On June 17, I took part in a discussion about settlements at a conference sponsored by the state prosecutor’s office in Modi’in. The event was attended by dozens of prosecutors from all over Israel.
The first speaker was the journalist Israel Harel, a resident of the Ofra settlement and a veteran of the Gush Emunim settlement movement. Harel praised the settlement enterprise and rejected the right of the “Arabs in Judea and Samaria” — the word “Palestinians” never crossed his lips — to an independent state. Harel’s remarks were greeted with exemplary silence. No heckling. Not a single critical comment.