http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/19/in...9CND-SETT.html
June 19, 2003
Israeli Troops Face Protests as They Dismantle Settlement
By GREG MYRE
MITZPEH YITZHAR, West Bank, June 19 — In repeated scuffles that often resembled a huge rugby scrum, hundreds of Israeli security force members wrestled today with Jewish settlers trying to prevent the dismantling of the first populated settlement targeted under a Mideast peace plan.
The day's turmoil also included a Palestinian suicide bomber who blew himself up at daybreak and killed an Israeli shop owner in a farming community, 25 miles to the north of the confrontation at the Jewish settlement.
With peace efforts sputtering, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell was due in the region on Friday for separate talks with the Israelis and Palestinians. The two sides have been attempting to work out a cease-fire arrangement, but have yet to strike a deal.
At the settlement of Mitzpeh Yitzhar, the young, bearded settlers set up large rock barricades, lit hillside brush fires and threw themselves in front of army vehicles to prevent soldiers and police from taking down the tents and a cinder-block hut.
For the past year, up to 10 settlers have been living at the hilltop site, just south of Nablus, the largest Palestinian city in the West Bank.
Many settlers believe God promised the land to the Jews and reject any talk of territorial concessions to the Palestinians, who want the West Bank and the Gaza Strip for a future state.
"In the Bible, it says this land is for us," said Moshe Cohen, 27, a university student who arrived from Tel Aviv to take part in the protest. "This land belongs to Israel just as much as Tel Aviv."
About 30 security force members and settlers suffered mostly minor injuries, and police made 15 arrests, Israel radio reported.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel has supported building settlements for decades, but the Mideast peace plan, known as the road map, requires him to take down dozens of small settlements that have cropped up since he came to power in March 2001.
"I'm telling the young men to hold strong to the land of Israel and not let anybody take it away from them," said Rabbi Eliyakim Levanon, who came from a nearby settlement.
"The government of Israeli gave the soldiers an order which is immoral," said the white-bearded rabbi, dressed in a black suit and a white dress shirt on a sun-scorched day. "We will try to keep the soldiers from fulfilling the order."
Young men kept watch overnight Wednesday and were ready this morning when the Israeli army and the police to came up a winding road to the rocky, windswept outpost.
The settlers tossed buckets of purple and orange paint on the windshields of army vehicles. After blocking earth movers with their bodies and forcing them to stop, the settlers sat inside the jaws and remained for hours.
The brush fires covered the hillside and quickly spread to nearby olive groves.
Many soldiers and police did not carry weapons, and they sought to avoid using force. But every time they moved toward the outpost, clusters of settlers jumped in their path, and pushing, shoving, shouting and wrestling quickly ensued.
Dozens were often involved in the brawls, but hundreds took part in a melee as soldiers pulled down the main tent amid a cloud of dust.
The tense atmosphere would calm briefly between battles. Soldiers would share snacks with the settlers. In one instance, a soldier gave his water bottle to a settler who was dripping with sweat as he tossed wood on a fire that was blocking the road to the settlement.
One protester, Yossi, encountered his brother, Moshe, a soldier, Israel radio reported, without giving their last name.
"We greeted each other and embraced, and continued with our business," Yossi said. "We know many soldiers in the area, and they know us. We cry, and they cry with us, and we are all equally pained."
By sundown, soldiers had removed the tents and demolished the cinderblock hut and an outhouse with sledgehammers. Only a guard post was left standing, but the settlers remained.
"This government is crazy," said Shilo, a student at a Jewish seminary who declined to give his last name. "We can come back tomorrow and rebuild this."
Mr. Sharon's government said it took down 10 uninhabited settlements last week. It also listed five populated ones that were to be dismantled, and Mitzpeh Yitzhar was the first.
Peace Now, an Israeli group that monitors settlements, says that more than 60 have gone up in the West Bank since Mr. Sharon came to power. The government has not said how many will be dismantled, but it has suggested it will be far fewer than 60.
The Palestinians say the road map is clear on the settlements: all must come down.
Mitzpeh Yitzhar is typical of many outposts. It has just a few residents and is less than a mile from the formal settlement of Yitzhar, home to some of the most ideologically hard-line Israeli settlers.
More than 200,000 Israelis live in nearly 150 formal settlements that have been built in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, land Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war.
Adi Mintz, general manager of the Settlers Council, an umbrella group that represents all the settlements, said the protesters would make every evacuation difficult.
"Wherever Mr. Sharon tries to move Jews from their homes, we will be there to protest," he said. "Every place that Mr. Sharon destroys, we will rebuild."
-30-
Linear Mode
