Angry settlers fend off police at largest Gaza settlement
Mon Aug 15 2005 09:06:21 ET
Hundreds of settlers and angry teenagers massed behind the iron gate
closing Neve Dekalim to police who arrived at dawn Monday to hand out
eviction letters at the start of the Gaza pullout.
"Criminal! Shame on the army!" shouted the crowd, AFP reports.
General Dan Harel, the southern region commander in charge of
the operation, remained implacable in front of the barrage of insults
hurled in his direction.
Around 300 police officers lined up
in two rows facing the gate into the settlement, armed with water
cannon and backed by a cavalry detachment on horseback.
Earlier Monday, the cabinet in Jerusalem approved the evacuation of
the main Gush Katif settlement bloc of 15 communities, of which Neve
Dekalim is the largest.
"Why don't you bring air power
against us as long as you're here," shouted one teenager, dressed in
the ubiquitous orange T-shirt that symbolises the settlers' struggle
against eviction from the Palestinian territory after nearly four
decades.
Settler leaders then began trying to galvanise
troops into disobedience in the hope of sabotaging the operation.
"We refuse to accept your expulsion orders," said spokesman
Tzviki Ben Hai from the Gaza settler regional council.
"Don't become accomplices to an unforgivable crime," ringleader Hanan
Porat shouted at policemen.
Immobile and impervious to the insults, dressed in spanking new black
uniforms, police officers stood in the stultifying heat equipped only
with water flasks strapped to their backs to alleviate discomfort.
Shmuel, a bearded 50-something draped in a prayer shawl
grabbed the police officer in charge of the evacuation, Aharon Franco,
and forced him to join him in prayer before the battery of
photographers, tefillin religious scrolls strapped to his head and
left arm.
Smiling broadly, Shmuel presented himself as a "soldier of God" and to the applause of settlers he declared Franco "one of us".
"A Jew cannot expel another Jew," he added with confidence.
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