Posted on 01/03/2005 1:23:49 PM PST by anotherview
Jan. 3, 2005 9:59 | Updated Jan. 3, 2005 21:29
Soldier fires shots during outpost evacuation scuffle
By MATTHEW GUTMAN
Outpost evacuation near Yitzhar
Settler girls during scuffle with soldiers who had arrived to dismantle an illegal outpost near Yitzhar, in the northern West Bank
Photo: AP
In what some settlers are calling the opening shots of the final push against the contentious disengagement plan, an IDF soldier fired at least one warning shot towards residents of the Nablus-area settlement of Yitzhar, where earlier in the day the IDF had dismantled an illegal outpost.
During the outpost's evacuation, some 19 settler activists were arrested and about a dozen - security personnel as well as protesters - were wounded in scuffles during the morning hours with hundreds of police and IDF troops working to dismantle the illegal outpost of Givat Shalhevet.
Givat Shalhevet, named for Shalhevet Pas, a 10-month-old girl shot dead by a Palestinian sniper in Hebron three years ago, is a so-called satellite outpost to the Yitzhar settlement, the site of almost continuous strife between security personnel and settlers.
In protest, Yitzhar's secretary Tzvi Berenstock has asked that the IDF remove an army encampment situated within the boundaries of the settlement, where a paratroop company is posted in order to beef up the settlement's security, he told The Jerusalem Post.
"I have been in all the evacuations here," said Berenstock, "but I've never before seen anything as brutal." He said one of the woman wounded during the clashes was evacuated to the hospital with a fractured hip and internal injuries.
In a sign of ruptured IDF-settler relations, Yitzhar's residents, in a move spearheaded by the community's influential rabbi, issued the IDF with an ultimatum to leave the community by Monday night, saying that the troops there are unwelcome.
It is the first such case where settlers have demanded that soldiers who are there essentially for their protection be banished from the community's gates.
The incident began at approximately 4 p.m. when a teenage girl was spotted trying to puncture the tires of an IDF jeep. A soldier inside the car saw her and jumped out to stop her. The girl, an activist of the radical Kahana Chai movement, ran towards a group of settlers and hid behind them.
The soldier approached, demanding that the settlers hand the girl over. As he neared, the soldier raised his weapon, saying he would shoot if the settlers approached, according to an eye witness.
"After the girl ran up to a group of people I was standing with, the soldier advanced towards us, cocked his weapon and pointed it directly at my head. He told us to release the girl. He lifted the gun only a centimeter or two above my head and fired," said Yitzhar resident Ephraim Ben-Shochat in a telephone interview.
The settlers then moved in, grabbing the muzzle of the soldier's M-16 and yanking it downwards, according to Berenstock, who said he investigated the incident. Apparently, at some point in the scuffle the soldier managed to get off a few shots before being wrestled to the ground, according to Berenstock and Ben-Shochat.
The IDF said that the settlers had attacked the soldier, trying to snatch his weapon away from him. The soldier backed off and fired a single shot in the air, said an IDF Central Command spokeswoman.
The Judea and Samaria Police released a statement saying that the soldier fired in self-defense in the air as "three Israeli citizens tried to steal one of the soldier's weapons."
By the time IDF reinforcements and police arrived on the scene, the suspects had disappeared, said the police statement, although settlers blocked the roads and managed to puncture the tires of the IDF and police vehicles that rushed to the scene.
The soldier is currently being debriefed, and the incident investigated by military police.
"The soldier had clearly lost his mind," said Berenstock, "and all that the settlers were trying to do was prevent him from arresting two 12-year-olds." That the soldier fired the shots inside the settlement proper, and "between the settlement's houses," said Berenstock, further incensed Yitzhar residents.
Responding to the incident, Itamar Ben Gvir, spokesman of the extreme right-wing Kach movement, said that "the soldier who opened fire today signaled the start of the major campaign against disengagement." Some among his group said on Monday that the violence will lead to "a type of civil war."
Meanwhile, a bunch of Palis are planning to blow up a bus full of Jews.
Indeed - they've suckered the Israelis into doing their work for them, the work of forcing out every Jew from the Jordan River to the Medeterranian sea.
Precisely. We need to be united against our enemies, not fighting with the government which happens to be enforcing Israel's laws. If you want to build then get a permit.
On what do you base this incredibly ignorant statement? We are most certainly not forcing out anyone from Israel proper nor from where 99.7% of where the settlers live. The government is removing outposts that were built illegally under Israeli law. Disengagement, if it happens, represents a strategic withdrawal from outlying settlements in the midst of large, hostile Arab populations. It is a move to save Jewish lives and to put the IDF in a better position to defend the country.
Does self-assertion of legitimacy by a government establish the same?
Contracting the Jewish people into a smaller and smaller area will certainly not "save Jewish lives." On the contrary, each retreat will embolden the Arabs to push harder and harder.
Eventually you will have nowhere to run. Then what?
Let me answer your question with a question: Let's say that the U.S. government decided on a policy you didn't like. Let's say that policy had about 70% support among U.S. citizens. Would the fact that you didn't like the policy make the U.S. government less than legitimate?
You completely misuderstand. We aren't running. If the Arabs think we are they will find out how sorely mistaken they are.
Tell me, how does keeping nearly three million hostile Arabs inside our border enhance our security? How does it fight terrorism? Also, if we end up alienating our best friend in the world, namely the government of the United States, how will that help us?
My reference is to the seeming concession by the Israeli government that any Palestinian state must be Judenrein, and the three year penalties that Israel is contemplating imposing on anyone who resists evacuation of settlements in the West Bank, including holding signs.
Why should the IDF forcibly evacuate these people who are determined to stay? Leave them to the tender mercies of Sharia law and angry mobs, and they'll evacuate themselves soon enough.
The ENTIRE state of Israel is an outlying settlement in the midst of a large, hostile Arab population, by some measures.
There are certain fundamental rights under the US Constitution that are not subject to a majority vote. Even if 99% of the population votes against them.
If the govt's policy violates the Constitution is it still a legitimate government regardless of how many idiots with a vote or ninja thugs say it is?...
The source of the legitimacy of the Sharon government is two consecutive overwhelming victories in elections. Sharon defeated Mitzna (Labor) in a landslide in the last election.
Clue: disengagement is popular in Israel even if it isn't on Free Republic. Polls range from 67-70% in favor.
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