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Young resister is dragged from Neve Dekalim Synagogue.
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Young girls confront soldiers with song, outside synagogue, before expulsion forces stormed in. (AP)
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Jews inside synagogue resist expulsion forces trying to pull them out. (AP)
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| By israelinsider staff and partners August 18, 2005 |
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| Jews resist expulsion from synagogue. (AP) |
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Thousands of police and soldiers are storming the synagogue of the largest Gaza settlement in Neve Dekalim. Many hundreds inside resist non-violently, signing songs and prayers, arms interlocked: The People of Israel lives! The expulsion forces are trying to pull them out one by one. The ark is open and torah scrolls revealed. There have yet to be serious injuries. All of it is being screened on live TV without commentary.
Inside the synagogue, before the police rushed in, hundreds swayed back and forth in fervent prayer and joyous song, among them leaders of the Jewish settlement movement who danced with Torah scrolls.
Youngsters poured cooking oil on the ramp leading to the synagogue to make it harder for troops to get in.
Throughout the day, police had negotiated with settler leaders, hoping to persuade the crowd to leave voluntarily.
Hundred of young girls had shut themselves in the settlement's Ashkenazi synagogue, while the Sephardic synagogue sheltered boys and rabbis.
Security forces lined up outside the main synagogues in Neveh Dekalim early Thursday afternoon. In the background, smoke rose into the air from two burning houses.
Police and residents of Neveh Dekalim had reached an agreement just before noon Thursday regarding the thousands holed up in the synagogues.
According to the agreement, there was to be a massive prayer at 12:30 p.m., following which, the people inside would be escorted out of the settlement by security forces.
But an n Israel Radio reporter in the synagogue reported that those inside refused to leave.
In an emotional standoff earlier, Southern District police chief Cmdr. Uri Bar-Lev with tears streaming down his face met with a group of settler rabbis outside the main synagogue announcing that in one hour, he would return to evacuate them. Hugging each rabbi individually, Bar-Lev left the football-like huddle with red eyes and soaked with perspiration.
"The state of Israel sent us," Bar-Lev told Benzi Leiberman, head of the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip, Rabbi Haim Druckman, and Rabbi Hanan Porat, as he stood alongside Brig.Gen. Gershon Hacohen and Lt. Com. Aharon Franco.
In a choked voice, Porat called out, "God in heaven, what are you doing? Are you giving away this synagogue so it can be turned into a mosque." Turning to Bar-Lev, Porat said, "Uri, remember the heavens and this beautiful land."
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