Excerpts from the ROOT & BRANCH ASSOCIATION, LTD.
LIBERATED YERUSHALIYIM ENGLISH LANGUAGE LECTURE AND CONFERENCE SERIES
(Series established January, 1995 -- Now celebrating our Twelfth Year)
At the Seymour J. Abrams Orthodox Union Jerusalem World Center ("Israel Center"),
22 Keren HaYesod Street, LIBERATED YERUSHALIYIM -- G-D'S CAPITAL CITY (for G-ds Chosen People Israel and all Humanity).
THURSDAY, MARCH 2nd (English), 7:00 p.m.
"Party Time!
Little Ehud's Black Hundreds (Chernosotentsy)
Amona Pogrom:
How U.S. President George Bush's 'Jew Boys'
-- Olmert Junta & Co. --
(including "Defense" Minister Sha'ul Mofaz, "Public Security" Minister Gideon Ezra,
I.D.F. "Chief of Staff" Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz, and "Police" Commissioner Moshe Karadi, among others)
spend American Taxpayers' dollars"
Eyewitness Testimony and Illustrated Lecture by
MR. SHLOMO WOLLINS
who was injured in the Pogrom
Publisher & Editor
ISRAEL REPORTER
PHOTOS/VIDEOS OF LITTLE EHUD'S AMONA POGROM:
http://israelreporter.com/category/amona-photo-stories
http://israelreporter.com/category/amona-violent-tragedy-media
http://www.iris.org.il/brutality/brutality.htm
Date: Thursday, March 2nd, 2006
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Place: Seymour J. Abrams Orthodox Union Jerusalem World Center ("Israel Center")
Language: English
Information: Telephone (dialing from Israel) 02-566-7787
(dialing from abroad) 972-2-566-7787
Email [mailto:rb@rb.org.il]
Website www.rb.org.il
[R&B Editor: Greetings to Little Ehud & Junta -- Wipe those shlemiel-like snotty smirks on your faces off fast. And start packing your bags. Get ready to be dragged out of your offices by American Special Forces, hauled onto Stars and Stripes military transports, and thrown into U.S. Federal prisons where you may spend the rest of your woeful lives playing peanuckle with fellow caudillo ex-Panamanian Dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega Moreno. "At an end your reign is, and not short enough it was" M.Y.]
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Russian Neo-Nazi Site:
"A Russian Neo-Nazi site appears proud to inform its readers of what it calls the 'pogrom' in AMONA. Headlining its story, 'Massive Anti-Jewish Pogrom...in Israel', the site features photos depicting some of the most extreme violence in AMONA. One of the pictures is captioned, 'These are not Russian Kosssaks -- these are Israeli mounted troops'.
The site provides background for the story by explaining, "Israeli police stormed the Jewish settlement of AMONA...The evacuation of this small settlement, numbering nine houses, established a few years ago with Sharon's consent, started with the confirmation of the Supreme Court. Citizens of AMONA and Ultra-Right Jewish organizations, numbering 2,000 people, concentrated in AMONA in its defense. Against them were arraigned 2,000 soldiers and about 3,000 police. In the end, the eviction transformed into a huge Jewish Pogrom,
in which the role of the attackers was played by...Jews ....
Excerpted From:
Katzav Condemns Amona Violence; Special Knesset Session Called
BY HILLEL FENDEL
Israel National News
February 2, 2006
************
"Shut up you Jewish bitch"
"[retired Israel Defense Forces colonel Colonel (res.) Moti] Yogev said that he witnessed 'horses trampling over people lying underneath their horseshoes', a police commander who ordered his officers to catch young protesters who were loitering peacefully and to 'just hit them'.
"Yogev also recounts how police officers entered a building where girls had locked arms. One of the girls told an officer: 'My brother, don't hit me. I'm your sister'.
"Yogev said the officer 'answered her in a Russian accent: 'Shut up you Jewish bitch' and brutally struck her'.
"Yogev....a former commander of special forces unit Sayeret Shaked and a deputy commander of Sayeret Matkal"
Excerpted From:
Ex-I.D.F. officer alleges police brutality against girls at Amona
BY NADAV SHRAGAI
Ha'aretz Correspondent
February 20, 2006
************
"Police Strip Shirt Off Jewish Mother During Protest"
During a protest at the SHILOH junction north of AMONA, a dozen police jumped a mother of nine, delivered strong blows to all parts of her body and then stripped off her shirt in public ....
Naomi Shachor, wife of the chief Rabbi of nearby MAALEH LEVONAH, came over when she saw the policemen trying to arrest a protestor. Naomi says, "We were trying to pull her back towards us. They grabbed her...I saw her on the ground, and they started to pull off her sweater...The ones who did it and pushed her were men...It was a very terrible and shocking moment for me. I am still trying to get myself together from it"....
