Thousands of right-wing settlers try to re-occupy dismantled illegal settlement in West Bank

Monday March 26, 2007 12:07 by Polly Bangoriad - IMEMC & Agencies

Thousands of right-wing settlers try to re-occupy dismantled illegal settlement in West Bank

Under the protection of the Israeli army, scores of Israeli settlers entered the area of the illegal settlement of Homesh, which was evacuated in 2005 during the Israeli disengagement plan from the Gaza Strip and some other illegal settlements in the West Bank.

Homesh settlement was located west of the northern West Bank city of Jenin and was dispersed around the Palestinian-owned land. The effort to repopulate this area of the West Bank with illegal settlers was organized by several right-wing Israeli groups.

According to eye witnesses, scores of settlers and their families marched into the settlement site chanting slogans in hostility against Islam and the prophet Muhammad. The settlers waved orange flags (orange is the color of the late Gaza settlement council's flag) with "Israeli State" written on them.

There is an intensive Israeli military presence surrounding the area, allowing settlers into the illegal settlement while preventing access to Palestinian residents of the area. According a main organizer of the march speaking to Israeli Army Radio on Monday, "There is a nucleus of 30 families who intend to live there. All the others are [coming to] encourage, to help, to celebrate, and we hope that there will be more than 5000."

Only 1,000 Israeli police officers and border police and 500 Israeli soldiers will try to block access to the site, in the knowledge that this will ensure that many of the estimated 5,000 participants reach the land. The establishment and expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have been described as violations of the fourth Geneva Convention and as "having no legal validity" by the UN Security Council in resolutions 446, 452, 456 and 471.

In relation, settlers who came to participate in the reoccupation of the Homesh settlement attacked a 12 year old Palestinian sheep herder working in the area, and forced him to leave.

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