Gaza settler says willing to become Palestinian citizen

Haaretz reported Jewish settler Avi Farhan, determined not to give up his home overlooking the sea when Israel quits the occupied Gaza Strip, is looking into becoming a Palestinian. "I have met with Palestinians. I am willing to be a test case for peace and take up Palestinian citizenship," Farhan told Reuters. "It will hurt me to give up my Israeli citizenship, but I want to remain here." One Palestinian official suggested he might be allowed to stay in Gaza - home to 1.4 million Palestinians - as long as he obeyed Palestinian laws.

Are there any Palestinian laws that protect the rights, or even the lives, of Jews?

Actual citizenship could only be decided on an individual basis and any applicant would have to meet the same conditions as anyone else.... Farhan, a Libyan-born Jew who left Tripoli for Israel at the age of three in the wake of the 1948 war at Israel's creation, said seven families were willing to stay in the mostly secular Gaza settlement of Elei Sinai after Israeli troops leave. Farhan, 59, helped establish Elei Sinai after being forced to leave the Sinai settlement of Yamit in 1982. Like the West Bank and Gaza, Israel captured Sinai in the 1967 war, but returned it to Egypt under a peace deal. "I fled from Tripoli, endured the displacement camps in Israel, and then I was kicked out of Yamit. Today I won't be a refugee again. I have no strength," said Farhan, a restaurant owner. "The Israeli government says it is concerned for my security if I stay here. I will worry about my own safety." A senior Israeli official dismissed Farhan's bid as a "gimmick" by settlers trying to save their homes.

That is not an insignificant matter, however his life is more important. What does the Israelli government plan to do with the settlers it bring back into Israel? It originally helped the settlers set up their settlements; does it have homes to move them into, and are they in Israel, or in disputed areas in the West Bank? If the latter, how do they know they won't have to abandon them after "Final Settlement" issues are resolved.

He said settlers would not be safe in Gaza, where they currently come under frequent mortar and rocket fire, but did not say if Israel would prevent them staying on as Palestinians.

I doubt if there willl be any mortar and rocket fire, if Israel pulls out, but it is my understanding that Israel and the PA have agreed to tear down the housing when the settlers leave so that Palestinians wont claim them, and so that the PA can construct new, and more dense, housing. What will they do if a former Israelli, turned Palestinian citizen, wants to stay in a house which both Israel and the PA want torn down.

"Let's be realistic. They are currently under attack. What will happen to them when we are not there?" the official said. Most settlers have pledged to remain in Gaza until they are evacuated, and few contemplate remaining afterward. But a Palestinian official said they would be welcome. "Unlike Zionism which is religiously exclusive, Palestinian nationalism is not," said Diana Butto. "So if these settlers wish to come in and be subject to Palestinian law, then of course we welcome them."

Hat tip to Hoots and TheAnchoress