Fifteen people were injured and eight arrested in clashes between security forces and settlers in the West Bank settlement of Havat Gilad, sources from the settlement said Monday. They added that the officers knocked MK Michael Ben-Ari to the ground during the clashes. At a Knesset debate later, MKs called for an official probe of the incident.
Civil Authority forces arrived at the settlement at 4:30 am, accompanied by police, in order to destroy illegal structures. Settlers threw stones, and police special forces proceeded to bombard them with rubber bullets and smoke grenades, the locals reported.
Finally, forces succeeded in taking down a tent and destroying foundations for a home, as well as a shack and the gate to the settlement.
Five settlers were arrested in the tent, on suspicion they were concealing weapons on their persons. Another man was arrested on suspicion of throwing stones, and two more were detained for allegedly cutting down olive trees belonging to Palestinians.
Yehuda Cohen, 22, who resides in the settlement, says a plastic bullet hit him in the back. “At 4:30 we were awakened by cries of an evacuation. I stepped out of the door and saw that the farm was surrounded by officers and special forces. A few of us came round from the side, but they shined lights in our eyes and said, ‘You better start running’,” he recounted.
“We wanted to run, but then they started firing rubber bullets at us. I was hurt in the back and fell immediately. They fired dozens of shots. Then one of the officers yelled that he would ‘rip apart’ anyone who dared raise his head. There are a lot of guys here who were hurt from zero range. One of the residents, who is also a lawyer, attempted to film but took a bullet to the leg from two meters range.”
Another right-wing activist complained of violence as well, describing some of the officers who arrived on the scene as “combative”.
“The moment they came in they started firing into the air and using gas that apparently wasn’t tear gas, but may have contained pepper spray. The special forces’ guys were masked, and they fired stun grenades and rubber and plastic bullets at anyone who came out of his house, not just those who showed resistance,” he said.
“They didn’t hesitate to use violence. There were boys, children, and even a 75-year old woman among the injured.”
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(Source: Ynet)
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3 Responses
There is no mitzva in building in the West Bank. And building these tiny settlements does nothing to help Israels security. What these people are doing is such a chillul Hashem on so many levels, it’s appalling. They have taken Yiddishkeit and replaced it with extreme Zionism.
Thank the “gibor” Barak for this!!! He sends his blackshirts to come in the middle of the night like the KGB to attack GOOD Jews who are trying to build the country, and destroy what they build.
The same brave Barak who allows Hamas to launch missiles and mortars shells against civilians in the south, and responds (if at all) with a slap on the wrist!!!
Don’t forget to thank Netanyahu as well – since he is the one who appointed him defense minister!
Yserbius…
Everything you said is correct,
except for the words!!!
These “settlements” do EVERYTHING to help security!
If not for these “settlements” we would still have, in effect the “Aushwitz borders” of pre-’67 where Israel was only 10 miles wide in the center of the country!
Where in the world is there “chilul HaSh-m”?!?!
The vast majority of the people living in the “settlements” are TRUE ma’aminim, shomrei Torah u’mitzvot, living and building in the very heartland of Eretz Yisrael.
The only thing that is “appalling” is that there are Jews today who have still not learned the lesson of “Lech Lecha’, or what HaSh-m meant when He said to Am Yisrael “ve’yishavtem BAH”!!!
I’m pretty sure the “bah” was NOT referring to Brooklyn.
B.T.W. – ALL of Israel is on the “West Bank” (of the Jordan) so do you advocate not settling ALL of Eretz Yisrael?!? – or just “non-Jewish” places like Bet E-l, Hevron, the “Old City”/Kotel, etc. which were liberated in ’67?!?!