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 Support The DrudgeReport; Visit Our Advertisers  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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