:m f\f , nA IF IAT .'" W W W.,
He's A YESHA Man
The settlers' smooth
North American puts the
"civil" in civil disobedience.
BOAZ DVIR SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
echiel Leiter needs
only a moment of
your time to shatter
the stereotypical im-
age of the rough,
ill-mannered, hard-
headed, insubordi-
nate Jewish settler on the West
Bank and in Gaza.
Striding confidently into the
Palm Beach Orthodox Syna-
gogue recently, the tall, slender
35-year-old executive director of
YESHA Council's Foreign Desk
instantly offsets the images of
settlers seizing West Bank hill-
tops, blocking Israeli highways
and shooting Palestinians, which
have emanated lately from the
front pages and the evening
news.
Dressed in an elegant suit,
sporting a neatly trimmed black
beard and holding a burrito-size
tive demonstrations, and
At the blockade of in- cellular phone, the settlers'
A child of the
who are willing to give up
West Bank
tersections in Israel, dur- spokesman in North America
watches
most of the West Bank —
ing which some 130 smiled with savoir-faire and
which they avoid travel- advancing troops demonstrators got ar- passionately addressed an au-
of the Israeli
ing through — so they
rested, many drivers dience of 30 mostly older Jews.
army.
can get the Palestinians
stuck in traffic cursed At the outset of his 60-minute
out of their hair once and
the protesters. Many speech, he stepped down from
for all and be free to live their others, though, honked their the bimah toward his listeners
pleasure-seeking lives. Again, horns in solidarity. A few even to describe the rationale for the
maybe not.
left their cars and joined the frac- settlers' fervent opposition to
A handful of Israelis were in- tious crowd.
the peace process, moving his
terviewed separately while
Anatoly Kaikin of Carmiel did arms in theatrical fashion and
standing in line for El Al flights none of the above. He was caught conveying a sense of urgency.
to Chicago and the Greek island in traffic for a half-hour at a junc-
It did not seem to matter—
of Rhodes. None lived in the West tion near the Sea of Galilee. "It to the audience or to Mr. Leit-
Bank, and none was religious. didn't bother me," he said while er — that the Scranton, Penn.,
But each had been paying at- waiting to check in for a flight to native, who moved to the West
tention to the settlers' campaign, Rhodes. "The settlers' protests Bank in 1978, aiiived 45 min-
and each supported it.
have affected me in a positive utes late. "It's never too late" is,
"I didn't go to the demonstra- way. To me they are heroes."
after all, one of the many clichés
tion when they blocked the in-
These were chance encounters that characterize his speeches.
tersections, and I thought they at the airport.
"Never say never" is another.
should have stood on the side of
Obviously, there are other voic-
At the heart of his plea to
the streets rather than in the es, those among the 46 percent North American Jews for finan-
middle, but I'm all for the demon- of Israelis that the Yediot cial support and political pa-
strations in principle," said Nao- Aharonot poll found to be in op- tronage lies the belief that the
mi Kenneth of Rehovot, on her position to all the settlers' settlers' recently initiated civil
way to Chicago. She is convinced protests, legal or illegal. But on disobedience can help reverse Is-
there is an Israeli "silent major- Dagan Hill between the West rael's slow but steady transfer of
ity" that is apathetic about going Bank settlement of Efrat and the control of the West Bank and
out to protest, but which supports Palestinian village of El Khader, Gaza to the Palestine Liberation
the settlers' crusade.
settlers believe there is no con- Organization.
"A great majority of people in test — the people in all corners
YESHA, an acronym for
the country are ill at ease and un- of the Land of Israel are with Judea, Samaria and Gaza, de-
sure about the negotiations with them.
mands a referendum on the is-
the PLO," Ms. Kenneth said.
"Every soldier we talked to sue, Mr. Leiter said. "You can't
"Unfortunately, it's only the said he was with us and against give away the company's assets
ones wearing the kippahs who the government," said Rabbi without a two-thirds vote."
are coming out to protest. Most Shabtai Rappoport.
