Yishuv ≠ Settlement. Israelis ≠ Settlers.
Appeared in the Jerusalem Post , August 15, 2023 under the headline: There is no such thing as an Israeli ‘settler’ in the West Bank According to the Cambridge dictionary a settler is a person who arrives, especially from another country, to a new place in order to live there and use the land. A settlement, according to vocabulary.com, is a colony or any small community of people . However, these definitions take on negative connotations when it pertains to Israel and Israelis. Even Israeli media has headlines such as “Settlers arrested after deadly clash in Palestinian village.” Various Biblical texts refer to Israel as a “land flowing with milk and honey.” This description is in stark contrast to Mark Twain’s observations in 1867 that Israel (then called Palestine) was a desolate and barren country in both people and vegetation. It was only after the start of the aliyah movement in the late 1800’s, when many Jews joined their fellow Jews who had maintained a continuous prese