Are Palestinians just outside observers of settlement debate? The repeated claim by Palestinians that Israelis negotiate among themselves is best proven when it comes to the debate over Jewish settlements in Palestinian lands. The settlement movement, which for many Israelis is the core of Zionism, has today become the reflection of what is wrong with the ideology. How else could one explain the divisive debate in Israel over plans to reverse settlement expansion in Gaza and some of the northern parts of the West Bank?

This largely Israeli debate is the focus of the "settlements" program, which is the first episode in a four-part television documentary series titled "The Shape of the Future," produced by John Marks, the president of Search for Common Ground. It aired simultaneously last Saturday night in Arabic on the Maan Network, on the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation (PBC) channel, and on Abu Dhabi satellite television, and in Hebrew on Israel's Channel 8.

The most powerful discussion in the program takes place between two brothers. One, the ultra right-wing former Israeli minister Benny Elon, who states clearly that if Palestinians want an independent state then they need to go to Jordan, which he calls the real Palestinian state. The bearded Elon talks about Palestine in religious terms, turning the Almighty into a real estate agent who has given it to the Jews. As in debates with most extreme religious persons, the debate is over with an interpretation of the Bible. No other point of view is tolerated. On the other hand, Benny's brother Ari, a religion professor, is in favor of withdrawal from the settlements and talks about the eventuality of the Israelis' realizing that there is no choice but to find an accommodation with the Palestinians.

While Israelis argue among themselves, Palestinians make a number of strong points in the documentary. Aisha Farah, with her family from the village of Durat al-Kara, near Ramallah, talks about how she has not been able to see her married daughters in recent years because of the fact that Jewish settlers surround her home. She laments her lost olive and pear trees, which the Israelis uprooted to make room for settlements and their security. Benny Elon is then queried, and says he has no regrets about the trees. He cloaks his defense in terms of security: "If, for reasons of security, I need to destroy even hundreds of olive trees, then I will do so - and not only olive trees - without any pity."

 Salah Tamari, a former Fatah fighter and now member of the Palestinian Parliament, also makes his position clear: "We don't want checkpoints. We don't want Israeli soldiers to control us and our dignity ... We don't want to live in cantons. We don't want to live in concentration camps."

A former Israeli administrator of the Occupied Territories, Dov Sedaka, shows surprisingly similar views to those of some of the Palestinians in the program. He explains how settlements and the accompanying checkpoints sow the seeds of hatred that will be very hard to get rid of. Haaretz military affairs correspondent Ze'ev Schiff, who uses the word "cancer" to describe the settlements, echoes similar anti-settler statements. The separation wall receives similar attacks from many of the Israelis and Palestinians interviewed. Sedaka and Tamari are united in their opposition to the 590-kilometer wall as it is currently being constructed. Had the wall been built along the Green Line, Palestinians, including Tamari, say that they wouldn't be so opposed to it.

Unlike most films on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the documentary does not stop at analyzing the problem. It tries to give suggestions as to what the solution could look like. To illustrate what life after the breakup of Jewish settlements can be like, Marks visits some of the Jewish settlers evacuated from Sinai in 1982, after the Egyptian-Israeli peace agreement.

The former Sinai settlers describe the trauma they once felt, largely because they lost their homes and no one told them what was happening. But then they go on to say, and show, how much better life has become since then. Zohar Sadeh and Nachum Schefer, for example, give convincing testimony as to how one can survive. The latter is seen on a big farm doing very well. Interviewees also provide other forms of post-settlement advice.

As for the West Bank settlements, Schiff talks about the need for the Israeli government to remove some settlements, while suggesting an exchange of land for others. Palestinians seem to agree, on condition it is done symmetrically in terms of size and quality.

Overall, the documentary provides a good idea about the problems of settlements and some ideas on how to achieve any future solution. However, in the program the Palestinians, the weak party in the conflict, are depicted as little more than observers in an inter-Israeli dialogue. Could that be a reflection of reality?

Daoud Kuttab is a Palestinian journalist and the director of the Institute of Modern Media at Al-Quds University in Ramallah. THE DAILY STAR publishes this commentary in collaboration with the Common Ground News Service.

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