I am a history teacher. I saw photographs of that from a different era, and I cannot erase [those images]...
I will not say what era -– everyone knows.....
Excerpted From:
"Police Strip Shirt Off Jewish Mother During Protest"
BY ISRAEL NATIONAL NEWS STAFF
Israel National News
February 2, 2006
************
Videos exposing Israeli "police" pogrom at Amona:
media.a7.org/inntv/06/feb/amona-alimut.wmv
a two-part video, first showing a horse trampling a protestor,
and then the infamous scenes of a brutal beating inside one of the houses
news.walla.co.il/?w=/3850/852627
a wounded protestor cursing the army and telling how the Border Guardsmen, with rocks in their hands, smashed the protestors: "I said I want to go out peacefully, but they kept clubbing me in my back, neck, legs..."
M.K. Effie Eitam is seen with an infusion telling how was first felled by a police horse, then hit by a policeman, and then lost consciousness. Yaakov Tessler, age 17, is seen with the area below his eye swollen to tangerine-size, explaining how he was beaten despite his pleas.
216.86.150.60/videos/0/359875_53c30.wmv
with German music in the background; at 1:50, horse runs over one or two people;
at 2:06, a mounted policeman whips protestors
http://news.walla.co.il/?w=//852618
Channel Ten scenes
yeshanews.com/?id=47029
assorted scenes
mms://s39wm.castup.net
more of the same
************
Ex-IDF officer alleges police brutality against girls at Amona"
BY NADAV SHRAGAI
Haaretz Correspondent
February 20, 2006
A retired Israel Defense Forces colonel who was present at the evacuation of nine structures in the WEST BANK outpost of AMONA submitted a complaint Monday alleging police brutality against protesters who clashed with security forces.
Colonel (res.) Moti Yogev petitioned the Justice Ministry's Police Investigations Department for an inquiry into claims that Border Policemen, without provocation, struck young girls who asked to exit the vicinity where the clashes were taking place.
In his petition, Yogev writes that close to 11 A.M. on the day of the incident, an entire Border Police unit descended on a group of girls who, along with their teacher, were pinned against the wall, "begging [the officers] to allow them to leave the riot area".
"The officers began shoving them and hitting them for no reason", Yogev writes.
Yogev recalled how he approached an officer believed to be the commander of a police unit and requested that the security forces cease striking the girls and allow them to leave the scene.
"Three Border Policemen, among them Eyal Peri, pushed me and struck me with clubs in my stomach", Yogev wrote. "I fell as I was struggling to breathe, but the policemen kept pushing me and rolling me on the floor again and again. When I managed to get up, they pushed me against, and then I hurt my knee".
"Today I walk around on crutches with an injured knee that will require extensive rehabilitation", he wrote.
Yogev said that he witnessed "horses trampling over people lying underneath their horseshoes", a police commander who ordered his officers to catch young protesters who were loitering peacefully and to "just hit them".
Yogev also recounts how police officers entered a building where girls had locked arms. One of the girls told an officer: "My brother, don't hit me. I'm your sister".
Yogev said the officer "answered her in a Russian accent: 'Shut up you Jewish bitch' and brutally struck her".
Yogev, a former commander of special forces unit Sayeret Shaked and a deputy commander of Sayeret Matkal, submitted the complaint through attorneys Amikam Hadar and Hedva Shapira. The petition is the latest in a series of petitions to P.I.D. alleging excessive use of force at AMONA.
On Monday, a human rights group representing the YESHA council of settlements revealed that three policemen who were at AMONA volunteered information about the day's events, including the claim that police received unequivocal instructions to "crack open heads".
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Knesset Begins Inquiry into Amona Violence
BY HILLEL FENDEL
Israel National News
February 27, 2006
The Knesset Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry into the violence at AMONA has convened for its first meeting. It will call Olmert, Mofaz and others to testify -- but cannot force them to appear.
Committee Chairman Yuval Shteinitz (Likud) said that the purpose of today's meeting was to determine the manner in which it would function and how testimonies would be heard. The first testimonies will be heard on Wednesday.
The committee is to investigate the violence at the destruction of nine homes in AMONA, near OFRAH, on February 1. Police were filmed using brutal violence against hundreds of youthful protestors, over 200 of whom were injured and taken to hospitals for treatment. The committee will also investigate charges that some protestors themselves used violence, as well as the orders given to the police to employ brutal force, and the government decisions that prevented any form of compromise.
M.K. Effie Eitam (National Union), who was hospitalized overnight with head wounds after being injured by police at the AMONA destruction, caused a mini-storm this past weekend when he said that parents should share blame for the events of AMONA "by sending their children to AMONA unsupervised".
