Jewish Settlers plan defiant return to West Bank
Pastor Dale Morgan
Jewish Settlers plan defiant return to West Bank
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Joshua Mitnick in Carmei Tsur, West Bank, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 2:32am BST 25/03/2007
A group of deeply religious Jewish settlers is planning to take
advantage of the Israeli prime minister's political weakness by retaking
the abandoned West Bank town of Homesh.
West Bank town of Homesh
Homesh was one of 23 jewish settlements in the northern West Bank and
Gaza cleared out by former PM Ariel Sharon
Leaders of the Homesh First group have toured settlements on the West
Bank to drum up support, handing out maps of the approach routes to
their destroyed hilltop town and manuals instructing thousands of
followers on how to thwart soldiers and police who are preparing to
block them.
The group is hoping to benefit from the growing pressure on prime
minister Ehud Olmert to resign over his handling of last year's war
against Hezbollah. Mr Olmert has been further handicapped by a series of
corruption scandals allegedly involving himself and other cabinet
ministers. "The government is weak and it won't want clashes," said
Rabbi Motti Ganeram, a Homesh evacuee.
Homesh was one of 23 settlements in the northern West Bank and Gaza
cleared out by former prime minister Ariel Sharon in his unprecedented
disengagement from Palestinian territories.
Homesh evacuees and other settlers are expected to launch the first
attempt to re-establish an evacuated settlement tomorrow. They plan to
take with them tents and electric generators and to spend two days
camped out amid the rubble.
"The sages said when you destroy settlements and hand them over to the
enemy, everything crumbles," said Rabbi Shimon Ben Tsiyon, one of the
group's leaders. "The only way to revive the Jewish people and revive
the happiness is to return to our land." Israel's army has warned it
will use any means necessary to block the activists, but the group's
leaders have urged followers to hike through the hills to get around
roadblocks. They have also told them to treat police or soldiers who use
violence against them as criminals and to use self-defence to resist.
In a meeting in the West Bank settlement of Carmei Tsur, Rabbi Ganeram
called for help to reclaim his former home. "For a year and a half I
wandered around in mourning. Now that a movement has started to move
back, there's a feeling that it has not all been for nothing," he said.
After Mr Sharon succeeded in removing some 9,000 settlers from the Gaza
Strip and the West Bank in August 2005 with minimal resistance or
casualties, Israel's religious settler movement was left in a state of
spiritual and ideological crisis.
The activists will rely on supporters who resisted soldiers during the
Gaza disengagement and the more violent evacuation of the Amona outpost
a year ago, a clash that left dozens of troops, police and protesters
injured. They may also be helped by the support of schoolchildren who
are currently on holiday.
"We're not afraid of getting hit," said Mordecai, a veteran of previous
protests who would not give his full name. "If the army sets up
obstacles we'll go around them."
The 19-year-old religious seminary student, a resident of Carmei Tsur,
said the "wickedness" of the disengagement had left many in the
community in a state of shock.
Retaking Homesh is just one of a series of increasingly brazen
initiatives by hardcore settlers bent on revitalising like-minded
ideologues who believe they have a Biblical right to the ancient land of
Israel. Last week, a group of settlers took over a Palestinian-built
apartment block in the West Bank flashpoint town of Hebron, claiming
they had purchased the building legally. Other groups say they are
planning to establish several new settlements late next month.
Opponents of the plans urged the army to stand firm. "The army shouldn't
take any risk by allowing them to go back there and then having to
evacuate them," said Yair Oppenheimer, a spokesman for the Peace Now
group. "In the past, some settlements were started as a protest."
The settlers argue that re-establishing the West Bank communities will
lift the spirits of a country that has lost confidence in its government
and military.
"It's unbelievable what a monster the government has become," said Boaz
Ha'etzni, one of the organisers of Homesh First.