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To the Gush Emunim pioneers, Kaddum is only the beginning: eventually they hope to build a new Jewish city in the middle of ancient Samaria. More small communities like Kaddum are in the planning stage. "We are preparing for ten new settlements in the next six months," says Yosef Arziel, a leader of the movement. Another Gush Emunim spokesman, Chanan Porot, insists that the West Bank is big enough to support both Jews and Arabs. But, he adds, "the policy toward the Arabs should be changed. Either they must accept full Israeli citizenship with all rights and duties or leave the country."
Real Face. Many Israelis see a spirit of adventurous heroism in the attitude of the illegal settlers. West Bank Arabs see only arrogance and contempt for their rights—and they fear that things will grow worse for them under a Likud government. Says Mayor Elias Freij of Bethlehem: "With the election of Begin, the whole world can see the real face of Israel. It is expansionist, and it wants [all the West Bank] even though it doesn't belong to the Jews."
The Arabs have a number of complaints. During the ten years of occupation, West Bankers say, they have consistently been subjected to mass arrests for security violations, interrogation under torture, sudden deportation, communal punishment for individual offenses (TIME, May 30). Even those who have not run afoul of Israeli military discipline chafe under a regime they find capricious and humiliating. Complains Tayseer Kanaan, who was Jerusalem's chief judge in the time of Jordanian rule: "Even my tax and phone bills are in Hebrew. It makes me feel illiterate; I have to go to someone else to find out what they are for."
Although living standards have risen sharply on the West Bank, Arab leaders resent the economic bonds that tie them closer and closer to Israel. Nearly 40,000 West Bankers now commute to jobs in Israel—at wages one-fifth lower than comparable Israeli pay. Israel has become the West Bank's principal trading partner and the West Bank is now Israel's principal export market after the U.S. Meanwhile, the Jewish settlements have built a thriving agribusiness ($27 million last year) in competition with Arab farmers.
The occupation government collects West Bank taxes and turns back much of the money to Arab communities. But negotiations have to be conducted in Hebrew, with Israeli law as the binding covenant. Rather than accept such conditions, several West Bank towns, including Nablus and Hebron, have refused to accept further aid. The Arab world has rewarded their defiance by "adopting" West Bank municipalities. Hebron has been taken under the wing of Saudi Arabia's holy city of Medina, which is underwriting a $15 million gift. Mayor Freij of Bethlehem, which was adopted by Abu Dhabi, returned last month from a visit to that oil-rich Persian Gulf sheikdom with pledges of $600,000 now and $10 million later to develop his town's tourist business.