Eitam later explained to Arutz-7's Ruti Avraham that he views the youth at AMONA as having "wonderful motivation, pure intentions and a feeling of mission, all based on the education that they received...At AMONA, we were at the extreme edge of our permitted protest...If, Heaven forbid, someone would have been killed, such as the boy who was in critical condition [and who has since recovered], or a policeman, things would be very different now. In future events of this nature, it would be good if parents, rabbis and politicians would also be there. Even motivation and vitality have to have limits and guidance".
M.K. Tzvi Hendel, Eitam's party colleague, later said, "Our youth is wonderful, and whoever was in AMONA could be a shining example for the entire State of ISRAEL".
Eitam added, "It must be clear that the entire AMONA situation was created by the [Acting] Prime Minister who used policemen and youth to advance his personal interests. My main criticism is pointed at him, and I will make this clear at the Parliamentary committee of inquiry".
At last week's session of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Olmert and Eitam exchanged barbs regarding AMONA. When Olmert walked in, Eitam said, "I'm surprised you didn't come with police mounted on horses [as in AMONA]". Olmert said, "It's because I heard that you were coming without weapons".
Committee members include Danny Yatom (Labor), his brother Ehud Yatom (Likud), Uri Ariel (National Union), Matan Vilnai (Labor), and Shteinitz. However, because Olmert has announced that he will suspend the committee's work the day after the elections, a small four-M.K. team will hold marathon sessions in order to complete the work before the elections. The four are Shteinitz, Ariel, Vilnai, and M.K. Ilan Shalgi (formerly of Shinui, now of the Arrow party).
Among the witnesses to be summoned are Olmert, Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz, Public Security Minister Gideon Ezra, I.D.F. Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz, and Police Commissioner Moshe Karadi.
The committee does not have the authority to compel witnesses to appear, and can only issue a rebuke to those who refuse to do so.
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A Hareidi Mother Views the Current Scene
February 19, 2006
www.yamin.org
Introduction by Professor Paul Eidelberg:
One of my most thoughtful e-mail correspondents is a Hareidi mother—a journalist—quite knowledgeable about Israeli politics and the various factions of the Jewish world. The letter below was prompted by the government’s brutal treatment of the settlers in AMONA. Even if one disagrees with the Hareidi critique of the State and its religious Zionist supporters on theoretical grounds, or deems their attitude toward abandoning Jewish settlements unapt on pragmatic grounds (as she does), nevertheless, the letter is worthy of serious study by both religious and non-religious Jews.
While reading this letter one should bear in mind that no less than Nobel Prize laureate Professor Yisrael Aumann, a lifelong religious Zionist, has said that the ideology of the chassidei Satmar, which negates all ties with the State and all that it represents, including its institutions, may have been right after all! The author of the letter, however, is not of the Satmar school.
************
It should have been obvious to the settlers, at least since their expulsion from GUSH KATIF, that the police and soldiers would deal brutally with them. The government has been deligitimizing the settlers since the beginning of Oslo, especially since the announcement, two years ago, of Sharon's withdrawal and expulsion policy. In AMONA, the police knew that they had the backing of acting [Acting] Prime Minister Olmert, the courts, the media, and all the other foci of power, and that they would be exonerated no matter what they did to the settlers.
The government is putting into action the old anti-Semitic tactic of "Hit the Jews and save Russia". Their blood is completely hefker [worthless], and if there are a few dead, it will only make the government happier. The suitable lie will be spread to plaster the blame on the settlers (whom they falsely accused of dousing soldiers with paint thinner during the GUSH KATIF expulsion). The only question is: Why don't the settlers realize this?
Their Kedushas Hamedina [Holiness of the State] ideology has blinded them and brought them into this tragic situation. They keep deluding themselves that they have to retain their fidelity to the State—its institutions and leaders—and persist in their "love of all secularists", even while these forces are doing everything they can to destroy their lives.
The settlers send their youths and women to do most of the protesting—in contrast to the Hareidim, whose demonstrations are always led by men, and never women in attendance -— because the settlers foolishly believe the police will treat women and children more compassionately than adult men. Instead, their demonstrations leave youths scarred, women humiliated, and the brutal treatment continues unabated. Some of the youth may one day wonder where the adults were, and why they left the battles to the young.
The Sages say, "The building of youths is destruction and the destruction of elders is building" [Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Nedarim 40a]. Youths should not be the leaders in anything. But in all the writings of the religious Zionists that I read, they keep praising the youth whose actions gives them hope for the future. Another recipe for catastrophe.
I can't help smirk while reading the calls for a commission of inquiry. Again, this shows the extent of their naivete. The only thing a commission of inquiry has ever been used for—in this country and everywhere else in the world—is to whitewash the government and put the citizens' rage on hold until it fizzles out. Appealing to the courts is likewise an exercise in futility. In Israel, the courts are the primary instrument to maintain the leftist hold on the citizenry.
