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The Israeli keeping a watch over the settlers

But critics accuse her of not being objective.

August 12, 2010 10:10
Settlers try to stop Israeli police from demolishing an illegal Jewish outpost on the West Bank.

By

Ben Lynfield,

Ben Lynfield

3 min read

If the Palestinians ever achieve a viable state, a young Israeli activist will be able to claim to have played her part. Hagit Ofran, a former student of Jewish history, spends her working day driving around the West Bank, monitoring the growth of Jewish settlements. Sometimes her findings translate into pressure on the Israeli government from abroad to stop the construction of further outposts. Ofran's official title is director of the settlement watch team of the dovish Peace Now organisation. Her job is to gather and collate information on how much building is going on.

During one expedition last month, she noted the presence of four new white houses looking like matchboxes on a hillside of the Alon settlement north-east of Jerusalem.

"It's not that one caravan will change the chances of Middle East peace,'' she says, "but another and another and another will determine whether we can have a two-state solution to the conflict or not.''

Israel's government now faces a decision over whether or not to extend a 10-month partial freeze on settlement building that expires in September. President Barack Obama's United States administration is pressing for the freez e to remain in place, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing coalition partners want it scrapped to enable a wave of new building.