The peace process — which
other people are too interested in
Shabbat was a few hours gained considerable ground when
going abroad, in having a good away. A few dozen protesters Israel and the PLO signed the
time, and don't want to get off were on the hill setting up Declaration of Principles in Oslo
their behinds and take an active sukkah-like booths covered with in 1993 — is leading the Jewish
stand."
MESSAGE page 45
state down a path of destruction,
yr
said Mr. Leiter, who lives with
his wife and five children in the
West Bank settlement of Eli.
To impede this process, thou-
sands of settlers — under the di-
rection of the YESHA Council,
the regional representative body
of West Bank and Gaza Jewish
settlements — have embarked
on a civil disobedience campaign
in recent weeks.
"We are doing what the blacks
did here in the 1960s," Mr. Leit-
er said. "We are marching and
sitting and willing to go to jail."
In the process, they are rack-
ing up legal fees, lost wages, med-
ical costs, and other expenses,
Mr. Leiter said in a conference
call last week with American
Jewish newspapers and an in-
YESHA's Yechiel Leiter:
"We're doing what the blacks
did here in the 1960s."
terview during his 24-hour visit
to Palm Beach County.
The council receives $11 dol-
lars a month in a tax levied on
each of the West Bank and
Gaza's 145,000 Jewish settlers in
148 settlements. But this rev-
enue only covers YESHA's ad-
ministrative costs and
development projects, Mr. Leit-
er said.
To cover the civil disobedience
costs, YESHA must raise mil-
lions of dollars in North Ameri-
ca — mostly in New York and
South Florida but also in places
such as San Francisco, Chicago,
Toronto and Edison, N.J., where
Mr. Leiter addressed 50 people
last week, he said.
Last year, the 16-year-old
council raised "between $3 and
$4 million" in North America, he
said. This year, YESHA aims to
double that amount to meet the
cost of civil disobedience.
North American Jews are an-
swering the council's call for help.
An anonymous American donor
recently gave the settlers' radio
station $70,000 to cover its cost
of broadcasting from a boat in in-
ternational waters after the Is-
raeli government shut it down
earlier this month, Mr. Leiter
said.
While YESHA successfully
raises funds, it does not have a
large support base in the United
States, said Gary Rubin, execu-
tive director of Americans for
Peace Now.
"YESHA has a small number
of large donors," said Mr. Rubin,
whose left-wing organization
raises $2 million a year in North
America.
In recent months, however,
YESHA's support base has been
growing, Mr. Leiter said. He not-
ed that although he would rather
be protesting in Israel than rais-
ing funds in North America, he
wants to capitalize on the me-
dia attention the settlers have
been receiving since kicking off
their civil disobedience cam-
paign at the end of July.
Although Mr. Leiter has pre-
sented the settlers' case on
CBS, ABC, NBC and CNN, he
has focused on addressing
American Jews directly, lobby-
ing them to give money to one
side of what many consider the
Jewish world's most controver-
sial issue since "Who is a Jew?"
in the early 1980s.
"There are a lot of closet
right-wingers in the United
States," said Barry Umansky,
executive director of YESHA's
office in Palm Beach — the
newest in a list of locations that
includes Toronto, London, Aus-
tralia, New York and Israel.
The office has raised more
than $100,000 in recent months,
Mr. Umansky said. "Many
checks are coming in. And they
are usually larger than $100."
YESHA uses two principal
methods to raise money in North
America: direct contributions
that are not tax-exempt and can
be used for any purpose, includ-
ing civil disobedience; and tax-
exempt contributions through Lo
their nonprofit One Israel Fund
that can be used only for "hu- —
manitarian needs," Mr. Leiter cc;
said.
YESHA recently began using
the first method to counter alle-
gations by other right-wing
groups that it misuses One Israel <
Fund money, using humanitari-
an funds for political purposes, 43
said Michael Friedson of Boca