There were confrontations in the Gush Shilo area of Shomron on Tuesday 4 Adar I 5774 as the IDF arrived to uproot Jewish olive trees and confiscate caravan homes. Eight people including three women and infants were among them.
The two caravan homes removed from the area were prepared and waiting to be inhabited next week. 150 olive saplings planted by the community of Eish Kodesh were uprooted by soldiers and agents of the IDF Civil Administration.
Honenu reports that in response to the wave of destruction of homes and groves by security forces in the communities of the Shilo Bloc a group of mothers from the region organized a protest picnic in the wadi which runs through the communities. Although the protest was peaceful the police forcibly detained five of the mothers, three of them with their babies and one of whom is pregnant.
Honenu asks, “When do soldiers and the police ever deal with rock and fire bomb throwers with such force?”
Several children of the detained mothers were left unsupervised.
The incident began on the morning of Tuesday, 4 Adar I 5774 when large numbers of police and border police forces arrived to evacuate caravans which had been brought recently to the community of Yishuv HaDa’at in Gush Shilo. During clashes at the site a women and her baby, two young women and one youth were detained. Also a border policeman drew his gun and aimed it at a resident of the nearby community of Achiya who was walking on the road towards his home.
Clashes continued throughout the day between the police and the border police and the settlers who continued to protest the destruction of houses and groves. In the afternoon hours border police returned to the area and detained another man and three women, two of them with infants approximately a year old. The detained women’s other children were left unsupervised.
During the incidents in Gush Shilo in total eight Jewish residents were detained, among them one youth, one 28-year-old man, four married women, one of whom is in an advanced state of pregnancy and two young single women.
Honenu attorneys Adi Kedar and Rechavia Piltz are representing the detainees.
In another instance of severe contempt for a child’s safety, last Friday, 1 Rosh Chodesh Adar 1 5774 not far from Yishuv HaDa’at the father of a sick baby approximately one year old was taken from his car and detained by police as his baby was left unsupervised in the car.
Police and IDF officials view the events a bit differently, condemning the irresponsible actions of mothers who feel it is appropriate to bring infants and small children to such activities.
Honenu reports that, “Regrettably we are forced to conclude another day in which we handled the cases of many detainees. Despite our vast experience during the 12 years of Honenu’s work we note that today the police conduct with the residents of Gush Shilo crossed many limits: detaining the mothers of very young children only because they were not carrying an ID card, violent detention of young women, and leaving small children unsupervised as their mothers were detained. The selective enforcement of the law has been blatant and there is concern that the changes in the Attorney General’s office have reached the lower echelons faster than we thought they would.”
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem / Photos: Ayelet HaShachar Birulin, Tatzpit, Honenu)
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One Response
reports like this make my blood boil. a Jewish government pitting Jewish police against their brothers, and as we all know, ignoring totally the much more chilling, blatant and deadly actions of the Arab ‘settlers’ in the same neighbourhoods.
I would humbly suggest that each and every news report like this should be tagged with direct email contact information for Bibi Netanyahu, as well as the Knesset Minister(s) who oversee this type of insanity – so that we in the diaspora could weigh in with our views. Clearly they have no clue how it looks to the world, Jew against Jew. If the nations see Jew against Jew, then the nations can feel free to join in whole-heartedly. It’s a heter for anti-Semitism. Mr. Netanyahu, have you lost your marbles? Is the job too stressful? Where is your seichel?