HEBRON, West Bank, Dec. 4, 2008
Israeli Forces Confront Jewish Settlers
8 Injured In 5-Minute Security Force Blitz To Evict 250 Settlers From Hebron House
-
-
A supporter of the Jewish settler movement scuffles with Israeli riot police near a disputed house in the West Bank town of Hebron, Dec. 3, 2008. (AP Photo/Tara Todras-Whitehill)
-
A Palestinian woman is evacuated after she was injured during clashes in the West Bank city of Hebron, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2008. (AP Photo/Nasser Shiyoukhi)
-
-
Photo Essay Settler Scuffle Israeli soldiers and police clash with settlers during West Bank evictions.
-
Interactive Mideast Conflict Events, key players and a history of the world's most unstable region.
Some 600 soldiers and policemen started to evict the settlers, who responded by throwing stones, eggs and cleaning fluid. TV images showed two young girls punching and hitting soldiers. Security forces in full riot gear used stun grenades and tear gas to repel the settlers.
"This is an act of scoundrels, Jews evicting Jews from their homes," settler leader Daniella Weiss to Israel's Channel 10 TV.
Israel's rescue service says eight people on both sides were hurt. One of the settlers sustained serious head wounds, and he was whisked into an ambulance on a stretcher.
The security forces took over the house by surprise in a five-minute operation. Then they began dragging out the 250 people inside one by one, their hands and legs held by teams of two or four officers.
Nearby, fist fights broke out between settler youths and Palestinians in the area.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said he ordered the army to evict the settlers after all attempts to persuade them to leave peacefully failed.
Barak met privately with the settlers prior to the military operation to try and convince them to go quietly, reported CBS News correspondent Robert Berger.
The army said its troops, along with police, carried out the evacuation and vowed to deal fiercely with resisters.
More than a dozen settler families took over the house in March 2007 and remained there despite a series of eviction orders.
About 600 of Israel's most extreme settlers have taken up residence in the center of Hebron, living in the midst of 170,000 Palestinians.
The settlers, fearful of a possible evacuation, have stepped up their violence in recent months.
Hebron is the traditional burial site of Abraham, the shared patriarch of both Jews and Muslims.
Settlers moved in to the house after claiming they bought it from a Palestinian. The Palestinian denies the claim and Israeli authorities have not recognized the sale as legal. Israel's Supreme Court ordered the house evacuated last month.
Settlers say about 20 families were living in the building, but the population appears to fluctuate between a few dozen and a few hundred, with any rumor of an impending eviction sending people rushing in from nearby settlements.
Two dozen people were injured Tuesday when settlers and Palestinians threw rocks at each other. After the settlers also threw stones at soldiers, the troops used stun grenades against the Israelis.
On Wednesday, Jewish youths clashed with riot police near the building, hurling paint-filled balloons, and unsuccessfully tried to break into another Hebron property claimed by settlers.
The attacks on security forces drew condemnations from Israel's leaders.
"We must be clear: If someone throws a stone at a soldier, it is as if he is throwing a stone at the state of Israel," President Shimon Peres said.
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
More From World
Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
- 1
- 2
- next
See all 32 CommentsPosted by clathrate at 06:00 PM : Dec 04, 2008
+ report abuse
Hmm..over 1 million Arabs in Israel itself and how many Israelis are in Palestine or whatever is left of the 890,000 that used to be in Arab lands for 2500 years ?
Not too many !
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted by CloverNYC
Hmm, given that their are Jewish Palestininans, that doesn''t make any sense.
Sure, Hamas and other nut groups want that. But hte VAST MAJORITY of Palestininans just want a good place to live and the right to pursue their own interests, just like everyone else.
Clover, you''re just as much a part of the problem as the terrorists. Both sides have rights, both sides have valid grievances. No one side is in the right, and to suggest otherwise is to be a fool.
The issue has never been the acquisition or apportionment of disputed territory.
The Palestinians do not want land, but the complete anihilation of the Jews.
The issue has never been the acquisition or apportionment of disputed territory.
The Palestinians do not want land, but the complete anhilation of the Jews.
I didn''t say pre-1947, pre-1917. The Balfour agreement was what really turned up the heat on the Zionist settlement movement. Again, there''s nothing at all wrong with Jews returning to the Holy Land, but the idea that they can come in, toss everyone else out is nuts. The fault of the Zionists is that they regard all of the other folks in the region as outsiders (a viewpoint ironically shared by their torqued off neighbors).
Again, no one can claim the Arabs were blameless, and didn''t do a bunch of stupid things too...but I''m not interested in Egypt or Syria''s grievances...it''s the Palestinians who have the justifiable grievance. Tehy were kicked off their own land...what is going to be done about this, and no, it''s not Jordan or Egypt or Lebanon''s problem, it must be solved by Israel.
The point is, the settlers are making the problems worse and need to be stopped for the sake of EVERYONE. The next step is to figure out a plan for Palestinian statehood.
The Mizrahi are a subset of Sephardim...but whatever.
You are intentionally missing the point as usual. You are attempting to blame the Palestininans for everything, as if they have no right to exist, and no basis for grievances. This is precisely the mindset that is perpetuating the conflict in the region.
