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Shevat 26, 5770 / February 10, '10  
 
 
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    Published: 12/29/04, 6:46 PM / Last Update: 12/29/04, 9:24 AM

    Violent Response to Civil Disobedience in Shomron

     
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    (IsraelNN.com) The government, army and Disengagement Authority are presumably studying yesterday's events in northern Shomron, asking themselves a simple question: If a busload of officials is delayed two hours by a few dozen people on its way to survey an area, what can be expected if and when the actual expulsion is attempted?

    Kedumim Mayor Daniella Weiss, one of three women arrested for several hours in yesterday's incident, discussed it afterwards on Arutz-7's evening newsmagazine. "When I saw the youngsters of Sa-Nur, fourth-generation in the Shomron, grasping so strongly onto the Land of Israel, I said to myself, 'There won't be an expulsion.'"

    Sa-Nur is one of the four Shomron communities - and 21 Jewish communities in Gaza - slated by Prime Minister Sharon for demolition this summer, in the framework of his "disengagement" plan. Opponents refer to it as expulsion, transfer and abandonment of the Land of Israel to the enemy.

    Weiss said that when she heard that a busload of 50 Disengagement Authority officials, army officers and infrastructures, electric, telephony and other personnel were on their way to survey the Shomron areas in question, "a group of citizens immediately got together and blocked the road near Shavei Shomron. The bus was unable to pass for two hours, until large IDF and police forces arrived on the scene."

    The mayor related that the police forcibly dragged the protestors away: "I and two other women lied down on the road. At first, against instructions, there were no women policemen, and we were dragged away by men. They behaved brutally." Video footage of a woman being dragged off while holding onto her nine-month old baby was shown on Israeli television.

    Two hours after the blockage began, the bus finally made its way to the community of Homesh, whose residents refused to speak with the "guests."

    At Sa-Nur, the situation was more volatile. "The gate was closed," Weiss said, "and could not be opened [because of an electricity black-out arranged by the citizens for the occasion – ed.]. The army broke down the gate, and the police and soldiers acted violently towards the citizens who continued to try to block the bus from coming in. They tore clothes, and hit people... People were crying and yelling... While all this was going on, the delegation finally came in and started walking around."

    The 500 residents of the four threatened Samaria communities are sometimes overlooked by the planned expulsion of nearly 8,000 residents in Gush Katif - but they are at least as determined to stop the "disengagement." The abandonment of their towns would leave practically the entire northern Shomron in Arab hands, leaving areas such as Netanya, Hadera, Afula and others under the same military threats they faced in the 1950s and 60s, before the Six Day War. The residents of the Shomron say they won't let it happen.

    One woman of Sa-Nur told Arutz-7 today, "This is war. They want to bring total destruction upon us, and we will fight back. They said they won't bring weapons, but they'll bring bulldozers. If they hit, we'll hit back. If they bring bulldozers, we'll sabotage them. We'll do whatever we have to."

    Mayor Weiss, who was released by police yesterday after three hours, said, "The entire system has lost its bearings. All the army and security officers know that pragmatically, leaving Gush Katif and northern Shomron is a mortar danger to the residents of southern Israel and the northern coastal areas. With such a danger on its way, you don't wait for the wave to overtake you – because then it will obviously be too late. We have to stop it now. Therefore, when people come just to 'check the area,' they are preparing the expulsion, and we won't let this occur."

    Click here for photos of the clash in Sa-Nur.


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