Take Heed

[Christina]

They are planning more evacuations in Israel lets hope the U.S. is not involved in this decision last time we were hurricane Katrina hit us. God does not like the giving of his land away. .............................................28 days for troops refusing to evacuateyaakov katz and jpost.com staff, THE JERUSALEM POST Aug. 6, 2007 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------12 Kfir Brigade soldiers - including two squad commanders - who refused to participate in the planned evacuation of the Hebron marketplace were sentenced Monday to 28 days military incarceration and were banned from serving in any combat position in the future. In his decision to try the troops, OC Central Command Maj.-Gen. Gadi Shamni said that the soldiers' refusal to comply undermined the very foundations of the IDF and that the army would continue to obey the orders of the political echelon. Some of the soldiers made the decision to disobey the orders after being encouraged to do so by their rabbis, Israel Radio reported The soldiers were meant to be placed in the third circle of security, whose job would involve protecting police from the local Palestinian population during the evacuation which is scheduled for Tuesday. The evacuation itself is meant to be executed by police and Border Police troops. The twelve soldiers decided to disobey orders outright, while about 10 were able to get sick leave beforehand in order to avoid taking part on the mission. The reports of soldiers planning to disobey orders sparked strong responses from those for and against it. Parents of the soldiers who are scheduled to take part in the evacuation protested outside their sons' bases holding up signs saying "Son, do not expel." Peace Now Secretary-General Yariv Oppenheimer said: "The army must not tolerate any refusals; we must deal with these cases harshly." Meanwhile, Women in Green announced: "We support the soldiers who refuse to banish Jews in Hebron." A total of 3,000 security personnel were scheduled participate in the removal of settlers who arrived at two stalls next to the Avraham Avinu complex. The army has been trying to come to an agreement with the settlers so as not to resort to physical force while evacuating them. Some protestors who had consulted with their rabbis decided not to leave voluntarily, said the report. Settlers claimed that they left the area a year and a half ago after being promised by the IDF's Judea and Samaria Division commander that they would be permitted to return when legal proceedings came to an end. The Hebron Jewish community and its attorney, former justice minister Yaakov Neeman, appealed to Defense Minister Ehud Barak not to evacuate the families. Legal appeals to prove the families' right to live there have failed. In their letters to Barak, Neeman and the Hebron Jewish community said the marketplace was owned by Jews and had been operated by them prior to the 1929 Hebron massacre that destroyed the Jewish community. Following the War of Independence in 1948, Jordan took control and gave it to the Custodian of Abandoned Properties. The market was leased to the Hebron Municipality, which allowed the merchants to stay. That situation continued after Israel reclaimed the area in 1967. The Palestinian merchants were expelled in 1994 and the shops remained empty until 2001, when Jews moved in. In September 2006, two Jewish families returned to the empty shops. In his letter to Barak, Neeman said it was illogical to ask Jewish families to leave property that was owned by Jews, in the name of an empty marketplace that had not been operational for 13 years, and for which there was no plan to release to Palestinian merchants.

 

[Christina]

(IsraelNN.com) Police broke into the home of the Bar Kochba family in the wee hours of Tuesday morning as thousands of security officers began forcibly removing the more than one hundred activists barricaded inside.“There is serious violence going on here, activist Nadia Matar told Arutz-7. “There are no female soldiers or police to handle female activists and they are being very violent with us.”Some 3,000 IDF soldiers, Border Guard and Yassam special-forces police officers were deployed in Hevron to carry out the expulsion.Matar said the forces tried to arrest her. “They took me and beat me outside the house, but I managed to escape due to the chaos.”Activists surrounded the Shalhevet neighborhood, as the former marketplace is now called, with barrels, barbed wire and burning tires in an effort to stave off the expulsion. The new neighborhood is named after 10-month-old Shalhevet Pass, a Jewish baby who was murdered in Hevron by a Palestinian Authority terrorist.Teenagers climbed to the roofs of buildings in the market and were reportedly hurling eggs, light bulbs and rocks at the government forces. Police climbed to the roofs after them.Female activists reported that male Yassam officers deliberately tore the clothing of the women who resisted the forcible eviction. One activist said she assumed the move was an accident when the pants she was wearing beneath her skirt were pulled down by a Yassam officer as she was violently pulled out of the Bar Kochba home. "But when I saw that the same thing was being done to my friends, I realized this was some sort of sick tactic," she said. Similar incidents came to light following the violent eviction by Yassam officers at Amona in February 2006.“Despite the fact that they will succeed in removing these two families we truly see a new spirit in Judea and Samaria in the struggle for the Land of Israel.,” said Matar, who maintained an upbeat attitude during the struggle between activists and police. “We won’t leave the marketplace voluntarily,” said a determined Gershon Bar Kochba, head of one of the two families who are the targets of the expulsion. “The struggle will be resolute, but non-violent,” he added. It will be the police forces, not the residents, who determine the level of violence. We do not intend to use violence.”