MIDDLE EAST: Israeli settlers are willing to pay a high price to stay put, writes Nuala Haughey, in the West Bank.
Elad Rabskir says he and his neighbours do not sleep easy in their Jewish hilltop settlement of Nofei Nehemia in the occupied West Bank.
The group of mostly Russian immigrants who recently finished their Israeli military service take turns at night to patrol their unfenced trailer-home site, armed with M16s and pistols.
But for Elad, the fear of being attacked by Palestinians is a worthy price to pay for the satisfaction of continuing the work of the late 19th century Zionist pioneers from eastern Europe who began to settle the "promised land" of then Ottoman Palestine.
"It's hard at night to sleep. We have red eyes, but I don't live here to enjoy myself," said the 23-year-old Ukrainian-born Israeli, seated on a shabby couch in his small trailer.
"There were people who came here 150 years ago and built this country with their hands and I think I have to try to continue, to go on.
"I do it for my children and grandchildren and not only for me but for all Israel, all Jews."
A smooth narrow ribbon of newly tarmacked road winds up to Nofei Nehemia.
It is one of a string of settlements and outposts dotted along the mountain ridge road, Route 60, which is the main north-to-south artery connecting Palestinian cities in the West Bank.
Located some 20 km north of the Palestinian city of Ramallah, Nofei Nehemia forms a crucial link between two older settlements of Shilo and Ariel.
A synagogue is being built to service the residents of its ten grey-brown prefab houses, which have small white shuttered windows and rockery-style front gardens.
Elad and his young neighbours, derided by moderates as gung-ho "hilltop youth," are the frontline of a militant religious settler movement which seeks to deny Palestinians any future statehood and asserts an inalienable claim to the Jewish homeland in Eretz Yisrael - the land of Israel.
"We know if Arabs will live here we will die," explained Elad.
"If we won't be strong they will kill us and there is a lot of proof that that happens.
"Every time we give them something, they just took it and didn't do what they promised, they didn't fight the terrorists, they didn't do anything.
"It's very sad and we don't want to see victims on our side or on their side so we decided to build a settlement in this place as we want to live and not to die.
"If the Arabs will be strong, we will die." About 230,000 settlers live in some 140 settlements considered official under Israeli law in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, territories Israel occupied in 1967.
The international community regards all settlements on occupied land as illegal under international law, but Israel disputes this.
Israel undertook in the US-backed peace plan, the Road Map, to immediately remove those settlements established since March, 2001, and to freeze construction at existing settlements. Progress on both fronts has been limited. Nofei Nehemia was established without authorisation after March 2001. Elad says the authorities attempted to push him and his neighbours off their isolated site twice in the past year. If they try again, they will be met with resistance, he added.
Further south, the large settlement of Bet El, which incorporates an Israeli Defence Forces base, is next to Ramallah.
Visitors must pass through an army barrier to enter the residential compound, which is home to 5,000 people and has its own schools and small manufacturing industries. It is a nicely landscaped suburban neighbourhood, with large detached houses built in pale Jerusalem stone with the distinctive red tiled roofs commonly used for settler homes.
Bet El was established 25 years ago and today is expanding, with new houses under construction. Its residents are a mixture of ideologues and people attracted by the reasonable house prices and the pleasant suburban environment.
Physics professor Meir Nitzan, the son of Polish immigrants, was born in Tel Aviv but moved to Bet El more than 20 years ago "to hold this country."
He said he believes peace will only come once Palestinian terror is eradicated through military means.
He acknowledges that, to the outside world, settlers are perceived as part of the problem here, standing in the way of a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"I came here to be part of the problem, to not allow Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] to be given to Palestinians and to save this country," he said, standing outside the settlement's municipal offices with his groceries in two plastic bags. "This is our county, if we are a problem, yes we are a problem. We were also a problem in Europe and they killed us. I don't think we have to evaporate because the Arabs or Europe wants us to."