Seventeen years ago this summer, Israel’s disengagement plan took place. Most associate the disengagement project with the removal of Jewish settlements from the Gaza Strip, but one of the forgotten facts is that, in some sort of trial balloon, the Ariel Sharon-led government also decided to evacuate four settlements in the West Bank. It was supposed to be the precursor to what might have been, had it not been for the abrupt end to Sharon’s political career due to illness: A unilateral disengagement in the West Bank and the evacuation of tens of thousands of Israeli settlers there, especially those in isolated settlements and those in close proximity to big Palestinian population centers. Sharon’s demise took this option off the agenda, and the rest is history.

Homesh, in the north of the West Bank, was one of the settlements evacuated in 2005 by the Israel Defense Forces, but since then ultranationalist religious Jewish settlers have repeatedly attempted to rebuild and resettle it, while the Israeli government has been demonstrating its sheer helplessness and weakness in dealing with those extremists who are infiltrating this piece of privately owned Palestinian land.

As it happens, I witnessed at first hand the disengagements in Gaza and the four settlements in the West Bank as part of the international press legion that descended there to report to the world what had seemed only a few months earlier to be the impossible task of removing Jewish settlements from occupied Palestinian land. The IDF did so with impressive efficiency, even if the logic of the unilateral nature of this operation remains highly questionable.

Yet, as momentous as the evacuation of the Gaza Strip was, and with no casualties or major incidents, it was witnessing the evacuation of Homesh that left the greatest and most lasting impression, from the minute we arrived there in the middle of night until all the settlers had been removed by Israeli soldiers the very next day. It was the vile and threatening language used by those settlers toward the soldiers and the press that gave the strong impression that the last word had yet to be spoken as far as this settlement was concerned.

The settlers showed zero respect for the law or those in charge of enforcing it. They were adamant in their determination to make one last stand by barricading themselves on the rooftops, which they surrounded with barbed wire.

They, along with reinforcements from other settlements, wanted the Israeli government and the domestic and international public to know they had no intention of accepting that their evacuation was permanent.

I left the place with a strong impression that there is a segment of Israeli society — though I suspect they are no longer an integral part of that society — that will not accept the authority of the state of Israel unless it serves their own purposes and facilitates their illegal settlement-building activities. Instead, their guidance comes from their rabbis and religious writings, which lead them to believe that they have a divine right to this land.

Certain elements have refused to accept that any law is applicable to them but, despite this, have suffered no obvious legal repercussions.

Yossi Mekelberg

Hence, as far as they are concerned, laws enacted by the state simply do not apply to them. This attitude is reflected in their view of the Palestinians, who have lived on this land for centuries, yet these messianic, ultranationalist settlers perceive them at best as guests to be tolerated. And to emphasize this belief in their own supremacy, they constantly harass their Palestinian neighbors and make them as uncomfortable as possible in their own homes and on their own land.

Late last month, Israeli government lawyers told the High Court of Justice that those who resettled in Homesh must be evacuated. This was in response to a petition filed by Palestinians from the nearby village of Burqa, who own the land and who have been denied access to it since Homesh was first constructed in 1978, and even after its Jewish residents were later evicted. But what those lawyers did not reveal to the highest court in the land — and did not seem to be encouraged by the judges to do so — was the timeline for the evacuation of the settlers. Instead, the court was told that the government conducts a “weekly situational assessment” to discuss such a timeline.

In other words, the re-evacuation might never happen, which defies both justice and common sense. After all, Homesh is a particularly extreme case of an illegal outpost. It is not only that international law prohibits all settlements or even that every Israeli government considers outposts to be illegal (until they change their mind to the tune of political pressure). In the case of Homesh, their presence there also violates the very specific disengagement law that states that Jews may not live there. This settlement was born in sin in 1978, robbing Palestinians of their land. Since it was evacuated, certain elements among the settlers have refused to accept that any law is applicable to them but, despite this, have suffered no obvious legal repercussions.

For anyone who aspires for Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace in the Holy Land, it is obvious that the settlements are a major obstacle to peace and coexistence, and a major contributory factor in the daily frictions with Palestinians that are deliberately provoked by the occupants of these outposts and unlawful communities. But the lawbreakers of places like Homesh are posing an additional danger in their undermining of the state and the entire legal system, and have already caused a weakening of the Israeli justice system.

Ironically, despite their criminal behavior they enjoy the protection of the security forces, instead of being prosecuted and punished whenever they offend. Equally worrying is that a group of mindless legislators are actively supporting them by visiting Homesh and encouraging its residents to resist their eviction. I cannot think of a more disturbing alliance between miscreants and lawmakers. If the first need to be dealt with in line with the law, the latter do not deserve their privileged position — and most definitely not the public’s confidence.

Removing the Israeli settlers of Homesh would be an act of restoring law and order and belatedly ensuring justice for the Palestinians from whom the land was stolen. It could be a first and welcome step toward the Israeli government asserting its authority over those settlers, who do harm to both Palestinian and Israeli society.

• Yossi Mekelberg is professor of international relations and an associate fellow of the MENA Program at Chatham House. He is a regular contributor to the international written and electronic media.
Twitter: @YMekelberg