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Hebron Settlers Clash With Police, Palestinians
December 04, 2008 9:40 AM
By Simon McGregor-Wood, Correspondent & Bureau Chief, ABC News Jerusalem
After three weeks of tense standoff, Israeli security forces finally started today to evacuate Jewish settlers from a contested building in the heart of the Palestinian city of Hebron.
Israel’s Supreme Court had ordered the evacuation of the building while the contested details of its ownership were determined. A Palestinian family says it still owns the building. Jewish settlers insist they bought it legally.
The settlers have refused to leave and the area has since been flooded with Jewish volunteers who have been clashing with soldiers and Palestinian residents on a daily basis.
Earlier in the day, Defense Minister Ehud Barak held a last-ditch meeting with settler leaders to try and defuse the crisis. He insisted the building had to be evacuated while the legal process unfolded.
The standoff has sparked a debate inside Israel about the rule of law in the occupied territories and about the government’s resolve in standing up to an increasingly violent minority of settlers.
Their behavior has shocked Israelis who have been appalled at the numerous assaults on soldiers and the desecration with graffiti of nearby Muslim graveyards and mosques.
Soldiers and police wearing riot gear dragged each protester from the building one by one. There were reports of some injuries but the violent resistance promised by the settlers failed to materialize.
Photographers and TV crews wandered freely around the building as the evacuation proceeded.
Most of the settlers are teenagers from other illegal West Bank settlements. They were drawn to Hebron by their ideological commitment to resist the evacuation of Jews from what they consider to be one of Judaism’s holiest places.
The current fragile peace process has been dogged by Israel’s failure to evacuate dozens of so-called illegal settlements and by several highly contentious announcements of settlement expansions.
Under the terms of the Mideast Road Map, Israel has to clear out illegal West Bank settlements while the Palestinians have to dismantle terrorist groups.
Neither side has been judged to have effectively fulfilled its obligations.
Read more blogs from Simon McGregor-Wood
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December 4, 2008 in Simon McGregor-Wood | Permalink | User Comments (10)
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These settlements are illegal. These settlers are more trouble than they are worth.
Posted by: Huh | Dec 4, 2008 10:07:27 AM
What a backwards group of people these dirty jews (mostly the orthodox jews) are
Posted by: Citizen in FL | Dec 4, 2008 11:07:50 AM
I see our resident racist, "Citizen in FL", is once again spewing his vile hatred here.
"Citizen', please crawl back into your hole and take your anti-semetic slurs and hatred with you, no one here wishes to see it. I for one will be marking all of your posts as racist until you are banished from these lands.
Posted by: Fair Play | Dec 4, 2008 12:02:47 PM
The settlers are one of the big problems for peace between Israeli and Palestine. They give bad image to Israel and they are illegally invading Palestine land. Israel government must remove all settlers from Palestine land.
Posted by: Cliffton | Dec 4, 2008 1:01:04 PM
I can say whatever I please as long as I am not threatening anyone. Thats why we troops overseas fighting and dying daily to protect our freedoms that I,and MOST Americans - except for you fair play, cherish greatly. The freedom to speak my mind is a wonderful thing, even if it does not go well with you beliefs. And if you have a problem with me being able to to this, you have a problem with the troops protecting this freedom. And if you have a problem with that, then you obviously should not be here and YOU should be treated as a national enemy.
Posted by: Citizen in FL | Dec 4, 2008 1:03:36 PM
Citizen in FL: You are making threats when you say people should "be treated as a national enemy". your disgusting, but that's just me exercising my freedom of speech and expressing my opinion.
Posted by: french queen | Dec 4, 2008 1:31:17 PM
I was at that building a few weeks ago, and can say that those settlers have every legal right to the building; which was legally purchased and used as a residence to insure that it stays in Jewish hands.
Posted by: Josh | Dec 4, 2008 3:18:25 PM
french queen, you are disgusting. Go shave your armpits broad. Here is a definition of a threat frenchy:
a declaration of an intention or determination to inflict punishment, injury, etc., in retaliation for, or conditionally upon, some action or course.
I have no intention of inflicting punishment or injury in retaliation for anything. The only thing I said was that fair play SHOULD be TREATED as a national enemy. Sorry I am siding with the troops that risk their lives DAILY so i can sit here and be an jackass instead of some dirty jew that has a problem with my view on Israel.
Posted by: Citizen in FL | Dec 4, 2008 7:54:00 PM
How can someone be motivated to spew anti-Israel hatred when Israel is the one dismantling the settlements? This just proves that apparently some individuals take any/every oppurtunity to show their hatred for no reason other than their evil personalities.
Posted by: anti anti-semites | Dec 4, 2008 11:18:10 PM
Citizen,
Blatant racism like yours has nothing do with "free speech" or our troops.
The ABC news forums are not a "public place" as is implied in the First Admendment of the US Constitution, and thus we post here at the sufferance of those who own these boards. Technically they are the folks who will throw you out, not me ;-)
I will leave you with a quote by Daniel Barenboim:
"Anti-Semitism has no historical, political and certainly no philosophical origins. Anti-Semitism is a disease."
Posted by: Fair Play | Dec 5, 2008 1:18:19 AM
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