Monday, January 16, 2006
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FROM WND'S JERUSALEM BUREAU
Israel withdrawal
from West Bank?
Many regard planned eviction of Jews as start of massive future
evacuation
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Posted: January 16, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Aaron Klein
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© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
HEBRON, Israel In what some here are calling the beginning of a
possible large-scale withdrawal from the West Bank, Israeli forces
are currently preparing to evict Jews from their homes in select
area neighborhoods including the biblical city of Hebron,
considered the oldest Jewish community in the world.
Clashes broke out here yesterday between Jewish protesters and
hundreds of policemen and Israeli Defense Forces soldiers deployed
in Hebron ahead of the announced eviction of eleven families from a
marketplace near the entrance to the city.
The skirmishes began after a protest organized by community leaders
was at the last minute declared illegal by Israel's Police
Authority. Rioters reportedly threw eggs and paint at security
forces and yelled anti-withdrawal slogans. There were some reports
of soldiers using excessive force against the protesters.
Protest leaders last week had obtained the necessary permits to
hold the rally, but yesterday afternoon, after hundreds of Israelis
had already amassed, police told the crowd the gathering had to be
called off.
"People came to express their rights and protest," said Mikey
Rosenfeld, a Jerusalem resident who attended the gathering. "It was
irresponsible of the authorities to call off the rally right as it
was beginning. They knew the atmosphere was explosive, and they
basically ignited it themselves with the last minute
declaration."
Israel earlier this month issued eviction notices to the resident's
of Hebron's Mitspe Shalhevet, a marketplace built in 1929 after
Arab riots temporarily forced Jews from the area. For a period of
over 30 years, a sign was posted on the market boasting in Arabic
the structure was built on stolen Jewish property.
Arab families had moved into the market but were asked to leave by
the IDF after a series of clashes broke out in the mid-1990s. Then
in 2001, Jewish families took up occupancy in the market to
strengthen Jewish ties to the area after a Palestinian sniper
murdered a Jewish infant nearby.
Even though the original owners of the property recently signed
over the market to Hebron's Jewish community, Israel considers the
structure, in which eleven families currently reside, an illegal
outpost.
Jews lived in Hebron home to the Tomb of the Patriarchs, believed
to be the resting place of biblical patriarchs and matriarchs
almost continuously for over 2,500 years. There are accounts of the
trials of the city's Jewish community throughout the Byzantine,
Arab, Mameluke and Ottoman periods.
In 1929, as a result of an Arab pogrom in which 67 Jews were
murdered, the entire Jewish community fled the city, with Hebron
becoming temporarily devoid of Jews.
The Jews re-established their presence in Hebron after the West
Bank was recaptured in the 1967 Six Day War, with some prime
ministers allowing Jewish construction in the city, and others
calling it off.
Hebron residents believe evacuation of the marketplace is imminent.
The 11 families had until yesterday to leave on their own accord or
they may be forcibly removed, according to the eviction notices
obtained by WND, which were worded similarly to eviction documents
distributed to Jews living in the Gaza Strip just before their
withdrawal from the area.
Hebron is not the only Jewish city facing evacuations. In what some
commentators here are calling the start of a larger withdrawal from
the West Bank, Israel has announced several other area communities
now face evacuation, including nine homes in the Binyamin community
of Amona, a home in the large Gush Etzion block, and three hilltop
outposts in northern Samaria.
Also, Israel is now debating closing off the main Jewish highway in
the West Bank to Jewish traffic, rerouting the major commuter
artery for the area's roughly 200,000 Jews to a series of roads
that run dozens of miles away from West Bank Jewish communities.
The highway was constructed in the early 1990s to ease traffic for
Arab and Jewish commuters, and to make it safer for Jews to travel
throughout the West Bank by bypassing major Arab cities from which
snipers had fired on Jewish vehicles.
Moshe Jacobs, a West Bank doctor who commutes during the week to
his office in Jerusalem, told WND, "Now I am going to have to drive
over 15 miles out of the way closer to major Arab cities to get to
work. There is no reason in the world for this road to close. The
only thing it will accomplish is make our lives uncomfortable and
more dangerous."
Sara Frankel, a resident of the West Bank town of Eli, said,
"Before Israel evacuated Gaza, it took steps just like this to make
life harder and conditions unsafe for the Gaza Jews by closing
roads and taking away protection. If they close the highway it
would be a clear step in the direction of a future forced
evacuation."
Indeed, just prior to the Gaza withdrawal, the Israeli army
rerouted Jewish traffic, closed several roads and began removing
army outposts from Jewish communities.
Several years before the withdrawal, residents of an entire Gaza
Jewish community, Nitzarim, were banned from driving their vehicles
on the only access road that led to their town. Instead, Nitzarim
residents had to take hourly shuttles into their community provided
by the IDF.
Last month, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced he is
leaving the ruling Likud Party he helped found to start his own
"centrist" party, Kadima, prompting new elections that will be held
in March. The new party was widely regarded as a bid to carry out
further Israeli withdrawals after Sharon drew the ire of senior
Likud figures for his decision to evacuate Jews from Gaza.
Multiple Kadima members have stated the new party is looking to
change Israel's borders. Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who is
filling in for Sharon as head-of-state following the Israeli
leader's massive stroke two weeks ago, has expressed approval of
West Bank withdrawals and has made statements to reporters about
the possibility of vacating some parts of Jerusalem.
Olmert, currently leading in a series of national polls for the
figure most likely to win in the upcoming elections, was the first
Sharon deputy to go public with the Gaza-withdrawal plan.
The West Bank is considered landlocked territory not officially
recognized as part of any country. Israel calls the land
"disputed." The United Nations claims the West Bank is "occupied"
by Israel, which maintains overall control of most of the area
while the Palestinian Authority has jurisdiction in about 40
percent. The Palestinians claim a population of roughly 2.4
million, but new demographic studies show the numbers are likely
inflated. The actual Palestinian population could be up to 1
million less.
The territory remained under Jordanian rule from 1948 until Israel
captured the West Bank in 1967 after Jordan's King Hussein ignored
Israeli pleas for his country to stay out of the Six Day War. Most
countries rejected Jordan's initial claim on the area, which it
formally renounced in 1988.
The West Bank borders most of Israel's major cities, including
Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Military strategists have long estimated
Israel must maintain the West Bank to defend its borders from any
ground invasion.
Many villages in the West Bank, which Israelis commonly reefer to
as the "biblical heartland," are mentioned throughout the Old
Testament.
The Book of Genesis says Abraham entered Israel at Shechem (Nablus)
and received God's promise of land for his offspring. He was later
buried in Hebron.
The nearby town of Beit El, anciently called Bethel meaning "house
of God," is where Scripture says the patriarch Jacob slept on a
stone pillow and dreamed of angels ascending and descending a
stairway to heaven. In that dream, God spoke directly to Jacob and
reaffirmed the promise of territory.
And in Exodus, the holy tabernacle rested in Shilo, believed to be
the first area the ancient Israelites settled after fleeing
Egypt.
