Stories of police brutality during the Amona destruction/evacuation continue to be revealed, and voices calling for a public inquiry are increasing. Nevertheless, at this morning's Cabinet meeting, the government headed by Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert decided not to accede to the public calls.
The Yesha Council, organizing tonight's rally, has asked the police not to bring horses, in order not bring about additional clashes. Mounted policemen and their horses stomped on and knocked down many youths and adults at Amona, causing many injuries. MK Effie Eitam, who was hospitalized overnight with a head wound, is reported to have been injured by a horse.
Video clips of policemen beating unarmed demonstrators will be shown on giant screens at the rally this evening.
In one televised scene from Amona, IDF Central Commander Maj.-Gen. Yair Naveh was speaking in defense of the police, when a man screamed out, "Why did you [plural] kick boys in the testicles?!" As the camera showed the man being pulled away by two burly policemen, he continued to yell, "Why did you smash them in the stomach? I saw people being smashed in the stomach!"
A shaken-up spokesperson for Amona said from the scene, "People are walking around with blood gushing from their heads... The police abused girls, clubbed people in the head, smashed them in their stomach after they were tied... It's simply a disgrace that this is Israel Police and the body that is supposed to enforce our laws."
Earlier this afternoon, at 4:30, a demonstration against the media coverage of the Amona violence will be held. University students in an organization called "Orange Cell" will protest outside Israel Broadcasting Authority headquarters in the Romema neighborhood of Jerusalem. The group accuses the press of slanting and distorting its coverage of what happened on Wednesday.
"We saw how the media made it appear that the residents and youths were the violent ones in the story," one student said, "while the police were 'just doing their work...' All rules of fair play were broken and the situation reached an absolute low - and yet the press reacts with apathy."
The students call upon the public at large to join them. They will bring an old television set, mock television sets and newspapers, which they will burn to express their shock and outrage at the "television liars."
Public Security Minister Gideon Ezra, who said after the Amona destruction was completed that the police are to be "congratulated" for their work in Amona, has agreed to meet with Yesha Council leaders. They will ask him to agree to a public inquiry into the violence, and to mete out justice to the uniformed thugs. "We hope to thus prevent deaths in the next clash," said a Council leader.
Orit Strook, of the Judea and Samaria Civil Rights Organization, said that almost all the police arrived in Amona without name tags, "which is not coincidental."
Strook's organization, as well as the Honenu Legal Rights Organization, held an open meeting at the Gold Hotel in Jerusalem last night. Strook said that their goals were to collect evidence of police brutality, and to discuss ways to have the violence investigated.
"We will be happy if a public commission is established," she said, "but many of us feel that we can't exactly rely on their findings 100%. For who will sit on the committee? Supreme Court judges, the same ones who rely on the Amona internet site for their rulings, but apparently don't look at the Hamas internet sites..."
"So we would therefore like to investigate the violence ourselves, including the decisions and process that led to this violence. Two or three years ago, we had a series of meetings in the Knesset to determine rules and guidelines for any future outpost evacuations. Very clear rules were drawn up governing how the police should act - but we saw that in the case of Amona, they were not only not fulfilled, they were ignored in advance. For instance, the police force was supposed to number four policemen for each passive protestor, so that they could carry them out peacefully - and instead, as we know, they did the opposite, beating passive protestors without mercy."
Q. "But you can't argue with the pictures showing protestors who threw rocks?"
A. "You also can't argue with the numbers: they didn't bring enough policemen to deal with them passively, which means that their intention from the outset was to use great force... They prepared hardly any policewomen, and they didn't wear name tags, and the like - these are rules that they took upon themselves according to the Knesset regulations, yet they ignored them...
"In the end, though, the policeman who hits in the field is just the last link in the chain, which begins with the people who wear suits and ties and sit in air-conditioned rooms where they make the decisions, and they are the ones who bear the full responsibility."