One participant noted with satisfaction that "no one was arrested today," and even Dr. Shai Gross, who was violently arrested yesterday after he criticized a policeman, was ultimately released "after several MKs were contacted to intervene on his behalf." During the course of the arrest, he police threw Dr. Gross' three teenage daughters to the ground.
The group was detained late yesterday afternoon, however, outside the Israeli-Arab city of Baka El-Garbia for over two hours. The police told the marchers that the Arabs in the area are "very sensitive," and that therefore the marchers should not travel through the city. The marchers refused, saying that the residents of the nearby Shomron communities of Mevo Dotan and Hermesh travel through Baka regularly.
In the end, Mevot Dotan resident Yael Ben-Yaakov called the local IDF commander in the area, and he gave the OK for the group to board a bus and travel through Baka El-Garbiye. As one participant said, "We also had a police escort - which we did not ask for; on the contrary... In the end, we reached Sa-Nur and Homesh, where we gave the residents some encouragement, and were ourselves strengthened as well."
Among the marchers were people from Hevron, south of Jerusalem, as well as from Alonei HaBashan in the Golan; religious and secular residents of the Shomron and elsewhere in Israel; grandmothers, five nursing babies and their mothers, and more.
The group was detained late yesterday afternoon, however, outside the Israeli-Arab city of Baka El-Garbia for over two hours. The police told the marchers that the Arabs in the area are "very sensitive," and that therefore the marchers should not travel through the city. The marchers refused, saying that the residents of the nearby Shomron communities of Mevo Dotan and Hermesh travel through Baka regularly.
In the end, Mevot Dotan resident Yael Ben-Yaakov called the local IDF commander in the area, and he gave the OK for the group to board a bus and travel through Baka El-Garbiye. As one participant said, "We also had a police escort - which we did not ask for; on the contrary... In the end, we reached Sa-Nur and Homesh, where we gave the residents some encouragement, and were ourselves strengthened as well."
Among the marchers were people from Hevron, south of Jerusalem, as well as from Alonei HaBashan in the Golan; religious and secular residents of the Shomron and elsewhere in Israel; grandmothers, five nursing babies and their mothers, and more.