Israeli Troops Persuade, and Force, Settlers to Quit Gaza
Sign In to E-Mail This
Printer-Friendly
Single-Page
Reprints
By STEVEN ERLANGER and DINA KRAFT
Published: August 17, 2005
NEVE DEKALIM, Gaza Strip, Aug. 17 - Israeli soldiers moved into this Jewish settlement in larger numbers this morning, persuaded some reluctant residents to leave their homes voluntarily, and forced out others.
Skip to next paragraph
Enlarge This Image
Oleg Popov/Reuters
A Jewish settler being forcibly removed by Israeli troops today at the settlement of Neve Dekalim. More Photos >
Forced Eviction
Palestinians Prepare to Rejoice
Forum: The Middle East
Enlarge This Image
Thomas Coex/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
At Neve Dekalim, a young woman who refused to leave her home was carried out by female soldiers. More Photos >
Some were even carried out from synagogues still wrapped in their white prayer shawls, and men ripped their shirts in a Jewish mourning ritual.
But there were no signs of serious violence, and it seemed that many residents were coming to terms with the pullout..
Some 14,000 troops entered five Jewish settlements: Neve Dekalim, Morag, Bedolah, Ganei Tal and Tel Katifa. Security officials said the goal was to clear out the 21 Gaza settlements in just a few days, more quickly than originally planned.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called the scenes "heartbreaking" and praised the restraint of both settlers and soldiers, The Associated Press reported.
"It's impossible to watch this, and that includes myself, without tears in the eyes," he said. "My heart is broken when I see these things."
Mr. Sharon appealed to opponents of the pullout to avoid physical and verbal confrontation with the security forces. "Attack me, I am responsible for this, attack me, accuse me, don't attack the men and women in uniform," he said.
The soldiers moved into Neve Dakalim in columns in the hours before dawn, their stated motive to help residents pack up, in the face of opposition from outside demonstrators. The soldiers' movement also represented a classic military infiltration, hours before they were to carry out orders to remove the settlers if necessary.
At 6:30 a.m. Neve Dekalim was asleep as convoys headed toward the settlements.
Shortly after 8, about 100 border police officers entered behind bulldozers. They wore new blue caps with the flag of Israel and over their uniforms displayed new vests with a menorah, both meant to symbolize that they represent the people of Israel while carrying out the policy of the government, and not the army or the police.
At the gates of this settlement, which were taken out the day before by the soldiers, a small line of cars and minivans full of residents waited to leave. In one white van, a young woman in a knitted cap with four children in a car stuffed with luggage sat, the window down, her eyes red and teary. Asked if she was all right, she nodded weakly and said: "I can't do this anymore. I can't do this to my children."
On Tuesday, settlers and sympathizers threw stones and eggs at soldiers and police officers here in an emotionally searing confrontation over the government's order to vacate this and other Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, which Israel captured 38 years ago.
At least 48 demonstrators were arrested in the clashes on Tuesday as officers poured into Neve Dekalim and tried to ensure that moving vans could enter.
The senior Israeli Army commander in Gaza, Maj. Gen. Dan Harel, said his troops would be concentrated here, in the largest settlement in Gaza, which has been the focus of resistance to the decision to pull out of all 21 settlements in Gaza and 4 small ones in the West Bank.
Since Monday it has been illegal for Israeli civilians to be here, and Tuesday was the last day they could leave on their own, with belongings.
Officials say half of Gaza's 9,000 settlers have already left, and General Harel promised that those who agreed to leave by midnight Tuesday would be permitted to return to pack. Those who wait and are taken by force will receive less government compensation for the move.
Many of the smaller settlements, especially in the north, are already empty, or nearly so.
Neve Dekalim has become a focus for the religious and generational dissent to the pullout order, which Mr. Sharon says is necessary for Israel's future security.
A high-ranking police officer said the intention was to present the settlers with overwhelming force, even if the officers are unarmed, in order to make serious resistance seem impossible. In preparation, many demonstrators here have taken refuge in the synagogue.
