In addition to the current life-and-death struggle for Gush Katif, residents of other areas in Yesha (Judea, Samaria and Gaza) continue to have to fight for their rights as well. Maon, Yitzhar, and Kiryat Arba are the sites of the latest clashes:
* Hundreds of people are waiting this morning in Mitzpeh Yitzhar, an outpost near Shechem (Nablus) in central Samaria, for security forces to try to uproot it. Many of them arrived over night, after word came of an impending attempt to uproot it, and placed physical obstacles on the approach roads to the outpost.
* The agreement between the IDF and Kiryat Arba-Hevron residents regarding the Hazon David synagogue seems to have collapsed. The army informed the residents last Friday, after several violent rounds of destroying-and-rebuilding the synagogue there, that it would no longer interfere. The synagogue, located between Kiryat Arba and Hevron, is considered an "unauthorized outpost" and is on the list of those to be demolished. The army stated that it would allow the residents to re-erect the synagogue - on condition that there be no "substantial changes in the area's infrastructure." Someone apparently decided that this condition had been violated, and army bulldozers came in last night and destroyed the structure - as well as the Holy Ark. Afterwards, hundreds of people came to the site and prayed the morning Shacharit prayer.
* In the Maon Farm, south of Hevron, non-uniformed policemen arrived at the home of a certain resident, and threatened to "close accounts with him." The police suspect the resident of having thrown rocks during a recent outpost demolition, while the resident denies the charges. In any event, wrote Atty. Baruch Ben-Yosef to Hevron District Police Commander Ali Zamir, "there are other ways to summon a resident for questioning other than hanging around like gangsters who threaten citizens... If this person is harmed by the policemen, we will hold you personally responsible because of your failure to restrain violent policemen under your command who act against the law." Policemen recently carried out a partial demolition of the Maon Farm.
* The prison sentences of Hevron residents Yitzchak Pass and Mati Shvo were increased yesterday from 15 months to 24. The two were convicted last year of illegal possession of eight dynamite bricks, but the State appealed what it called the "leniency" of the sentence. The defense claimed that no ideological motive had been proven. Supreme Court justices Dorit Beinish, Eliezer Rivlin and Salim Jubran accepted the State's appeal in part - out of a general desire to show greater strictness in violent crimes, according to defense lawyer Ya'ir Golan.
* Hundreds of people are waiting this morning in Mitzpeh Yitzhar, an outpost near Shechem (Nablus) in central Samaria, for security forces to try to uproot it. Many of them arrived over night, after word came of an impending attempt to uproot it, and placed physical obstacles on the approach roads to the outpost.
* The agreement between the IDF and Kiryat Arba-Hevron residents regarding the Hazon David synagogue seems to have collapsed. The army informed the residents last Friday, after several violent rounds of destroying-and-rebuilding the synagogue there, that it would no longer interfere. The synagogue, located between Kiryat Arba and Hevron, is considered an "unauthorized outpost" and is on the list of those to be demolished. The army stated that it would allow the residents to re-erect the synagogue - on condition that there be no "substantial changes in the area's infrastructure." Someone apparently decided that this condition had been violated, and army bulldozers came in last night and destroyed the structure - as well as the Holy Ark. Afterwards, hundreds of people came to the site and prayed the morning Shacharit prayer.
* In the Maon Farm, south of Hevron, non-uniformed policemen arrived at the home of a certain resident, and threatened to "close accounts with him." The police suspect the resident of having thrown rocks during a recent outpost demolition, while the resident denies the charges. In any event, wrote Atty. Baruch Ben-Yosef to Hevron District Police Commander Ali Zamir, "there are other ways to summon a resident for questioning other than hanging around like gangsters who threaten citizens... If this person is harmed by the policemen, we will hold you personally responsible because of your failure to restrain violent policemen under your command who act against the law." Policemen recently carried out a partial demolition of the Maon Farm.
* The prison sentences of Hevron residents Yitzchak Pass and Mati Shvo were increased yesterday from 15 months to 24. The two were convicted last year of illegal possession of eight dynamite bricks, but the State appealed what it called the "leniency" of the sentence. The defense claimed that no ideological motive had been proven. Supreme Court justices Dorit Beinish, Eliezer Rivlin and Salim Jubran accepted the State's appeal in part - out of a general desire to show greater strictness in violent crimes, according to defense lawyer Ya'ir Golan.