Montgomery County Maryland, with a very sparse population and only a few cities where water is available. This was the heartland of the Jewish people from time immemorial.