Slowly, the faces of the outposts are changing and the temporary is becoming permanent. If you subtract the skullcaps from the heads of the inhabitants you have a picture of the early days of Zionism. Riding their horses and herding their flocks, the dwellers in the outposts are reminiscent of the early pioneers from the days of Hashomer. Their clothing, the baggy trousers and the kaffiyeh wrapped nonchalantly around their necks and their way with the land that they cultivate with almost holy awe take the observer back, through a kind of time tunnel to the return to Zion at the beginning of the last century. Then too, the people of the second and third immigrations imitated the customs and dress of the Arab inhabitants of the land.

Some of them are still living in tin shacks, others in crumbling caravans. Not all of them have running water. The electricity supply is erratic, and they do not talk at all about the sewage system, but their devotion to the occupation of the land is total. The devotion of people with a mission. Tower and stockade, of the Jewish year 5762. Zionism, 2002.

At first, there was nothing more than the flying of a flag, an isolated caravan, a family or two. The aim will be achieved in full when the territory between the existing settlement and the flag flown on the hill opposite is occupied. Almost everything is backed, whether with a wink of the eye or a tacit agreement. Sometimes there are also formal papers.

The Settlement Department of the World Zionist Organization is a key element in understanding the process whereby during the course of five years, more than 70 outposts have been established. The director of the department, Avraham Duvdevani, and his people provide the official means that allow this. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon knows almost everything and authorizes it. Ze'ev Hever ("Zambish"), the director-general of Amana, the organization for Jewish settlement in the territories, is the coordinator - the person who pulls the strings. He is called the father of the hilltops here, the Harzfeld of the outposts.

Historically speaking, the changes that Zambish and his boys have brought in Judea and Samaria in recent years resemble the changes brought about by Gush Emunim in the early 1970s. At that time, the map of Jewish settlement in the territories was drawn up. Today's outposts, in which no more than 1,000 people live all told, provide it with the land reserves for the future.

Quotes from Ha'aretz © newspaper article found when looking up "water"references in June2002
Painting by Niall McCormack©2002