An Israeli settler in the West Bank who produces world-class kosher wine has welcomed the resumption of direct peace talks in Washington, even though he knows he must abandon his vines if they succeed.
“Dialogue is always better than bloodshed. If a peace deal is reached, I will inevitably be one of its victims. It will be painful, but I won’t have any choice. I will just have to turn the page and leave my land with a heavy heart,” Yoram Cohen, 49, said.
The vineyard covers nearly three hectares of land in the locale of Ofra, a Jewish settlement with about 3,000 inhabitants that was established in 1983 and lies about 30km north of Jerusalem.
PHOTO: AFP
The countryside around the settlement’s red-tiled villas has changed little since biblical times. Two young Palestinian shepherds, perched on a donkey, guide their sheep down a steep path between the vines. Gazelles leap over rocks on the hillside.
Visible in the distance are the silhouetted minarets and houses of three Palestinian towns, Ein Yabrud, Taybe and Silwad.
There is no noticeable military or police presence in Ofra, nor any other apparent reason here to question the future of more than 500,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
However, Jewish settlements on Palestinian land occupied by Israel since the 1967 Middle East war (Six-Day War) remain one of the biggest obstacles to any resolution of the conflict — and were high on the list of key issues addressed in the peace talks that resumed on Thursday, after a two-year hiatus.
Hardline settlers believe Jews have a God-given right to live in all of the biblical land of Israel, including the West Bank, while the Palestinians want Israel to withdraw to its pre-1967 borders and all settlements dismantled.
“I find it very upsetting that a settler has planted vines on my land. They behave like they own it,” said Abed Alhamid, a 46-year-old builder from Silwad. Married with six children, he lays claim to two hectares of land occupied by the settlement.
“More than 90 people in my town were denied access to their land in 1994. When they appealed in the Israeli courts, they were told they could only visit with special permits,” Alhamid said, adding that some of his land was confiscated by the settlers in 1996 and again in 2005.
Cohen flatly rejects such claims.
“On the contrary, it is the Palestinians who came and occupied our land, and they never had a state,” he said.
Cohen believes the nearby discovery of an ancient winepress amounts to “proof that, for 3,000 years, my ancestors engaged in the same activities as me.”
A heatwave this year made him harvest his grapes earlier than usual. However, he was delighted with the results, gathering 800kg per 0.1 hectare on average, a quantity that he expects will yield about 40,000 bottles of wine.
“The 2010 vintage will be exceptional,” he said with satisfaction, after tasting the juice from his latest crop.
Cohen is fiercely proud of his vineyard, boasting some 15 international awards and even naming his eight children after the different grape varieties — cabernet sauvignon, merlot, pinot noir.
The strictly kosher wine he produces — the entire process is closely supervised by religiously observant Jews — is mostly sold to Jewish clients in the US, France, Italy and Belgium.
“I laugh at the European boycott, which imposes a 28 percent import tax on my wine because it is from Judea,” he said, using the biblical name with which Israelis refer to the West Bank.
Under an association agreement with the EU, Israeli exports benefit from EU trade privileges, but these do not apply to goods produced by settlers in occupied Palestinian territory.
For the moment, with its rocky limestone, cold night-time climate, abundant sunshine and low rainfall, the land in Ofra provides all the conditions that Cohen needs to produce excellent wine. A fact that will only make it harder, if and when he has to uproot and leave.
MILESTONE: The foreign minister called the signing ‘a major step forward in US-Taiwan relations,’ while the Presidential Office said it was a symbol of the nations’ shared values US President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed into law the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, which requires the US Department of State to regularly review and update guidelines governing official US interactions with Taiwan. The new law is an amendment to the Taiwan Assurance Act of 2020 focused on reviewing guidelines on US interactions with Taiwan. Previously, the state department was required to conduct a one-time review of its guidance governing relations with Taiwan, but under the new bill, the agency must conduct a review “not less than every five years.” It must then submit an updated report based on its findings “not later
The Presidential Office today thanked the US for enacting the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, which requires the US Department of State to regularly review and update guidelines governing official US interactions with Taiwan. The new law, signed by US President Donald Trump yesterday, is an amendment to the Taiwan Assurance Act of 2020 focused on reviewing guidelines on US interactions with Taiwan. Previously, the department was required to conduct a one-time review of its guidance governing relations with Taiwan, but under the new bill, the agency must conduct such a review "not less than every five years." It must then submit an updated
STAYING ALERT: China this week deployed its largest maritime show of force to date in the region, prompting concern in Taipei and Tokyo, which Beijing has brushed off Deterring conflict over Taiwan is a priority, the White House said in its National Security Strategy published yesterday, which also called on Japan and South Korea to increase their defense spending to help protect the first island chain. Taiwan is strategically positioned between Northeast and Southeast Asia, and provides direct access to the second island chain, with one-third of global shipping passing through the South China Sea, the report said. Given the implications for the US economy, along with Taiwan’s dominance in semiconductors, “deterring a conflict over Taiwan, ideally by preserving military overmatch, is a priority,” it said. However, the strategy also reiterated
CROSS-STRAIT COLLABORATION: The new KMT chairwoman expressed interest in meeting the Chinese president from the start, but she’ll have to pay to get in Beijing allegedly agreed to let Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) around the Lunar New Year holiday next year on three conditions, including that the KMT block Taiwan’s arms purchases, a source said yesterday. Cheng has expressed interest in meeting Xi since she won the KMT’s chairmanship election in October. A source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a consensus on a meeting was allegedly reached after two KMT vice chairmen visited China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Director Song Tao (宋濤) in China last month. Beijing allegedly gave the KMT three conditions it had to
RSS