The Expulsion of Jews from 'Amona'
The security forces have expelled the Jews from the hilltop in 'Amona.' The expulsion was violent and there have been more than a few voices raised indicating that the police came in determined to make it so. This would not be surprising to anyone who saw how 'disengagement' protesters were treated over the summer (not the people in Gush Katif for the most part - but those who attempted to block highways around Jerusalem and Tel Aviv). Here's a recap:The Magen David Adom emergency medical service reported that a total of 144 wounded were evacuated to hospitals in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Roughly half of the injured were protestors. Hundreds of other wounded protestors were treated in Amona itself. Eleven people were evacuated by IDF helicopters - yet only a total of six are in serious or moderate condition.
Close to 300 other protestors were treated in a giant tent set up for the purpose near the site of the destruction.
One injured protestor said, "We were standing in the front line, with no intention of using violence or anything, and all of a sudden the police just rained down on us with horses and clubs... My injury seems to OK; I hardly needed any stitches, and the doctors here [at Hadassah Ein Karem Hospital] sent me home for three days of rest. But others were hurt even more than I was."
... The Yesha Rabbis Council issued this statement: "We are shocked from the cruel and horrific abuse perpetrated by Israeli police upon Jews... 37,000 demolition orders are ready to be executed, and of all of them, the Supreme Court and the police chose precisely this one in Amona, with the goal of destroying the religious-Zionist public."
One girl who participated in the protest arrived home with bruises on her face and leg, saying, "I got out safely only by miracle." Her story:
"We were outside the 5th house, with the goal of forming a line to stop the police from climbing into the windows. We had planned in advance, because of modesty and the like, that when the police would tell us to go, we would go right away. But they didn't let us. They just set upon us - all of them: Yasamnikim, Border Guard, soldiers, everyone - and didn't give us a chance. I screamed, 'I'm going by myself!' but they didn't care; I heard them saying, 'Smack them! Get them!' They hit me with a club on my leg, and then they pushed me to the ground and smashed me with clubs twice more - once on my face, right near my eye. Miraculously, he didn't hit me on the skull; I saw others right near me bleeding from their heads, unconscious - it was just terrible... It was just by miracle that nothing worse happened to me."
Yifat Ehrlich, the owner of one of the destroyed homes, was interviewed on Israel Television. Asked about the fact that the State was destroying the buildings legally, she said, "This whole thing has nothing to do with law, but only with politics. The Supreme Court did not order the houses destroyed, but merely refrained from intervening in a political decision of the government. The government decided to destroy the buildings, in spite of the fact that we were in the midst of finalizing the purchase."
"I want to say,"Yifat said, "that from an ethical standpoint, I feel much better about the houses we built than you should feel. The land here was never occupied by an Arabs, it was totally barren when we came, no one has ever come to claim ownership, and we did not banish any one from this land - as opposed to where you might be sitting in Jerusalem, or in Tel Aviv, or in Haifa, where many Arabs used to be living..."
"As you can see on the screen in front of you, the bulldozers are having a harder time destroying these structures than in Gush Katif. In Gush Katif, when Sharon the bulldozer was in charge, each house took a few minutes to raze, while here, with Olmert, it's not going so fast. Why? Because Olmert is not yet the bulldozer that Sharon was - but soon, the media will help turn him into a bulldozer, and he'll be able to do it stronger...
"The only reason why all this violence is happening is because Olmert wanted blood - and so he received it. But the truth is, it doesn't matter; we have patience. Because I'm sitting here nursing my three-week-old baby, next to my other children here in the park in Ofrah, and we'll have other children with G-d's help - not like Olmert, whose daughter has left the country - and soon in 20 or 30 years, we will be in charge - and then we will have a country based on fear of G-d, and pleasantness, and mutual respect."
When Yifat mentioned Ehrlich, the interviewer interrupted by saying that she should not get into "personal details," but she continued talking, and the interview then ended.
Could the violence have been averted? According to Margot Dudkevitch in the Jerusalem Post, yes:
Had the security establishment set up roadblocks on the main access routes to the outpost and deployed IDF units to man positions in the nearby wadis and hilltops to prevent the thousands of settler supporters from streaming to the site, the violence could well have been averted, or at least limited to isolated pockets of resistance.
...The geographical location of Amona is different; it is an isolated hilltop that could easily have been surrounded and cut off days prior to the evacuation. The IDF, who is responsible for the area, should have set up checkpoints at the beginning of the week and monitored the traffic entering and exiting the area, thereby preventing the protesters from reaching the site. The thousands of security forces dispatched to Amona far exceeded the ratio of security forces deployed to evacuate Gush Katif settlements, and the violence was met in some cases with excessive force.
However, senior IDF officers declared that nothing could have prevented the violence, as the settlers had taken a clear-cut decision to resist harshly. The strategy of the Central Command was to disturb as little as possible the routine life of the thousands of settlers living in the immediate settlement bloc area in the Ofra region. "The main road serves thousands of settlers living in the region, and the decision not to set up checkpoints earlier was measured against the disturbances they would be forced to endure had such measures been taken," one officer said.
And she blames both sides. Or does she?