By Tuesday morning, the army had detained nearly 1,000 Israelis who tried to enter the closed military zone of Gaza. As the police tried to enforce the law, the protesters, many of them young, devout and living in settlements on the West Bank, feared that the evacuation was about to begin and confronted the officers. The most serious incidents occurred when a young man threw a caustic liquid, probably ammonia, into the eyes of a police cameraman, and another tossed urine on a police officer and paint on a senior commander.
Skip to next paragraph
Forced Eviction
Palestinians Prepare to Rejoice
Forum: The Middle East
Two officers and two civilians were injured. Those arrested were taken out of Gaza to face a court in Beersheba, where many were released on bail.
But the confrontation appeared to steel the will of the authorities to put an end to the emotional and oratorical drama here, which is inevitably taking a toll on young soldiers in Israel's draft army and even on professional police officers.
Protesters constantly engage officers in taunting conversations about their willingness "to expel Jews" and to "act like Nazis," then urge them to disobey their orders.
One young soldier, guarding a bus against protesters who tried to slash the tires of official vehicles, said she found the conflict draining. "It's not what I trained for," said the woman, 19, who would identify herself only as Anit. "This is hard on all of us. They're full of passion."
Later, soldiers moved into the settlement to knock on doors, to reassure settlers who wanted to move, and who were prevented from doing so by protesters, that they would be regarded differently from those who refused to move, and their belongings would receive special attention.
Soldiers have been training for weeks for this operation, practicing on each other the forced removal of angry civilians. The exit from Gaza will take weeks, with the last soldiers due to leave in early October.
The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has stationed troops near the settlements and called on the 1.3 million Palestinians of the Gaza Strip to refrain from violence. Hamas and other militant groups, jostling for credit for having pushed the Israelis out, have said they would not disrupt the withdrawal "as long as there is no aggression."
Aharon Franco, the deputy Israeli police commander, said in an interview that two-thirds of the settlers here had moved or wanted to do so before they were forced out, and that it was the obligation of the police to enable them to do so.
"Apart from the wonderful local residents, there are thousands of youngsters here from all over the country, and they're wandering around with nothing much to do," he said. "And every vehicle that comes along - they've got spikes and they stick them in the tires."
Elsewhere in Gaza, smaller settlements were quieter, with some essentially empty as of Tuesday. In Bedolah, Rabbi Matti Elon arrived from Jerusalem to offer the remaining families solace. David Zigdon, 35, was moving and helping his parents, Yossi and Einav Zigdon, to move. They have been here 26 years. "I remember when there was nothing here but sand," Mr. Zigdon said. "I'm very angry and very empty."
The family grows vegetables, and new cardboard boxes were stacked against a wall, reading, in English, French and German: "Sweet Pepper. Produce of Israel. Class I."
At the back the family was burning its old Volvo, the black acrid smoke rising into the humid sky, setting a tree on fire. "We don't want the Arabs to have it," Mr. Zigdon said.
Then the gas tank exploded, like a mortar.
Other possessions were thrown on the fire, and some neighbors tried to burn their houses, which the Israeli Army will bulldoze in any event by mutual agreement with the Palestinian Authority, which says the single-family houses do not suit the needs of their people. After the Israelis withdraw fully, the Palestinians will have control of the settlements.
The Zigdon family had spray-painted a letter on an inside wall of their house. It was addressed to the Israeli Army and the police: "Here we sat, ate, laughed and cried. Soldiers and policemen, our house is your home, like your mother's, the smells of the food and the songs of the Sabbath, which the State of Israel is taking away from us, with our memories and those of hundreds of friends whom we hosted here. We are leaving with our heads down. The crown has fallen from our heads. We the Zigdon family want to be remembered and not forgotten."
The letter ended, "With our condolences to the people of Israel, the Zigdon family."
|
