Dozens of Jews spent the Sabbath, for the seventh week in a row, at the site of the former Shomron community of Homesh. The police made three attempts to mar the Sabbath joy, however: They arrested a family Friday morning, removed several more pioneers late Friday afternoon, and made a general attempt to evacuate the site a half-hour after the Sabbath ended on Saturday night.
On Friday morning, a family - husband, wife and three children - was arrested in Homesh, where they have been living for several weeks. The father received a police order barring him from the site for 15 days.
Later in the day, after dozens of people arrived at the site and were making last-minute Sabbath preparations - such as setting up tents to sleep, eating areas, and the like - Border Guard police swooped down and began rounding up the pioneers. Many people ran off to the nearby mountains, in accordance with what has become usual procedure, and only seven people were caught and removed by force.
On Saturday night, security forces surprised them again and began forcibly removing them. Some were taken to the police station in Ariel; at least one person was still detained as of Sunday morning.
"Their goal is clear to us, but ours is equally clear," a Homesh First official told Arutz-7. "They want to put an end to Jewish presence in Homesh, but we will not allow it. We are more stubborn, and even those who were taken down say they will return."
Sunday morning, several youths were at the site, studying in the makeshift yeshiva there.
Homesh First officials decry the army's priorities in pursuing the would-be Homesh settlers and not the Arabs. "It took them until just recently," they say, "to seal up five routes used for many years by the Arabs for terrorist and criminal activity."
Court to Rule on Outposts
Tensions are mounting throughout the Judea and Samaria settlement enterprise, as the Supreme Court is scheduled to hand down its long-delayed decision regarding the community of Migron. The ruling is to deal with a petition filed by Peace Now and local Arabs, claiming that a third of Migron - a north-of-Jerusalem outpost community between Adam and Beit El - was built on privately-owned Arab land.
Though the Yesha Council is apparently prepared to agree to a compromise by which Migron would be moved to nearby Shaar Binyamin, the ruling is expected to demand the removal of many other outpost communities throughout Judea and Samaria. With the residents and their supporters adamantly opposed to any change in the outposts' status, particularly in light of the expulsion from Gush Katif and the destruction and violence in Amona, the police and army fear that any attempted evacuation will result in even stronger violence.
The latest word, however, is that Yesha officials expect the Supreme Court to once again postpone its Migron ruling.