From Hitnachalut to Hitnatkut: The Impact of Gush Emunim and the Settlement Movement on Israeli Politics and Society

[...]the settler movement demonstrated equally against the Begin evacuation of Yamit (Northern Sinai), the Netanyahu signing of the Wye Accords, and the Sharon disengagement plan in Gaza, as it did against the Rabin government and the Oslo Accords and the Barak government in its attempt to reach a territorial solution to the conflict at Camp David in 2000. For many, the religious secular combination was itself an important ideological statement, in the sense that the public should not perceive West Bank settlement as being limited solely to the religious camp. [...]because these parties, unlike the NRP, were created around a single policy issue-the territories and the Israel-Palestine conflict-they drew supporters from a variety of social and economic backgrounds. Unlike the rest of Israeli society, which distinguishes between the self ascribed positive notion of "hityashvut" (settlement) as contrasted with the negative notion of "hitnachalut" (squatting) the settlers themselves view this latter term as denoting the tradition of continuity between the biblical narrative of a Promised Land and its translation into new tangible realities expressed through contemporary political notions of Zionism, statehood, and sovereignty. [...]while the distinction between "hitnachalut" and "hityashvut" was often used by left wing and centrist political leaders as a means of denigrating the West Bank settlement activities, for Gush Emunim the term "hitnachalut" was imbued with historical and religious significance, drawing a direct link between the Joshuan period of conquest and their own settlement activities. [...]the Gush Emunim ideology has come a long way since the inception of the movement in 1974.