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An Israeli youth stands amongst flags during an anti-pullout rally this week in Dugit. (AP)
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| By israelinsider staff and partners April 28, 2005 |
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Over 17,000 attended the anti-disengagement rally in the West Bank "settlement" of Homesh yesterday. Homesh is among those communities slated for evacuation under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank.
The demonstration followed a similar effort Wednesday in Gush Katif attended by 50,000 people.
Despite having already come under fire for comments made in a speech at Wednesday's protest in Gush Katif, MK Aryeh Eldad said a few more words to the crowd at Homesh.
Eldad was clearly the crowd favorite, telling the crowd Prime Minister Ariel Sharon wants to "strong-arm the public into thinking the disengagement program is a done deal," but said that if the program is carried out, "tens of thousands of Jews... will sit down in the streets and bring the country to a halt."
Eldad also repeated his call for civil disobedience, saying "if anyone raises a hand against the Land of Israel, you should be strong for the Land of Israel. The Land of Israel is for the Jewish people."
Bentzi Lieberman, head of the Yesha Council , said the northern West Bank settlements are the "backbone of the State of Israel," and said his organization was stronger than Prime Minister Sharon. "We will not allow these places to be judenrein," he said.
Eldad, of the National Union party, has agreed to have his parliamentary immunity lifted in order to stand trial, should Attorney General Menachem Mazuz ask the Knesset to do so.
"I want to see civil disobedience, in which every government official who receives a [disengagement-related] document tears it up and says 'I won't be a cog in the demolition machine that is coming to expel Jews from their homes," Eldad called to the crowd of tens of thousands Wednesday.
"The days are nearing, my brothers, the days are nearing in which those who do not go to jail will bear a mark of disgrace."
Earlier on Thursday leftist Yahad MK Avshalom Vilan asked Mazuz to open an investigation against Eldad on suspicion of sedition. Within the Knesset, however, the possibility of Mazuz taking such a step is viewed as unlikely.
In addition to Eldad's comments, the Homesh demonstration featured speeched by residents of the West Bank communities slated for evacuation. Homesh resident Etti Rozenblatt called on the Prime Minister to cancel the "evil" disengagement plan and said Homesh will always be her home.
Yossi Dagan, a resident of Sa-Nur, called on protesters to bring their children to create chaos should the disengagement plan actually come to fruition. "If, God forbid, they do try to implement the plan," he called, "make sure you are here. Not for one day, but for six months."
During the event, demonstrators also distributed flyers saying, "Sharon is bringing a holocaust upon us," and charging the PM with responsiblity for thousands of deaths, wounded, and tens of thousands of destroyed families since the beginning of the Aqsa Intifada in September 2000.
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