Defiant Jewish settlers march back to West Bank

[Violet_Crumble]

ARIEL Hazani stretched out on a sleeping bag next to a silver pup tent on the same patch of grass where his home once stood in this former Jewish settlement. Around him about 2000 other right-wing activists were also setting up camp for the night.

Like them, he hopes their gathering will mark the beginning of an official return to the settlement, one of four in the northern West Bank that Israel evacuated over the summer of 2005 together with the Jewish settlements of the Gaza Strip.

The reoccupation, even temporarily, of a destroyed Jewish settlement deep in the West Bank, near Jenin, is an open challenge to a weak Israeli Government. How it plays out will be viewed by Palestinians as a sign of whether Israel intends to keep its pledges, or whether settlement activity will continue to proceed unhindered, despite Israel's promises to halt it.

"We are not here to cry," said Batya Danziger, 16, one of the many teenagers who took part in the effort to reach the now desolate Homesh. "We are here to live and build it back up again."

"Hooray, a house!" her friends shouted in delight as they used palm fronds to fasten a lean-to against one of the few remaining stone walls.

Despite initial warnings to participants that their attempts to reach Homesh would be considered illegal, the Government did not order security forces to stop the group from making its way there by foot. Instead, the forces provided security for a 10-kilometre stretch of winding road on which the activists made their way to the site.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/defiant-jewish-settlers-march-back-to-west-bank/2007/03/27/1174761470731.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

[Lerkfish]

1. If I understand this correctly, is this settlers taking land previously agreed

to have vacated?

if so, why is this incendiary action being lauded by anyone?

[Scurrilous]

2. Israeli Police Remove Settlers in Homesh

<snip>

"Hundreds of Israeli police in riot gear dragged squatters from the ruins of a Jewish settlement Wednesday, ending a three-day showdown between the government and settlers trying to reclaim an area of the West Bank.

The confrontation played out in the former Homesh settlement, dismantled in 2005 as part of Israel's unilateral pullout from the Gaza Strip and parts of the northern West Bank.

On Monday, some 2,500 protesters had marched to the ruins of Homesh, pledging to rebuild it. Demonstrators set up large canvas tents on the site and started piling up rocks, in a symbolic attempt at reconstruction. More than 300 remained when hundreds of riot police moved in Wednesday morning.

The troops began dragging some protesters away, with four officers carrying each demonstrator, and placing them on waiting buses, a scene reminiscent of the original 2005 evacuation. Others packed up their tents and left voluntarily, said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.

Demonstrators said they'd be back."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6514065,00.html

[Violet_Crumble]

3. I think they need to arrest and charge those idiots...

After all, the West Bank is a closed military zone and the IDF and police had previously warned that they'd arrest anyone trying to reoccupy that settlement, and the punishment was two years in prison....

Why put them in buses and set them free when they know they'll just return?