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Israeli police officers scuffle with an anti-pullout demonstrator participating in a road blocking protest in Jerusalem. (AP)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners June 29, 2005 |
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After opponents to Israel's pullout succeeded to block the main entrance to Jerusalem, along with other main thoroughfares across the country yesterday, police evacuated dozens of other demonstrators who attempted to do the same today. Police evacuated the protesters by force and detained one for questioning.
Yesterday, opponents to Israel's planned pullout from the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank blocked the main entrance to Jerusalem, along with other main roads across the country, sitting in the road during evening rush hour. Several dozen protesters, all of them children and teenagers, dashed into the road and stopped traffic in both directions. Police reacted by spraying them with a water cannon, and dragged about 10 protesters into a van. The protesters resisted and several escaped.
A few minutes earlier, children under the age of 10 sat on the road, chanting "Jews do not evict Jews," the slogan of the pullout opponents, slowing traffic.
Dozens of police, some on horses, were deployed at the entrance to the city, a frequent flashpoint between protesters and security forces. Youths at the side of the six-lane highway were jumping into the road, and police were shoving them back.
Police then aimed a water cannon mounted on a truck at the demonstrators in the road to disperse them.
"This is a nonviolent means of protest," said Simcha Shiman, 18, from Jerusalem. "We've used all our legal means of protest, and this is our last legal course of action."
Also, protesters blocked a main highway near Tel Aviv. About a dozen people sat on the road, stopping traffic.
Near the northern Israeli port city of Haifa, protesters blocked an intersection at a place where police were not deployed, Channel 2 TV reported.
Elsewhere, traffic was flowing normally during evening rush hour despite the pledges by an extremist group called "National Home" to block more than a dozen main highway intersections.
Settlers and their backers oppose the removal of all 21 Jewish settlements from the Gaza Strip and four from the West Bank, claiming that Israel cannot give up parts of the biblically promised land of the Jews. However, the mainstream settlers' council and other bodies have come out strongly against violent tactics.
Earlier Wednesday, protesters spread oil and nails on the main Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway, causing some minor traffic accidents and blocking the road for an hour.
The AP contributed to this report.
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