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A female anti-expulsion protester confronts police officers near the entrance to Gaza. (AP)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners July 14, 2005 |
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| Young people try to block a vehicle at a crossing point. (AP) |
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Residents of Gaza slated for expulsion, and their supporters, denounced Ariel Sharon's order to close the Gaza Strip and vowed to continue their non-violent popular campaign against the expulsion of Israeli Jews from their homes in Gaza and northern Samaria.
Yelling "Jews do not deport Jews," the demonstrators -- mostly young people with orange T-shirts -- stood face to face opposite rows of policemen and soldiers who stood with their arms locked to physically hold back the masses, the Jerusalem Post reported.
According to the Post, some of the youths handed out cards -- entitled "Dear Lt. Moshe" -- calling on security forces to refuse orders. Other teenagers, bags in hand, tried to enter Gaza through nearby forests and fields. Other youths, asked by police to present their identity cards, refused, declaring: "This is not a ghetto. We can enter our homes if we want to."
Neve Dekalim resident Dotan Ben Haim told Army Radio Thursday morning that Gush Katif residents would continue their battle against the closing of the strip by refusing to identify themselves at the crossing.
"I don't want to show my identification card. The moment I show my ID, it's like I'm entering an area which is not a part of the State of Israel," Ben Haim said. "This is going to be an ongoing struggle," he warned.
Initial protests were mostly ineffectual. Roadblocking attempts in several locations Wednesday evening failed, and a protest outside Kissufim junction, the main crossing point into Gaza was squelched overnight, with protesters and their vehicles dragged away.
The Jerusalem Post reported that Southern District police chief Uri Bar-Lev warned that if disruptions continue, police would respond with a heavier hand. "When the law is broken, we are ready to act very decisively," he said.
Another police spokesperson described efforts to prevent pullout opponents smuggle themselves into Gush Katif, Zittoun said "there is a gauntlet of checks and we are doing our utmost to prevent infiltrators from smuggling themselves in."
The closure of the Jewish enclaves to nonresidents on Wednesday was seen as the first step of the removal of all 21 Gaza settlements and four in the West Bank. The actual expulsion is set to begin in mid-August.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon signed orders for both areas, but the army decided to implement only the Gaza ban for now.
"Sharon has decided to put us outside the fence," complained Gaza settler leader Avner Shimoni. "We are part of the state of Israel."
Israel captured Gaza in the 1967 war but never annexed it. Explaining his decision to evacuate, Sharon has said that maintaining enclaves with a few thousand settlers amid 1.3 million hostile Palestinians is untenable.
Hundreds were stuck at the Kissufim junction, the entrance to the Gush Katif bloc of settlements, caught by surprise by the sudden order. A police commander with a bullhorn ordered, "Everyone who is not a resident, get back in your cars and go home."
There were verbal clashes and a bit of pushing and shoving, but the roadblock held. "It's one of the most painful times, it's terrible," said Hana Picard, 48, a resident of Gush Katif. Residents are allowed to enter and exit, but many were held up in the traffic jam.
After nightfall, Gaza settlers and protesters blocked the Kissufim crossing point into Gush Katif, the main settlement bloc, from both sides and scuffled with police, witnesses said. No one was hurt.
According to Aretz Sheva, participants in the blockade of the crossing explained that most of the drivers were area residents who reject the new regulation, which force them to show identity cards and receive permits prior to entering the area. Nowhere else in Israel are residents required to show identity cards to return to their homes.
Residents say the action was taken in response to the new discriminatory regulation, and not by external "provocateurs" as they were labeled in the media. Most of the partipants, they say, were area residents, not outsiders seeking a confrontation with authorities as many media reports lead the public to believe.
Six soldiers refused to take part in the closing of the Gaza crossing Wednesday and were sentenced to 21 days in prison, the military said. Opponents of the pullout have been calling on soldiers to disobey orders.
In recent months, scores of pullout opponents moved into empty houses and tents in the settlements, and others were suspected by authorities of planning to march en masse into Gush Katif on Monday and remain there to resist the pullout.
"The (closure) decision was made because of the constant flow of extremists into Gaza in order to be there on D-Day and to try to sabotage the (pullout)," said Maj. Gen. Dan Harel, the regional Israeli army commander.
However, the West Bank commander did not apply the closure order, saying extremists have not arrived there -- though hundreds have filled up an almost abandoned settlement to resist the pullout.
Extremist opponents said they would block main highways to protest the Gaza closure, as they have twice before, but the demonstrations fizzled. Only two attempts to stop traffic were reported, and police quickly regained control. Earlier, police stormed the office of the organizing group, called National Home, and arrested an 18-year-old organizer.
The AP contributed to this report.
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