Shiloh: An Obstacle to Peace

According to the Book of Joshua, the Lord was pleased when the Israelites assembled at Shiloh, 25 miles north of Jerusalem in the brown-green Samarian hills, to erect a tabernacle in his honor. Today, eight devout Orthodox Jewish families, huddled in mobile homes near the archaeological ruins of biblical Shiloh (pronounced Shelow), are certain the Lord is pleased that his people have reestablished a settlement on the site. Almost no one else is. Shiloh is the newest of four illegal settlements in the West Bank created and populated by Gush Emunim (Group of the Faithful), a nationalistic religious group that believes in the God-given right of Israelis to inhabit ancient Judea and Samaria. Washington, most Arabs and even many Israelis regard the settlements -- and the Begin government's refusal to uproot them -- as a major obstacle to peace. Even the Israeli soldiers guarding the 60 men, women and small children of Shiloh from hostile Arabs oppose the settlement.

Arabs from the nearby town of Turmus 'Aiya are understandably furious. When the settlers arrived a month ago, they blocked the road with stones. Israeli troops forced them to remove the roadblocks, but the anger remains. Arab children shake their fists at cars heading toward the settlement, as TIME'S Robert Slater discovered during a visit to Shiloh last week. The settlers have no telephones and must use one in an Arab cafe a mile away; when they do, they go armed.

The Israeli government's attitude toward the settlement is ambiguous. Ignoring the undeniable fact that homesteaders are living at the site, the government insists that the pioneer families are only an "archaeological delegation." Begin has refused to authorize any settlement at Shiloh, but at the same time the families there have been encouraged to believe that if they survive and prosper on their own, they may eventually win Jerusalem's approval. The government's neither-nor position has sparked bitter debates within Begin's Likud coalition between antisettlement pragmatists and nationalistic conservatives who support the community and who even attended Shiloh's dedication ceremonies.

More and more Israelis are beginning to fear that these unauthorized but tacitly tolerated settlements may damage peace talks. Warned the left-wing daily al Hamishmar last week: "If the government does not find a way to stop 'new facts' from being created while the difficult and complicated negotiations are actually in progress, it will not only lose American support but find itself in a confrontation with Washington." Even Gush Emunim is finding it harder to get commitments from Jews willing to live in these isolated, primitive communities. The group can easily turn out 10,000 people for demonstrations in support of settlements in the occupied areas. But finding 30 to 50 families who will form a nucleus for a new Shiloh is another matter.

Settlers at government-backed communities in the Sinai, like Yamit, are a mixed lot: many recent immigrants to Israel, some religious, some not. Pioneers living at Shiloh are more mystical and more determined. Says Abraham Strauss, a 20-year-old yeshiva student: "God gave us this land, not Menachem Begin or anyone else. And no one, including Begin, can take this gift away from us."

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