Settler leaders and Knesset members present throughout the forced evacuation failed in their mission to set examples to the scores of youth, many still hurting from the evacuation of Gush Katif. They had no control over the hundreds of ideology-fuelled teens that barricaded themselves on the rooftops, [Setting an example and having control are two completely different things. You can set an example without having control - and vice versa. If she's criticizing them for not setting an example, and that is factually correct, then she's right. If she's criticizing them for not having control, that may have been unavoidable. CiJ] and they failed to prevent the ugly scenes of Jews raising their hands against other Jews from being broadcasted throughout the world. [If the government was really concerned about images like that, it didn't have to look for this confrontation. Olmert was spoiling for a fight (read the articles from this morning) and so were the leftists. The only question was whether the 'settlers' would 'go quietly' as they did in Gush Katif last summer, or whether they would decide to step things up because last summer's protests do not seem to have had a lasting effect on the national psyche. CiJ]
Earlier in the week, thousands of police, border police and IDF soldiers underwent intensive preparations for the pending evacuation and the subsequent demolition of the nine illegal homes. Without a doubt, had they not been carefully trained and prepared for the mission, the casualties could have been far higher. [I have seen no evidence that the police, the border police or for that matter the IDF did anything to attempt to minimize the violence. CiJ] No one was prepared for the fierce violence that erupted at the site - or for the blood curling images of Jewish youths, some wearing masks, throwing barrages of stones, rocks, large blocks, paint, and other substances at policemen attempting to evacuate them.
The police and border police who actively participated in the evacuation responded determinedly and fiercely to the unprecedented violence they were confronted with at the site. [Except that according to the 'settlers' the police and the border police didn't just respond - they initiated. I wonder whether Ms. Dudkevitch was there. And if she was, where was she standing? CiJ] For the first time, policemen wielding batons fought through the crowds of Jewish protesters, beating them back, and mounted police directed their horses through the crowds in an attempt to disperse them.
While the security establishment deemed the evacuation a success, no one was prepared for the serious injuries a border policeman and Jewish youth incurred. "It is hard to fathom; their lives will never be the same," said one IDF officer. "When the decision was made by the settlers to resort to violence, no matter the numbers of people involved, it had to be dealt with quickly," another officer said. "The mission was carried out, the nine buildings will be demolished, but the price that was paid is something that will have to be reckoned with, by society and the entire security establishment," the officer said.
The implication of the above is that the 'settlers' started the violence. But did they? Given the scenes last summer involving the police, I doubt it. But you can bet that tomorrow morning, every newspaper from HaAretz onwards will condemn the 'settlers' for the violence.
Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert accused demonstrators at the Amona outpost Wednesday of exerting violence for political reasons, adding that the political interests of some Yesha leaders were behind the events at Amona.I think that they are all missing the point. This did not have to happen. This 'case' should never have been heard by the 'Supreme Court' or any other court because the party that brought it - Peace Now - had no standing and the question that it presented was a political question. (See the next item down). 'Rule of Law' in this country is unfortuantely becoming synonymous (due to the left's efforts) with the Supreme Court. Until the court is reigned in and forced to act as a court should act in a democracy rather than as a legislature these kinds of confrontations are going to happen. Being subjected to rules made by a body for which one cannot vote and in whose membership one or more segments of society have no say is not democracy - it's tyranny.
... Head of the Binyamin Regional Council Pinhas Wallerstein described the evacuation of Amona on Wednesday as the most severe violence he had ever encountered. In an Army Radio interview, Wallerstein insisted that the violence was mutual.
... Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz defended the security forces' use of force against violent protesters as they attempted to evacuate the outpost.... Cmdr. Israel Yitzhak, Judea and Samaria police chief, backed the defense minister's statement, accusing the settler leaders of failing to control their public before and during the evacuation.
He repeatedly insisted that it was the settlers who were violent, and that police only responded to that violence. "The police are enforcing the law," he said, defending his forces.
Explaining how thousands of protesters were allowed to arrive at Amona, Yitzhak told Israel Radio that the area could not have been completely surrounded and isolated.
On the other hand, righ wing leaders from blamed Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for using the violent evacuation for political gain ahead of the upcoming elections.
National Union MK Arieh Eldad accused Olmert of "wanting to see blood in order to appear as a strong prime minister."
Yesha Council head Benzi Lieberman and MK Uri Ariel made similar accusations. Lieberman claimed that the security forces who participated in the evacuation were preparing to use violence long before Wednesday morning.
On the left side of the political map, MK Isaac Herzog (Labor) was horrified by the violence, but said that its level would have been much lower had the defense establishment not dragged its feet in the evacuation process. "The rule of law must dominate in Judea and Samaria," Herzog stated.
...Some settlers accused security forces of using "unprecedented violence" against them. Orit Kaspi, head of Amona, accused the state of declaring a civil war, but insisted that [the settlers and the residents of Amona] would not let that happen.
Yuval Kertzner, one of the leaders in Amona vowed that the residents would begin rebuilding their homes starting next week.
MK Effi Eitam, who was moderately wounded by a horse during the violence, said "30 years I fought on the battle fields, and I never believed that I would be wounded by a Jewish policeman while I was doing my duty as a member of Knesset."
UPDATE - 7:15 PM
(From JPost)
A 15-year-old protester was in very serious condition with a fractured skull, and was placed on a respirator and put under a medically induced coma, according to Channel 2.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:50 PM
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