Nobody in their right mind would say that Israel doesn''t have a need for a military for self defense, as the region is most assuredly filed with bad actos (Syria, South Lebanon, etc.). On the other hand, Israel is so caught up in the rhetoric you espouse, that it cannot ever hope for peace because for every step forward it''s another step back. *** for tat.
Fundamentally, the whole settler movement is crazy. They have no legal basis for their actions, and can only hope to provoke ever-intensifying cycles of violence. For some unknown reason, you feel compelled to rationalize their bad behavior simply because they call themselves Jewish. What a ruse.
It''s time to end the occupation of the West Bank, and get the peace process back on track.
The only thing that all arabs agree on are that all the jews must be exterminated. and no one had a problem when the ottomans took control of the land...
I agree that both sides are at fault to an extent. However,
"But I think it''''s common sense that one not do things intentially to provoke bloodshed."- I''ll pay for your tivo bill if you want to take a look at what''s been going on in the world the past 2,000 years.
I know blood has been shed on both sides but what exactly did the Rabbi in Mumbai do that warranted his and his wife''s murder?
To think that the society has evolved any amount since then is simply being silly.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted by lancearmstng
So, pray tell, why weren''t the Zionists attacked and killed back in the 1890''s through 1910''s? Because they settled the land peaceably and obeyed the laws of the Transjordan.
Then, emboldened by the Balfour agreement, the Zionists went to warp 5 and started settling in huge numbers. That''s when the Arabs finally said "WHoa!".
Now, I''m not going to defend any of the Arab states actions, they are guilty of being anti-jewish and pretty ruthless politically top to bottom. But I think it''s common sense that one not do things intentially to provoke bloodshed.
When the Stern gang murdered the British governor, that''s when things went from being a struggle for Jewish rights to a madhouse free-for-all violent struggle against a sect''s political (not religious) aspirations, that continues to this day.
Ashkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim, are the Jews descended from the medieval Jewish communities of the Rhineland in the west of Germany.
Sephardi Jews are a subgroup of Jews originating in the Iberian Peninsula (Spain, Portugal)
Mizrahi Jews or Mizrahim, are Jews descended from the Jewish communities of the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia and the Caucasus.
So now that we cleared up that you''re a biassed liar, we can debate about who causes the trouble in Israel.
Obviously there are too many snippits to mention so I''ll only say that the settlers who refuse to leave land after the government requested it is causing trouble.
Your statements are like saying all the blue shirted people in Sudan are causing the trouble.
YOu are intentionally dodging the heart of the argument: namely, that the vast majority of the trouble makers are NOT multigenerational Israelis or Sephardim, it is these Lubavitch or other nutjob sects that swoop in from the outside, pick up some guns from some coconspirators connected to the Likud party, and jump on the settler bandwagon.
They are not good citizens, they are selfish "me me me" folks who could care less about heir effect on other Israelis.
The settlers wouldn''t need guns part- welcome to earth, let alone the middle east where there is a state surrounded infinite times by a group of people that refuse to live a life other than to destruct those they oppose. If the land gained after the 67 war was given back the next step for the palestinians would be to get the rest of the land. And if that happened then it will be time to spread out even more. But I digress, Jews in Israel don''t need guns the way a successful business man in Chicago doesn''t need guns...
Stealing Land- The day Israel became a state they were attacked. Now that doesn''t grant them land but if enemies invade land and are defeated, then the land goes to the victor. it''s how the world has gone since the days prior to the roman and ottoman empires.
To think that the society has evolved any amount since then is simply being silly.
It seems that you''ve just joined the conversation to name-drop.
And your 95% figure? I guess it''s fun to make numbers up.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted by lancearmstng
You''re missing the point. The IDF can well handle the terrorists with their weapons. But their job would be 99% easier if they weren''t getting called in to save some settler''s @ss every 3 days when he and his spoiled brat family has picked YET ANOTHER firefight with the locals.
Settlers wouldn''t need guns if they''d just learn to obey the law and STOP STEALING LAND. Go out and buy the land if you want it; don''t expect the Palestininans to hand it over voluntarily.
Huh? There is actually a very grand difference between settlers and people who are FIRING ROCKETS.
For instance, one group is causing trouble by not leaving the area. The other group is FIRING ROCKETS!
The Jewish settlers are by no means innocent in this and are even throwing rocks. However, the other side FIRES ROCKETS. Even if the settlers took out a gun or knife or a really sharp potatoe chip and tried to stab someone it doesn''t equate to someone who is FIRING ROCKETS!
about 85 % of every picture on CBS/NBC/ABC/BBC always has to show a hassidic Jew when it has a story about Israel even though 83% of the country is non-religous oe agnostic.
Thats like showing Quackers and Mormons in the foreign press everytime there is a story about the United States.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted by earth562
That''s because 95% of the trouble in Israel is caused by Ultra-Orthodox Hassidic or other Ashkenaz sects. You don''t see too many Sephardim raising hell with their neighbors. It''s the spoiled Eurotrash Ashkenaz that ruin it for everyone.
Toss their @sses in the brig. Throw the idiot settlers out and for once enjoy some peace Israel.
Posted by earth562"
...and yet the religious fanatics in Israel have been making inroads against the freedoms of the secular state for decades.
We may not agree on much but I am sure that we can agree that at the very least, the US taxpayer should not be supporting either side with our tax dollars. If they want to fight and die then they can do it at their own expense.
- 1
- 2
- next
See all 32 Comments