1st forced evictions sweep across Gaza

1st forced evictions sweep across Gaza
Israeli troops persuade some, drag others from homes

By Joel Greenberg and Christine Spolar, Tribune foreign correspondents. Joel Greenberg reported from Neve Dekalim, with Christine Spolar in Gaza City; Rafael D. Frankel in Neve Dekalim and Sharon Pazn

Published August 18, 2005

NEVE DEKALIM, Gaza Strip -- With speed and patience, Israeli army and police Wednesday persuaded hundreds of Jewish settlers to give up the fight to stay in Gaza and dragged away scores more from homes and even synagogues when they refused to obey the law.
By daybreak, troops fanned out across six of 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip, all planned for extinction. By nightfall, all but one were empty, army officials said. About 14,000 troops were involved in the operation to end a 38-year occupation of the Gaza Strip.
As the evacuation unfolded, teenage boys sought refuge from the authorities by climbing atop the red-tile roofs of targeted homes. Middle-age men in white prayer shawls prayed non-stop and forced the troops to haul them away. Women wailed, and young men ripped their shirts, a traditional sign of mourning. Some settlers wore Stars of David on their T-shirts, hearkening back to Nazi-era humiliation, to protest the military's actions.
"You should be ashamed of yourselves," one settler shouted at the soldiers. "What will you tell your children?"
There were confrontations and bitter denouncements, but Israeli forces, trained for months for the sensitive duty, proceeded at a pace and manner that prevented any serious incident. A female soldier was slightly injured when she was stabbed with a needle during a confrontation at the settlement of Morag.
In the West Bank, meanwhile, a Jewish taxi driver shot and killed four Palestinians who worked at an aluminum factory in the settlement of Shiloh.
The man, a longtime driver in the area, shot to death two Palestinians he drove to work and then entered the factory, shooting randomly and killing two more men. The suspect, identified as Asher Weisgan, 40, was taken into custody.
It was the second attack in two weeks by an Israeli Jew in relation to the withdrawal. The radical Islamic group Hamas threatened to respond Wednesday night, but spokesman Mushir al-Masri added that Hamas also wanted to see the Gaza pullout proceed.
Maj. Gen. Dan Harel of the Israeli army's southern command indicated in a news briefing that the Gaza mission was difficult for everyone, but he praised, in particular, Palestinian security cooperation.
"There was great coordination all day long," Harel said. Thousands of Palestinian troops are working with the army to safeguard the settlers from attacks.
The six settlements targeted Wednesday were Morag, Neve Dekalim, Bedolah, Ganei Tal, Tel Katifa and Kerem Atzmona. All but Neve Dekalim, the largest settlement approached Wednesday, were emptied, military officials and witnesses said. The speed of the pullout appeared faster than expected; those who remained were described as infiltrators who had vowed to resist.
According to army statistics, 1,736 civilians were evacuated Wednesday. Authorities estimated that 675--about half the number who were there in the morning--remained in Neve Dekalim when soldiers stopped evictions about 8:30 p.m.
Three other settlements in northern Gaza--Dugit, Elei Sinai and Nissanit--were largely empty of residents, army officials said.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who has made repeated appeals for a peaceful pullout, called the West Bank shooting an "act of Jewish terror" aimed at "innocent Palestinians in the warped desire to . . . stop the disengagement plan."
Earlier in the day, Sharon conveyed empathy for those who disagreed with his decision to abandon Gaza for security reasons but still obeyed. The evacuation, broadcast from all the settlements throughout the day, was "impossible to watch . . . and that includes myself, without tears in the eyes," Sharon said at a news conference.
But Sharon, who long encouraged settlers to move into Gaza, said he hoped those who had to leave their homes would show restraint.
"I'm appealing to everyone. Don't attack the men and women in uniform. Don't accuse them. Don't make it harder for them, don't harm them. Attack me. I am responsible for this. Attack me. Accuse me," Sharon said.
The Gaza withdrawal had been expected to take weeks. Late Wednesday, army officials shied away from setting a new deadline but they said that settlements could be emptied of Israeli citizens within days.
Neve Dekalim is a case in point. Authorities had expected to spend days there. But army officials said Wednesday night they expected the settlement would be cleared within 24 hours.
The day started emotionally at Neve Dekalim, the largest settlement targeted Wednesday, with 2,600 people. At 10 a.m. the faithful still were praying for a miracle, hours after the order to leave went into effect and soldiers arrived to begin the eviction.
By midday, army officials said 158 houses had been emptied in an initial sweep. Then troops began door-to-door house calls.
The police and soldiers lined up only to be met by settlers, some in tears, who pleaded with them to disobey orders. Sometimes the settlers derided them.
Some soldiers wiped away their own tears during the confrontations. There were no reported cases of insubordination among the ranks or refusal to carry out orders.
Acts of defiance and sorrow played out in almost all the settlements.
Many of the protesters were young and resorted to wails of distress as they were dragged to the buses. "I want to die," screamed one boy as he was lifted away.
One young man, even as he was pushed onto a bus, couldn't resist taunting the soldiers. "You will live with this the rest of your life," he screamed, waving two orange ribbons from the bus window. Settlers had chosen the color orange as sign of resistance.
At Kfar Darom, a settlement due to be evacuated in the next few days, several settlers pushed large cinder blocks off a bridge and tried to burn down a nearby Arab-owned house, The Associated Press reported. Palestinians threw stones at the settlers until Israeli troops arrived, doused the fire and pushed the Israelis back into the settlement.
In a shocking act of protest over the pullout, a 54-year-old woman from the West Bank set herself afire at a police roadblock in southern Israel. She suffered life-threatening burns over 70 percent of her body, police and hospital officials said.
Soldiers and police, wearing black baseball caps and vests, tried time and again to persuade homeowners in Neve Dekalim to leave, offering to help them onto buses or drive them away in cars. When that didn't work, the troops continued their mission with restraint but muscle.
In one case, soldiers broke into a home to drag out, one by one, an extended family of 25. Some were carried out struggling and screaming into the hot sun and loaded onto buses.
The main synagogue was packed throughout the day as youths gathered to sing and pray. Others resisted in the street by turning over trash bins and burning garbage in a futile attempt to block the police.
After hours of dissent, hundreds of students at the main yeshiva in Neve Dekalim finally came to an agreement with the army. The students and soldiers gathered in a circle and put their arms around one another. Then the students boarded the bus and left Gaza behind.

©2005 The Chicago Tribune