Israeli SWAT teams storm synagogue in isolated Jewish settlement

Israeli SWAT teams storm synagogue in isolated Jewish settlement

By Rafael D. Frankel

KFAR DAROM, Gaza—Police SWAT teams were doused with acid and a barrage of paint, sand, oil, garbage, and water melon rinds as they stormed the central Synagogue here Thursday to remove protestors who had barricaded themselves on the roof.

At least five policemen from Israel’s elite Yasaam unit had acid dumped on them as they tried to climb to the roof from a second-story balcony and were led out of the synagogue by fellow police wearing only underwear.

The operation to remove the estimated 1,000 protestors, many of whom had illegally infiltrated Gaza in the last week, lasted more than two-and-a-half hours.

The protestors barricaded the front doors to the synagogue and welded shut the only entrance to the roof. After removing peaceful protestors from the ground floor, two cranes lifted dozens of officers in cages onto the roof.

After earlier attempts to land on the roof were thwarted by protestors brandishing long wooden beams and metal poles, the Yassam reequipped its officers with fire extinguishers which they used in tandem with a mobile water cannon on the street to keep the protestors at bay while they landed on the roof.

Simultaneously, two squads of four officers threw ladders to the roof from the balcony, climbing them together holding shields over their heads.

For more than 15 minutes protestors heaved paint from a blow horn and used sticks to repel the lead officer who cut the barbed wire which was strung across the sides of the roof. Sand, oil, and garbage were also thrown on them and it was then that one of the squads was doused with acid.

"They ran inside and started stripping off their clothes, crying in pain," said Liat Schlessinger, an army reporter who was on the balcony.

After the acid was thrown, Rabbi Yosi El-Nikaveh, who was evicted from his home yesterday in neighboring Neveh Dekalim, pleaded with the protestors to stop using violence. "Not one of us is moving from here," a protestor replied, using a blow horn.

The Yassam finally gained control of the roof after two more cages carrying officers landed and subdued the crowd, many of whom were teenagers and young adult men. The cages were then used to haul the protestors to the ground where they were either carried by squads of four to six Yassam and border police to waiting busses, or escorted by two if they offered little resistance.

As a near-full moon rose in back of the synagogue three hours after the operation started, a few remaining protestors put their arms around each other, praying and singing from the roof top while waving an orange Gush Katif flag.

Later, around 50 of the few hundred protestors from the roof climbed down to the main cathedral where they prayed together with the Yassam before boarding busses.
For the first hour of the operation, Yassam and border patrol officers removed around 250 peaceful protestors from the bottom floor of the synagogue.

After army engineers banged down the front door using a battering ram, one squad of Yassam began throwing chairs, tables, desks and crates from the doorway. When they cleared a sufficient path, border police and additional Yassam units ran in and began evicted protestors.

The mostly teenage protestors were sitting on an oil soaked floor, linking arms in a human chain. Many continued to pray and cry as the officers removed them. Most were carried out, though they offered no real physical resistance, while others walked out under police escort.

"Take pictures of the Jewish expulsion," one teenage boy screamed to a group of photographers as he struggled with officers carrying him onto the bus.

At least two babies were carried out by female Yassam officers who removed two families and many women.

One Yassam officer cried with a boy, around 12, whom he carried out to the side of the road, putting his arm around him and telling him "it will be OK, you’re alright now."

During the first part of the operation, Benny Alon, a far-right Kinnest Member used a blow horn to address the officers. "Look what you’re doing. The Arabs destroyed [the synagogue] in the War of Independence and now you’re destroying it again," he said.

Kfar Darom is built on the same spot as a Jewish town by the identical name that was lost in the 1948 war to Arab forces.

After clearing out the bottom floor of the synagogue, officers took a twenty minute break while protestors on the roof sang "don’t forget the hope," a lyric from a popular Israeli song.

Earlier in the day, the protestors on the roof threw eggs and light bulbs filled with paint at busses carrying people who were removed from their homes by soldiers here. Every time someone was led or carried to the bus, they booed loudly, often yelling "shame on you, shame" at the soldiers.

One female Yassam officer was injured when a bus taking protestors struck her as it pulled away from the synagogue.

©2005 Rafael D. Frankel