More than 100,000 settlers and their backers protested plans by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, once their greatest champion, to evacuate settlements in a peace agreement with the Palestinians.
But during the demonstration in Tel Aviv on Sunday night, Sharon was 120km away in Jerusalem, telling foreign reporters that in a peace deal, Israel would not be able to retain all of its settlements.
Sharon also said Israel would be "very glad" to restart peace talks with Syria, if Syria first stops support for radical Palestinian and Lebanese groups and agrees to start the talks over from scratch.
PHOTO: AFP
This followed confirmation from Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom that secret contacts had taken place between Israel and Syria, but they were broken off when news of the talks was leaked in Israel. Syria denied that there were secret contacts.
The pro-settlement demonstration was advanced to Sunday night by organizers who feared bad weather on the original date, a day later.
The demonstrators filled the square in front of the Tel Aviv municipality and surrounding streets to listen to ministers from Sharon's own Cabinet heap criticism on his newfound moderate views. Some threatened to leave the ruling coalition of he carries them out.
Housing Minister Effi Eitam of the pro-settler National Religious Party accused the prime minister of weakness.
"In the battlefield there is no disengagement plan, you know that would be running away," he said.
"We won't dismantle settlements and we won't expel Jews," Eitam said to the cheers of the crowd. "We will not be a party to dismantling settlements."
Tel Aviv police chief Yossi Sedbon said police estimates put the crowd at 120,000 people.
The settlers and their supporters believe in their God-given right to live wherever they want within the biblical Land of Israel, which includes the West Bank. However, Palestinians say the settlements are an encroachment on land they claim for a future state.
"All of Zionism is based on the belief that we have a right to this land," said Likud lawmaker and parliamentary speaker Reuven Rivlin.
"I came to demonstrate for the land of Israel. I am against the dismantling of settlements, I am against the disengagement plan and I will vote against it in the Knesset [parliament]," Rivlin said.
Protester Micha Cohen, 35, said he had come to the demonstration with his two small children "because for us the struggle is for their future ... we see settlements as important places that should not be evacuated."
Many of the protesters were teenagers and high school children bused in by their schools and youth movements.
"Sharon can't ignore such a big group of people," said settler leader Pinchas Wallerstein.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique