Volume 49, Number 19 · December 5, 2002
On the West Bank
By Ian Buruma
Aqraba is an Arab village on the west bank of the Jordan River. These stony hills, beautiful in a rugged, sun-blanched way, formed the heartland of the Jewish tribes in biblical times. Here they picked their olives, just as the Palestinians would do today, if they could. But the Palestinians in Aqraba cannot, because modern Jews, settled in the hills around them, won't let them. These Jews, from the US, Russia, or Israel, won't let them because they claim the Old Testament as their deed of ownership to the land. They are followers of the fanatical rabbi from Brooklyn Meir Kahane, the one who advocated the expulsion ('transfer') of Palestinian Arabs from the West Bank.
Feature, 815 words
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