Israeli wine demarginalizes settlers

December 31, 2008 - 9:00 PM by Harry

The Shilo vineyardsThe Israeli settler movement is often cited as a thorn in the side of peace, a rag-tag band of Wild West-inspired radicals who are keeping Israel of reaching her goals of progress. This over-generalized perception might or might not be accurate, although the headlines last month out of Hebron don’t necessarily make them look so good.

The settler movement holds a tricky place in the culture, no matter how you slice it. And even if many sectors of Israeli society make sure that the government’s attitude towards settlers remain as ambiguous as possible, the fact is that the state depends on these people to garner us international diplomatic leverage by creating “facts on the ground” rather than theoretical claims to territory, and their lifestyles – no matter how ideological or pragmatic – are therefore highly subsidized by the national budget.

For the fall holidays, the settler movement, embodied by the Yesha Council (a consciously anachronistic acronym for “Judea Samaria and Gaza”), launched a major tourism promotion campaign which packaged the territories as a kitschy roots discovery destination for mainstream Israelis (a harsh but poignant analysis of the marketing message appears here).

Now Yesha is further trying to endear itself to the center of the country by piggybacking on the oeno-tourism trend, a trend that has people around the world and around the nation visiting remote locations of Israel to check out various vineyards and barrel caves. Many of Israel’s up-and-coming wineries are kosher, but the trend is not only for the God-fearing – especially when it comes to the increasingly developed pallets of local connoisseurs.

In addition, institutions of higher learning, bed and breakfasts and olive oil presses have been employed as “facts on the ground” that have the potential to rally support from the settler-skeptical. Haaretz recently got some interesting comments on the matter from a Yesha leader:

Bentzi Lieberman, a former chairman of the Yesha Council, acknowledged shortly before leaving his post that “the settlers are living on borrowed time: if we don’t create something else for the public, something dynamic, relevant and up-to-date, if we don’t use a different, Israeli, language, that will connect the public to us, the danger of us becoming irrelevant will increase.”

Lieberman at the time cited Ariel College and the Barkan Industrial Zone as examples of successful marketing, “that blur boundaries, roadblocks and the Green Line, projects that cross borders and span across opinions, that are beyond all the little fears and connect the broad Israeli public to here.”

“If we are not able to create these kinds of projects, in terms of language, content and essence and also in the economic sense,” Lieberman warned then, “if we don’t speak a language that Israelis understand, we won’t be here.” Today, Lieberman’s vision is taking shape and increasing numbers of Israelis are visiting Judea and Samaria for reasons that are not political. Instead they are going for the experience and the fun.

Photo from flickr user ePublicist under a creative commons license.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , • Category: A New Reality, Business, Food, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Politics, coexistence 

Comments

3 Comments on Israeli wine demarginalizes settlers

  1. Richard Shaffer on Thu, Jan 1st 2009 3:24 AM

    2. Wine is one of the best entries for people into the Real Israel, behind the CNN Curtain and into the very civilized place – and ancient wine world re-born – that Israel is!

    Richard Shaffer

  2. Israeli wine demarginalizes settlers « Geranium Kisses on Wed, Jan 7th 2009 3:04 AM

    3. [...] Israeli wine demarginalizes settlers By gypsyrob Weber-Bait [...]

  3. Ben-Yehudah on Sun, May 10th 2009 12:14 PM

    4. B”H

    Shalom. I am a “settler” who considers the Yesha Council to be a traitorous body.

    No one seems to know where their budget comes from. I have searched unsuccessfully.

    I have heard that its budget comes from the Office of the Prime Minister, but now others are saying that’s not true.

    Do you happen to know anything about the sources of its budget? I mean the Council itself.

    Thank you.

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