Pelted by rocks and eggs, hundreds of Israeli police on yesterday dragged extremist Jewish settlers out of two houses they had been occupying for months in the West Bank flashpoint city of Hebron.
The operation came a day after several religious soldiers were jailed for refusing to take part in the forced removal of settlers in the town that has been a source of tension between Israelis and Palestinians for years.
More than 200 police and border guards moved in at dawn to remove two families who, backed by dozens of young ultra-nationalist Jews, had barricaded themselves in the buildings in Hebron's former wholesale market.
PHOTO: AP
The security forces broke down doors as the extremists -- who believe they are carrying out God's work by living in the Palestinian town -- pelted them with rocks, eggs, oil and paint.
"Forces of expulsion, God will punish you," one settler screeched through a loudspeaker from the rooftop of a neighboring building. "You will not be able to break us, we will return!"
Five teenagers were arrested and 27 people were wounded in the four-hour operation to enforce a court evacuation order handed down to the families, who had been squatting in the building for months, police and medics said.
"The building had to be evacuated ... based on a court decision that was made at the beginning of the week," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.
After the squatters were removed, the police moved in to destroy the makeshift apartments created by the settlers in closed market stores, in an attempt to prevent any more families from setting up inside.
The settlers, who claim the houses are Jewish property, said they were unbowed by the action.
"It's a shame we have got to this point," said Noam Arnon, a spokesman for the settlers. "This is Jewish property and we promise to come back."
The Hebron standoff has become a tug of wills between the state which is keen to impose its authority and ultra-nationalist Jews vowing to continue what they consider God's work by living in what they consider part of biblical Israel.
Under an agreement with the Palestinian Authority, Israel evacuated 80 percent of Hebron in 1997, leaving several hundred settlers, protected by soldiers, living around the Tomb of the Patriarchs -- a site holy to both Jews and Muslims.
Hebron is the most populous city in the West Bank, which has been occupied by Israeli for 40 years.
"The essential question is whether or not Israel will remain in Hebron," said Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, a senior figure in the settler movement.
"What is at stake is to know whether an extremist rebellious minority can continue its open rebellion against the rule of law," said Ran Cohen, a lawmaker with the left-wing Meretz party.
Thousands gathered across New Zealand yesterday to celebrate the signing of the country’s founding document and some called for an end to government policies that critics say erode the rights promised to the indigenous Maori population. As the sun rose on the dawn service at Waitangi where the Treaty of Waitangi was first signed between the British Crown and Maori chiefs in 1840, some community leaders called on the government to honor promises made 185 years ago. The call was repeated at peaceful rallies that drew several hundred people later in the day. “This government is attacking tangata whenua [indigenous people] on all
RIGHTS FEARS: A protester said Beijing would use the embassy to catch and send Hong Kongers to China, while a lawmaker said Chinese agents had threatened Britons Hundreds of demonstrators on Saturday protested at a site earmarked for Beijing’s controversial new embassy in London over human rights and security concerns. The new embassy — if approved by the British government — would be the “biggest Chinese embassy in Europe,” one lawmaker said earlier. Protester Iona Boswell, a 40-year-old social worker, said there was “no need for a mega embassy here” and that she believed it would be used to facilitate the “harassment of dissidents.” China has for several years been trying to relocate its embassy, currently in the British capital’s upmarket Marylebone district, to the sprawling historic site in the
The administration of US President Donald Trump has appointed to serve as the top public diplomacy official a former speech writer for Trump with a history of doubts over US foreign policy toward Taiwan and inflammatory comments on women and minorities, at one point saying that "competent white men must be in charge." Darren Beattie has been named the acting undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, a senior US Department of State official said, a role that determines the tone of the US' public messaging in the world. Beattie requires US Senate confirmation to serve on a permanent basis. "Thanks to
‘IMPOSSIBLE’: The authors of the study, which was published in an environment journal, said that the findings appeared grim, but that honesty is necessary for change Holding long-term global warming to 2°C — the fallback target of the Paris climate accord — is now “impossible,” according to a new analysis published by leading scientists. Led by renowned climatologist James Hansen, the paper appears in the journal Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development and concludes that Earth’s climate is more sensitive to rising greenhouse gas emissions than previously thought. Compounding the crisis, Hansen and colleagues argued, is a recent decline in sunlight-blocking aerosol pollution from the shipping industry, which had been mitigating some of the warming. An ambitious climate change scenario outlined by the UN’s climate
RSS