Some 100 residents of Gush Katif demonstrated this morning at the Kisufim junction - the main entrance to the Jewish communities of Gaza - against the construction of a bridge for Jewish traffic there. The residents say that the bridge will be narrow and dangerous, and will render them vulnerable to attacks. Their protest was successful in preventing Electric Company workers from entering the area to lay electric lines for the work - but not before the police forcibly removed many of the protestors from the area; one of them was lightly hurt. \"The bridge has been declared a disaster by safety and security advisors that have seen the plans,\" said one of the protestors.
One protesting resident, Ayala Azran, provided some background for Arutz-7 today:
\"Unfortunately, we woke up a bit late, and one morning we just saw the bridge there, waiting to be placed atop struts... This is a very dangerous road; several of our friends have been murdered here, and others have lost limbs... The plan is that the Arab traffic will go under and the Jewish traffic will go over it. We object to it not only because of its lack of safety, but because we are also giving up land in the process... It will only be 7 meters wide, such that two wide vehicles can\'t pass at once and cars will have to wait at the bottom, vulnerable to Arab shooting. The bridge itself will be a target for carbombs.\" She said that many in the army and government support their cause, \"but the Americans are pushing for the bridge, because the Arabs are pressuring them. The Arabs want it because their traffic is stopped for security reasons when we go by, but the fact is that they caused this situation for themselves by shooting at us, so it\'s their problem... The Electric Co. gave up today, and we hope that they will give up altogether...\"
She said that this bridge should be a danger sign for all of Judea and Samaria: \"It should be clear to everyone that \'Gaza First\' was true not only in 1995 [Gaza was the first place to come under Palestinian Authority control], but afterwards also. In general, whatever happens here is likely to set the example for everywhere else in Yesha. This bridge is therefore everyone\'s battle. We will be holding a major rally here against it on Wednesday afternoon...\"
One protesting resident, Ayala Azran, provided some background for Arutz-7 today:
\"Unfortunately, we woke up a bit late, and one morning we just saw the bridge there, waiting to be placed atop struts... This is a very dangerous road; several of our friends have been murdered here, and others have lost limbs... The plan is that the Arab traffic will go under and the Jewish traffic will go over it. We object to it not only because of its lack of safety, but because we are also giving up land in the process... It will only be 7 meters wide, such that two wide vehicles can\'t pass at once and cars will have to wait at the bottom, vulnerable to Arab shooting. The bridge itself will be a target for carbombs.\" She said that many in the army and government support their cause, \"but the Americans are pushing for the bridge, because the Arabs are pressuring them. The Arabs want it because their traffic is stopped for security reasons when we go by, but the fact is that they caused this situation for themselves by shooting at us, so it\'s their problem... The Electric Co. gave up today, and we hope that they will give up altogether...\"
She said that this bridge should be a danger sign for all of Judea and Samaria: \"It should be clear to everyone that \'Gaza First\' was true not only in 1995 [Gaza was the first place to come under Palestinian Authority control], but afterwards also. In general, whatever happens here is likely to set the example for everywhere else in Yesha. This bridge is therefore everyone\'s battle. We will be holding a major rally here against it on Wednesday afternoon...\"