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(回答先: イスラエルの入植者と治安部隊の衝突相次ぐ 投稿者 ワヤクチャ 日時 2005 年 6 月 30 日 16:03:30)
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/01/international/middleeast/01mideast.html?
July 1, 2005
Israeli Troops Drag Pro-Settler Squatters From Stronghold
By GREG MYRE
KISSUFIM CROSSING, Gaza Strip, June 30 - Israeli soldiers and police officers raided a seaside hotel in the southern Gaza Strip on Thursday, evicting about 150 right-wing protesters who were part of an increasingly confrontational campaign against the planned evacuation of Jewish settlers.
In a scene that has been repeated several times this week, Jewish protesters were dragged by Israeli security forces out of a vacant building they were occupying. On Thursday it was the Palm Beach Hotel, a 1980's white stucco resort that was abandoned several years ago after the outbreak of the current Palestinian intifada, or uprising.
The protesters began moving in and refurbishing the building about a month ago, turning it into the unofficial headquarters of their effort against the evacuation.
Some 700 soldiers and police officers, some scaling the walls with ladders, descended on the protesters Thursday afternoon and found them in the hotel's dining room, where some had bound themselves to furniture and fixtures. The police arrested four people, but no one was hurt.
Many Gaza protesters are Jewish settlers from the West Bank, and on Thursday their ranks included grandparents, teenagers on summer vacation and families who brought toddlers who were cared for in a makeshift kindergarten with freshly painted rabbits and ducks on the walls.
"We came here in order to prevent the expulsion," said Zeev Wolf, 29, a computer worker who came with his wife from their West Bank settlement. Referring to the Israeli security forces, he said, "Instead of taking care of us, they are using force against Jews who love this country, who are trying to defend it."
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has set Aug. 15 as the starting date for the evacuation of the nearly 9,000 settlers in Gaza, and several hundred more in the West Bank.
Mr. Sharon says he sees no future for Jews in the Gaza Strip, where settlers began establishing homes and greenhouses in the coastal sand dunes in the years after Israel captured the territory from Egypt in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Many countries regard the settlements as illegal, and the Palestinians are demanding the land, home to 1.3 million Palestinians, as part of a future state.
The protesters hoped to rally thousands of supporters to come to Gaza, in the belief that their numbers would thwart the withdrawal. To prevent that, the Israeli Army on Thursday temporarily declared the entire Gaza Strip a closed military zone, allowing Gaza settlers to come and go, but keeping other Israelis out.
"We do not plan to let extremists return here, and I hope that they do not come back," said Maj. Gen. Dan Harel, the army commander responsible for Gaza.
[On Friday morning, the military lifted the travel restrictions, Reuters reported.]
Until Thursday, the security forces allowed Israeli citizens to move freely in and out of the Gaza settlements, which are fenced off from the strip's Palestinian communities. But the recently arrived protesters took over two abandoned Palestinian homes this week and waged stone-throwing battles with Palestinians along the beachfront near Neve Dekalim, the largest Gaza settlement.
In skirmishes on Wednesday, the Israeli military evicted the demonstrators who were squatting in the Palestinian homes, arresting about 40 of them. Some of the Israelis were in their midteens.
In a speech on Thursday evening, Mr. Sharon, a proponent of settlement building for decades, said he was still fond of the settlers despite their mounting anger toward him.
"I love them even when I hear the voices of pain and demonstrations that are directed against me personally," he said.
But, he said, "I draw an absolute distinction between them and those extremist gangs that are trying to intimidate Israeli society and to tear it to shreds by means of violence against Jews and Arabs, insulting the sensibilities of the Muslims."
He added: "That is not the Jewish way. That is not the settlement way. That is not the Israeli way."
The recent events have fueled an already torrid debate in Israel over how much turmoil will accompany the Gaza withdrawal.
While Palestinian attacks are a possibility, the Israeli discussion is focused largely on potential showdowns between the Israeli security forces and the settlers and their supporters. While protests appear certain to increase in size and frequency as the evacuation date approaches, many Israelis reject the notion that weapons will be drawn.
"I can't believe that a Jew will raise a gun against an Israeli soldier," Alex Minkoff, 58, a protester who was living at the Palm Beach Hotel, said this week.
But the settler leadership and the more radical protesters are increasingly at odds when it comes to tactics. The Yesha Council, the main settlers' group, has organized large peaceful protests and says it opposes violence and lawbreaking, and the settler leadership in Gaza criticized the occupation of the abandoned Palestinian homes.
In another development, the Israeli military said it was investigating a rumor that two soldiers had been kidnapped by Palestinians in Nablus, a town on the West Bank. The military did not give details, and the Palestinians making the report did not provide evidence.
Also, Israeli forces and the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah traded fire for a second day on Thursday in the region where the Israeli, Lebanese and Syrian borders converge. One Israeli soldier was killed and four were wounded on Wednesday, but there were no confirmed casualties in the exchange on Thursday.
Dina Kraft contributed reporting from Neve Dekalim, Gaza Strip, for this article.
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