← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · albion
Thread ID: 19218 | Posts: 2 | Started: 2005-07-19
2005-07-19 23:14 | User Profile
**Israeli police pledge to keep protesters from Gaza
**Tuesday, July 19, 2005 EDT Associated Press
Kfar Maimon, Israel ââ¬â Israeli police encircled an encampment Tuesday of thousands of foes of the Gaza pullout, pushing back a surging crowd trying to march to the nearby territory in a show of support for Jewish settlements marked for demolition next month.
Protesters and police traded punches, and three injured policemen were carried away. Police on horseback then moved into the crowd, and several demonstrators were arrested.
Settler leaders said they would try again and again to reach Gaza, about 15 kilometres away, but it appeared unlikely that they would be able to break through police cordons and roadblocks. With demonstrators kept out of Gaza, this week's protests in southern Israel were shaping up as the last major stand of withdrawal opponents.
The government signalled that it would stand tough.
Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz said the marchers would not be allowed to move any closer to Gaza, setting the stage for daily confrontations. Israeli Vice Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, meanwhile, said that ââ¬ÅAriel Sharon is not scared of 20,000 or 50,000 marching settlers.ââ¬Â
The march began Monday in the southern Israeli town of Netivot, with marchers spending the night at a makeshift camp in the farming village of Kfar Maimon, about 10 miles east of the Gaza border.
Demonstrator Avraham Ravi, 33, brought along his four children, ages 1 to 8, from the West Bank settlement of Tel Menashe. On Tuesday morning, he sat with his wife and children under a tree in Kfar Maimon, getting ready for the second day of the march.
ââ¬ÅWe walked all night. It wasn't easy with the kids,ââ¬Â he said. ââ¬ÅBut we tell them (the children) that this is to block those people who want to divide Israel.ââ¬Â
Police estimated that 7,000 marchers had assembled in Kfar Maimon; organizers put the number at more than 20,000.
Settler leader Pinchas Wallerstein said the protest could last many days.
ââ¬ÅAs long as this terrible decision stands (to withdraw from Gaza), there will be a constant presence to prevent this,ââ¬Â he told Israel Army Radio. He said the protesters would try to keep moving toward Gaza. ââ¬ÅWherever they stop us ... we will stay,ââ¬Â he said.
The marchers want to reach the Jewish settlements in Gaza and resist the withdrawal, set to begin in mid-August. Police last week declared the Jewish settlements a closed military area, meaning that only residents can come and go. Police also tightened security along barricades at the Kissufim crossing, the gateway from Israel to the Gaza settlements, adding rolls of barbed wire and concrete blocks.
In the West Bank, two Palestinians were killed in a gun battle with Israeli troops Tuesday, the military side. Security forces surrounded the militants' hideout in the village of Yamoun, and after the firefight demolished the building with bulldozers. The army said the gunmen were members of two extremist groups, Islamic Jihad and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a violent splinter group of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement.
Israel has intensified arrest raids against extremists after six Israelis were killed last week, five in a suicide bombing by Islamic Jihad and one in a rocket attack by Hamas. Militants also fired a barrage of rockets and mortar rounds at Israeli communities in and near Gaza. Israel carried out several air strikes last week, killing six Hamas militants.
The weekend violence left a five-month-old truce in tatters, but Israeli and Palestinian leaders said Monday that they would try to stop the escalation, and Mr. Olmert said Israeli troops massed outside Gaza would not invade the strip if Mr. Abbas can subdue the militants.
Mr. Abbas, in turn, said he would try to rescue the ceasefire, seen as the main achievement of his six months in office. He warned the militants that they must refrain from acting on their own.
ââ¬ÅNobody has the right to take the law into his own hands ââ¬â nobody,ââ¬Â he said.
Tensions between Palestinian police and militants in Gaza have also been running high.
On Tuesday, Hamas gunmen and Palestinian security forces exchanged fire after two Hamas-affiliated research companies were burned down, witnesses said. Six people were wounded in the shootout.
During the fighting, Hamas activists burned two cars belonging to Fatah members and fired a rocket-propelled grenade at another vehicle. Fatah activists burned a car belonging to Hamas.
Al-Aqsa members later threatened to respond in kind if attacked by Hamas, signalling a significant rise in tensions.
In a clash between Hamas and Palestinian police last week, two bystanders were killed.
2005-07-20 00:22 | User Profile
Like any good magician Sharon only lets you see and hear what he wants you to learn and meanwhile he keeps taking down palestinian houses and killing them.
Sorry guys but I don't believe anything that they say because action speaks louder than words.
Palestians will continue to have the biggest consentrantion camps in the world and will continue to be so till the Zionists are kicked out of Palestine, only troulbe is that all those Zionists will be coming to the US.
All Arabs, Muslims and Jews use to live in peace in the holy land till the Khazard Zionists decided to move in by stealing the land from those who have been there for centuries.......because "God" gave them that land, I sure as hell didn't. :argue: talk to my hand.