IDF evacuates last activists from former settlement of Homesh - Haaretz

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Sun., January 13, 2008 Shvat 6, 5768

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		Settler activists marching to the former West Bank settlement of Homesh on Tuesday, as a Border Policeman secures the area. (Erez Cohen / BauBau)

Last update - 12:02 25/04/2007

IDF evacuates last activists from former settlement of Homesh

By Amos Harel and Nadav Shragai, Haaretz Correspondents

The Israel Defense Forces issued a statement Wednesday saying that Border Police troops had evacuated all the activists who had remained in the former northern West Bank settlement of Homesh following a protest march Tuesday.

Some one hundred demonstrators were forced to spend Tuesday night at the site after the IDF prevented the arrival of the buses the settlers had called.

According to Homesh First, which planned the march, "Defense Minister Peretz is pouting because people managed to reach Homesh despite the ban, and because this is the case, some of the participants will stay here for the time being."

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Thousands of settlers and right-wing activists streamed to the ruins of Homesh on Tuesday, despite a ban by the defense minister and the IDF chief of staff. It was the second such march in the past several weeks.

The IDF tried to set up road-blocks to stop the march, but there were limited troops in the area, and they could only prevent vehicles from reaching the site.

Homesh was evacuated during the withdrawal from Gaza and three other West Bank settlements almost two years ago.

The army estimated the number of marchers at between 2,000 and 3,000.

The event was organized by an organization calling itself "Homesh First," consisting of a number of right-wing extra-parliamentary groups. The organizers, who estimated the number of participants at 15,000, said the purpose of the march was to "correct the mistakes of the evacuation and destruction of settlements."

The march was led by a Nobel Prize winner, Professor Robert (Yisrael) Aumann, who said the demonstration was "a necessary turning point for the country." He said the march will "express our ambition to be a free people in our own country."

Former chief rabbi Avraham Shapiro blessed the marchers, and the Committee of Yesha Rabbis called on people to participate in the march, which they said was the real way to celebrate Independence Day.

The Likud movement sent 200 representatives to the demonstration in four buses. Most of the marchers started out from the settlement of Shavei Shomron, south of Homesh. They detoured the army road-block set up to prevent vehicles from passing and walked for three hours to reach Homesh. In general, the soldiers did not attempt to oppose them.

According to the IDF spokesman, settlers struck soldiers who tried to block their way. Two soldiers were slightly injured and treated at a nearby military clinic, and one settler was arrested.

Police also arrested three demonstrators who lay down on the road near Homesh to disrupt movement by IDF vehicles. The tires of one IDF vehicle were punctured, and profanities were hurled at soldiers and officers throughout the day.

The organizers said there had been no clashes, and one female demonstrator had been injured in the leg when she was hit by a military vehicle. Three battalions had been allocated to the task of blocking the way to the former settlement, along with police and Border Police forces.

Most of the time the soldiers and police were involved in providing security to the marchers to prevent them reaching Homesh via Arab villages, after giving up on the attempt to stop them. Military sources conceded Tuesday that the chances were nil of stopping so many marchers without suitable numbers of troops.

At the site, Limor Sohn Har-Melech, a former Homesh resident who lost her first husband in a terror attack some years ago, addressed the demonstrators.

GOC Central Command Yair Naveh had objected to the attempt to stop the marchers, however, his position was rejected last week, and Peretz and Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi ordered the army to stop the march.

Hundreds of right-wing activists who marched to Homesh at the end of March were removed from the site by security forces two days later

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1.	Peaceful Hamas Attack	02:39	\|	Mark Katzman	25/04/07

2.	Number of Marchers	04:05	\|	Rabbi Yakov Lazaros	25/04/07

3.	Solidarity	04:38	\|	Johnny Weintraub	25/04/07

4.	Wasted efforts	05:29	\|	* BEN JABO	25/04/07

5.	Kol Ha`kavod	05:52	\|	Aaron	25/04/07

6.	Protestor hospitalized after being run over	05:57	\|	Ilan	25/04/07

7.	Jonny Weintraub and his arm chair support	06:27	\|	SJ	25/04/07

8.	I join #3 in expressing solidarity with true Jewish pioneers	06:47	\|	Leo	25/04/07

9.	The Jews of Yehuda and Shomrom show the rest of us	07:13	\|	Leo	25/04/07

10.	Homesh And Gush Katif Will Rise Again	07:29	\|	Ben Israel	25/04/07

11.	For Johnny Weintraub # 3	09:08	\|	Clickfool	25/04/07

12.	Question for Leo, another man expressing "solidarity" # 8	09:11	\|	Clickfool	25/04/07

13.	A THIEF FOREVER	09:13	\|	indrajaya	25/04/07

14.	Treat them as we do the Left protesters	09:25	\|	David Teich	25/04/07

15.	Question for Ben Israel # 10	09:30	\|	Clickfool	25/04/07

16.	thanks for updating yesterday`s shoddy reporting	10:03	\|	Naty	25/04/07

17.	David Teich	10:06	\|	Rav King	25/04/07

18.	#2 the socalled reb lazaros on who to believe	11:26	\|	Ari ben Yisrael	25/04/07

19.	#6 Ilan why LIE	11:36	\|	Ari ben Yisrael	25/04/07

20.	Haaretz reports	11:47	\|	Lori	25/04/07

21.	Clickfool	11:51	\|	Leo	25/04/07

22.	Solidarity?	11:55	\|	Nadav	25/04/07

23.	To the fool at #15...	12:02	\|	Leo	25/04/07

24.	boundaries clickfool	12:07	\|	surveyor	25/04/07

25.	surveyor - remember that "ethnic cleansing"	12:21	\|	spyguy	25/04/07

26.	Nadav according to democracy, Sharon was first	12:40	\|	Leo	25/04/07

27.	17: What`s wrong with you "rav"? They`re not defending	16:06	\|	David Teich	25/04/07

28.	26: Leo`s wrong and anonymous -- two strikes	16:09	\|	David Teich	25/04/07

29.	No 2 Rabbi Lazaros	16:15	\|	Mary S	25/04/07

30.	Evacuation is rather a strong word as was soldiers wounded	16:26	\|	Mary S Ashkelon	25/04/07

31.	#25 Spyguy - you really ought to keep	17:59	\|	* BEN JABO	25/04/07

32.	There is no greater blessing than reclaiming our land.	08:55	\|	Chaim	13/01/08

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