jerusalem (ap) | An anti-settler group has launched an Internet game called “Wild West Bank,” to demonstrate the difficulty of evacuating settlers from the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank.
The game, with a cast including a sheriff, Israeli soldiers, Palestinians and gun-toting Jewish settlers, is part of a new campaign by a coalition of dovish organizations.
The coalition, calling itself “Back to Israel,” constructed a game that has the player acting as an Israeli sheriff who must try to take down settlements, while Jewish settlers constantly set up new communities in the area.
Through chasing the slippery settlers evading the security forces, players are supposed to understand that it will be almost impossible to carry out the government’s “disengagement” plan. With simple animation, happy soldiers returning to Israel yell “yeah!” but settlers do not budge.
Just as the player drags the settler homes into Israel, settlers set up more mobile homes on the same spot. Meanwhile, Palestinians wander about their territory aimlessly.
“Since the disengagement discussion started, no one in Israel is talking about the occupation … but the building is continuing there,” said Arik Diamant, development coordinator of “Back to Israel.”
“After disengagement, there will be more settlers than before the disengagement. This is a very dangerous situation,” he said.
Diamant said about 20,000 people downloaded the game in the first three days of its posting, which can be found at www.brand.co.il/unik/westbank.
The coalition plans a series of films, a rock concert and tours of settlements and Palestinian areas this weekend, to persuade Israelis to dismantle all settlements set up in the West Bank and Gaza, territories Israel captured in the 1967 Six-Day War.