An Anxious
Time For Jews
Near Jericho

Settlers fear Palestinian control will
threaten their homes and their lives.

INA FRIEDMAN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

Palestinians celebrate
the peace accord.

ered Jericho —"If there's
autonomy now and the PLO
sits in Jericho, I don't know
how we're going to live with
it," said Zohara Talmon as
she struggles to keep her 9-
month-old infant, Nadav,
from overturning a pitcher
of lemonade on the coffee
table in front of her. "I don't
want Nadav to become a sol-
dier already at this age."
Zohara and 40 other anx-
ious mothers live in the
Israeli settlement of Vered
Jericho (the "Rose of
Jericho") just down the road
and up the hill from the
ancient oasis town.
Vered is one of the 21 kib-
butzim and moshavim (agri-
cultural collectives) that
have been built in the
Jordan Rift Valley, mostly
under successive Labor gov-
ernments, since 1968.
Established 13 years ago,
it is a man-made oasis filled
with the same jacaranda
trees and bougainvillea
bushes that decorate
Jericho (no date palms
here).
But from a distance, and
during the drive up the hill
to the settlement, Vered's
high barbed-wire perimeter
fence gives the place a for-

bidding look. "Stalag
Jericho" is how one wag
described it. But given the
preoccupation with security
these days, not everyone
appreciates such wit.
Compared with other
Israeli settlements in the
West Bank, and especially
the many prosperous bed-
room suburbs closer to
Jerusalem and Tel Aviv,
Vered has a slightly faded,
shabby look about it. Its 40
families were meant to
engage in agriculture —
growing grapes, vegetables
and flowers for winter
export — on the broad plain
below.
But over the years, most
members of the moshav
abandoned the fields in
favor of working in
Jerusalem, a 30-minute
drive away. About 20 per-
cent of the settlements 50
houses have stood aban-
doned for a number of years,
and not long ago efforts
were launched to rent them.
Given what's now going on,
it's highly improbable that
those efforts will bear fruit.
Vered, like the other col-
lectives in the Rift Valley,
differs from the Israeli set-
tlements in the highlands of

the West Bank in other
ways, too. Its population is
predominantly secular and
not committed to remaining
in place for historical or ide-
ological reasons.
Vered's voters identified
mostly with the Labor Party
when they arrived, and
although many have since
switched to the Likud, they
never adopted its "whole
Land of Israel" philosophy.
"We didn't fight our way
into this place," says 35-

"There's constant
talk of a
(Palestinian)
bloodbath there,
and when it all
spins out of
control, we'll be
the first to suffer."

Shlomo (Momi) Riftin

year-old Zohara, who has
been living in Vered for 10
years.
"We're here because the
government sent us here,
because the government
told us that settling in the
Rift Valley was a 'Zionist
enterprise' that would
enhance the security of the
State of Israel. Well, that's
precisely what concerns us
now: our own security and
that of th e State of Israel."
Contrary to 6xpectation,
that's is a new concern for:

the Israelis living around
Jericho.
Throughout the worst of
the intifada, the area
remained relatively safe
and calm. There was one
harrowing incident in
Jericho in the autumn of
1988 in which a mother and
two children were burned to
death in a firebomb attack
on an Israeli bus (and
which, some observers
believe, cost the Labor
Party the 1988 election).
And a few years ago,
arsonists burned down the
Vered's packing plant. But
except for sustaining dam-
age to cars from stones
hurled at them on the road
to Jerusalem, Vered's
inhabitants have felt rela-
tively secure till now.
When the Israeli army
pulls out of Jericho, howev-
er, all that will change.
"I commute to Jerusalem
every day and leave the
children in day-care here,"
Zohara explained. "How
can I be sure that Arabs
from 'the Autonomy' across
the road won't infiltrate the
settlement and cause havoc?
If the government signs that
agreement with the PLO, it
just doesn't make sense to
keep us here anymore. To
ensure that we're ao fe,
they'll have to turn the
place into an armed camp.
Don't take my word for it.
The deputy chief of staff
said it yesterday, and he's
an expert."
The irony of this situation
is unmistakable,. For over a

ANIXIOUS TIME page 60

