Posted on 08/17/2005 9:14:11 PM PDT by Nachum
NEVE DEKALIM, Gaza Strip - Jewish settlers sobbed and screamed, some of them ripping their shirts in mourning, as Israeli troops dragged them from homes and synagogues Wednesday — the beginning of the end of Israel's 38-year occupation of the Gaza Strip.
In the West Bank, a settler killed four Palestinian laborers in a shooting rampage, which Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon denounced as a twisted act of "Jewish terror" designed to stop the historic pullout.
Despite the escalation of Israeli-Palestinian tensions, the eviction of die-hard settlers and their nationalist supporters who flooded into Gaza in recent weeks moved forward — with anguish, anger and tears, but more swiftly and smoothly than anyone anticipated.
A convoy left before dawn Thursday, beginning the second day of the forcible evacuation. Troops entered the settlement of Kfar Darom, an extremist center where up to 2,000 settlers and backers have barricaded themselves in with concrete blocks, barbed wire and other barriers.
Sharon proposed his "disengagement plan" two years ago to ease Israel's security burden and help preserve the country's Jewish character by placing Gaza's 1.3 million Palestinians outside Israeli boundaries. Under the plan, Israel will remove all 21 settlements from Gaza and four from the West Bank — the first time it has removed veteran settlements from either area.
Some 14,000 unarmed Israeli soldiers and police entered six settlements throughout Wednesday, forcibly evicting residents who refused to leave voluntarily. According to the army, 1,842 people were evacuated Wednesday. Of 1,600 families in Gaza, only 600 remained by the end of the day.
Soldiers and settlers clashed, argued and hugged, reflecting intense and mixed emotions at the uprooting of settlers whose government years ago encouraged them to move to Gaza for the sake of Israel's security.
"It's impossible to watch this ... without tears in the eyes," Sharon said, but he insisted the pullout would make Israel safer.
Palestinian militants said they would refrain from retaliating for the West Bank shooting. Still, a mortar shell fell near Israeli soldiers in Gaza, without causing casualties, and Palestinian youngsters threw stones at an Israeli tank outside Neve Dekalim, Gaza's largest Jewish settlement. The tank crew responded with tear gas and fired shells into the sand.
Also, Israeli troops found a 22-pound explosives belt hidden in a water tank during a raid on the Palestinian town of Mawasi, near a Gaza settlement. Four Palestinians were arrested, the army said.
The day was filled with heart-rending scenes as troops carried settlers out of homes, synagogues, even nursery schools.
Soldiers joined anti-withdrawal protesters in prayer before evicting them. An elderly rabbi hugged a Torah scroll as he was escorted away. A young man read from his prayer book as soldiers carried him to a bus. Teenagers burned tires in streets in last acts of defiance.
Under a willow tree at a children's nursery, mothers clutched babies as troops loaded diapers and toys onto buses for evacuation.
A soldier with tears in her eyes held a toddler in her arms, gave him some candy and implored, "Where is his mother?" Another soldier waved away flies from a toddler lying in a stroller.
By evening, five of the six settlements that troops entered in the morning were cleared, with resisters remaining only in Neve Dekalim — for months the epicenter of resistance.
Palestinian militants are portraying the pullout as a victory for their suicide bombings and rocket attacks. Some fear militants will resume bloodshed once Israel's Gaza withdrawal is complete.
Israelis and Palestinians have been cooperating to prevent militant violence during the pullout, though lately Jewish extremists have caused the most concern. Wednesday's attack was the second on Palestinians by Israelis in two weeks. On Aug. 4, a 19-year-old Israeli deserter opened fire on a bus, killing four Israeli Arabs.
Sharon denounced the West Bank shooting as "an act of Jewish terror against innocent Palestinians out of twisted thinking." Still, the prime minister was unlikely to allow the incident to derail the pullout — an operation on which he has staked his political career.
The gunman, identified as Asher Weisgan, 40, from the West Bank settlement of Shvut Rahel, was a driver who transported Palestinian laborers to the industrial zone of the nearby settlement of Shilo every day. At the end of the work day, he picked up the workers and briefly stopped at a security post.
He got out of his car, seized the weapon from the guard at knifepoint and fired from close range on two workers in his vehicle. He kept shooting, killing a third worker and wounding two others outside the car. One of them died later.
Hamas said it would not immediately retaliate to enable the Gaza pullout to proceed.
"But if these crimes continue, factions will not stand by silently," said spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri
Several hundred settlers broke out of Kfar Darom, a settlement due to be evacuated in the next few days, pushed large cinderblocks off a bridge and tried to burn down an Arab house, witnesses said. Palestinians threw stones at the settlers until Israeli troops arrived, doused the fire and pushed the settlers back into the settlement.
In general, however, the evictions were peaceful. While settlers routinely carry weapons, they displayed none when the columns of soldiers and police marched into their communities.
Terje Roed-Larsen, who spent 12 years trying to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on behalf of the United Nations, praised Sharon for keeping the promise he made nearly two years ago.
"However, if this is the first step and the last step, I'm afraid that within months we will be back into a situation where violence and terrorism will preavail again and the living conditions of the citizens of Gaza will continue to deteriorate," Roed-Larsen, who stepped down in December as the U.N.'s top Mideast envoy, warned in an interview.
The day's worst act of protest was the self-immolation of a 54-year-old woman from the West Bank at a police roadblock in southern Israel. She suffered life-threatening burns on 70 percent of her body, police and hospital officials said.
In Neve Dekalim, a man stood before a line of soldiers and held up his daughter, about 10 years old. "Here. Take her. Expel her. Please take her, you are such a hero," he said, pouring scorn on the troops. The little girl, crying, looked up at the policeman and her father in sad confusion.
___
Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer contributed to this report from the United Nations.
Replacement Theology
This is very sad....But looks well handled on the soldiers' part. None of them really want to be doing this this way.
Hamas said it would not immediately retaliate to enable the Gaza pullout to proceed.
"But if these crimes continue, factions will not stand by silently," said spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri
??? Hamas stand by Silently??? when did that ever happen??
Quote "Can anyone name one thing the Palestinians have given up in the interest of peace?"
Can you list some things they HAVE to even give up? Not much.
There has been give and take on both sides. Israel is the one that is occupying the land. Give the Palestinians a state and then see what happens. You lump ALL of the Palestinians together...those who are bringing terror and violence do NOT represent the majority.
Yeah I know the quote was from someone else...sorry just cut and pasted and then hit reply. :)
Quote "This is very sad....But looks well handled on the soldiers' part. None of them really want to be doing this this way."
That is for sure. These kids are forced into military service (I believe for three years). Most of them are students and or young people. This isn't want they want to be doing with their day.
Some American named Naomi Wolf was interviewed and asked for her opinion since she is Jewish. She said that the military are treating the settlers so courteously in contrast to how they treat Palestinian protestors and that they should treat the Palestinians more humanely. I was stunned at her ignorance. The settlers are nonviolent; Palestinians extremists want to do harm. Of course the military will react differently in each situation.
As a Jewish Grand child from Holocaust survivors I am ashamed and disgusted by the crazy settlers who are displaying Nazi era images at their protest
SHAME ON YOU!!!
You gave the anti-Semites and Holocaust deniers something they never dreamed of getting from Jews
Some fear militants will resume bloodshed once Israel's Gaza withdrawal is complete.Although through this pullout Israel will have less territory to defend, it will not stop hundreds of years of Pali heritage where kids are taught from birth that the most noble thing they can do is kill Jews.
The killings will continue until this most basic and deeply ingrained mindset is changed. That, if it can be done at all, will take several generations at least.
"Hmmm... and where are the posts denouncing the Jewish man who killed 4 people? "
Don't be a jerk, there have been plenty on other threads.
"The majority of Israel wants out of the Gaza."
A very narrow majority - close to a dead heat.
The percentage in support of the fallout has dropped in every onth polled tll now where it is just shy of a dead heat.
A near equal percentage of Israelis faver the expulsion of Arabs from Gaza, btw.
Porat: IDF Left Terrorists in Churches but Forces Jews from Synagogues
18:20 Aug 18, '05 / 13 Av 5765
(IsraelNN.com) Former Knesset Member Rabbi Chanan Porat tearfully said Thursday night that the Sharon government refused to allow soldiers to remove terrorists who hid in Bethlehem churches last year but ordered them to evict Jews from Gush Katif synagogues Thursday.
He spoke to an Israel radio reporter who was describing the violence between expulsion opponents and security forces and asked Porat," Was all this necessary? Isn't this [scene] the fault of the national religious [camp]?"
Porat said the scene was not necessary and the fault is the "evil Prime Minister Ariel Sharon." The Israel Radio reporter, in questioning Porat, accused the opponents of being responsible for desecration of holy objects by holding Torah scrolls during the forced evacuation.
This scene now at the synagogue is just a mess.
~sigh~
I am watching Fox coverage and it is heartbreaking! This is just wrong....Wrong! Alouette, how can the IDF do this? Your children don't have to do it do they?
How are you feeling today? I am very sad, but also await the Lord's vengence....very bad day....very bad!
Where are they from?
Arrafat was an Egyptian, is that a Palestinian? Is someone from Jordan a Palestinian?
Palestine was a term used by the Romans during Occupation of Judea/Sumaria.
There isn't a Palestine, nor a Palestinian...
I unleash the power of the kitties!
It's not The Wall, it's The Fence. The Wall is in Jerusalem.
The whole thing is so complex that I don't know what's the right or wrong thing to do, but this IS extremely emotional and hard to watch.
I pray for the day when this headline will be true. When Gaza and all of Israel is clear of enemies.
I just imagine many of these images will be on Al-Jazeera (sp?).
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