Historically, in totalitarian regimes, the only thing that changes such a situation is either a coup or widespread violence, not these placid measures. The question is whether Jews have the temperament to carry such things out. I doubt the Hareidi community does. They would just keep suffering, bowing the head and suffering more.
Incidentally, I believe that the secular leftists controlling the country are actually a small percentage —- not more than 10% to 20%, while the Hareidim and religious Zionists together are at least 25%. If enough people would get enraged, it shouldn't be that hard to topple the government.
Unfortunately, due to Israel's political structure, the government has all the power in its hands. It brainwashes everyone through the media, pays the salaries of everyone else, controls all the utilities, determines who gets the government jobs, who the tax authorities swoop down on, who the police investigate, who gets tied down in drawn-out, impoverishing court cases, and who goes to jail. That's why the Sefardim filling the police force do what they say.
Unfortunately, I don't see a way out for the religious Zionists. Their ideology has always been "the politicians in politics and the rabbis in the beis midrash". Politicians are usually small-minded, egotistic, bribable, self-aggrandizing individuals who cannot be relied upon.
This creates a demoralized environment where the Zionist rabbis are not particularly revered by their community (which may take advice from them but not necessarily obey them). This part of the religious public has no one it sufficiently respects to accept guidance.
The Zionist rabbis are ineffective for several other reasons. Since Torah study in this society is not viewed as the ultimate goal but just something to do if you want to go into the rabbinate, the rabbinate is viewed as a job so that the rabbis command minimal respect. As a result, relatively few people go into the rabbinate, and the quality of the rabbis is mediocre.
Another reason why these rabbis cannot lead their community, even if they wanted to, is because they are all dangling from the State's purse-strings. To go against the State today means giving up State funding, a monthly salary, recognition, promotions, and alienating one's own religious Zionist constituency, which was raised on blind adulation of the State and will reject anyone who contradicts long-cherished Zionist beliefs.
This is a big part of the reason why the YESHA Council can always be relied upon to ruin the settlers' interests and support the government. (As Rav Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld said, when he rejected the State Rabbinate in the 1920s, "If you're paying my salary, you won't have to convince me to do your will –- I'll run to do it without any prompting").
One final reason for the rabbis' weakness: each Zionist rabbi decides his own policies and he is not beholden to anyone else. Rabbi Aviner or Rabbi Lichtenstein —- to mention only two —- can do whatever he wants without fearing repercussions from any other religious Zionist rabbi including even the venerable Rav Avraham Shapiro.
The Hareidim were careful to have independent institutions (with minimal state funding), and their own independent batei din and rabbonim whose salaries do not come from the State. Their rabbinical hierarchy is extremely complex, and although there are different batei midrash, it takes years of doing shimush by the gedolim, as well as the scrutiny and interaction with other rabbonim, before one's status is established and one is given a carte blanche for his views. Policy decisions are usually made in bodies such as the Moetzes Gedolei Torah or the Aida Hareidis, so there is always a consensus for the public to follow.
Yated Ne'eman editorials referring to AMONA spoke about the religious Zionist "Greater Israel" ideology, and how Rav Shach constantly spoke against it. The following is an abbreviation of these comments:
Rav Shach said many years ago the day will come when the government will give back territories and this will cause a crisis for the youth. One editorial differentiated between one whose beliefs are centered on physical objects (even if they carry spiritual significance), and one whose beliefs are centered on spiritual matters, and how the first can be taken away from you by superior force but not the second...
During the Holocaust, Jews sat and prayed “May our eyes see Your return to Zion” and no one even knew they prayed. And even if they knew, they couldn't do a thing against it. In contrast, when one’s ambition revolves around objects like land and homes, a strong Jew can be chased out by a stronger Jew or by several Jews who are even stronger. For anyone whose ideology depends on physical objects, his entire belief system is on the line.
The entire concept of "victory" and "defeat" is completely different between the Hareidi public and all other publics. An excellent example concerns the Holocaust. While the general public sees Jewish behavior during the Holocaust as weak, only the Hareidi public sees the same behavior as strength.
The general public looks at the physical parameter of who oppressed whom, while the Torah outlook is, who upheld his Jewish identity and who lived and died as a Jew -- thereby clearly defeating the oppressors, the Nazis. The Nazis may have killed us physically, but they didn't take the Shema Yisroel away from us even to the very end. In the end, the Nazis were defeated and fell, and we simply kept going on.
Were the religious Zionist public less militant, they would perhaps understand that just carrying on a struggle is a kind of victory. But what can we do when this public has imbibed from its youth, "kochi v’otzem yodi"” —- "fighting and militancy". No wonder there is a great ideological crisis in these circles. Would that they would wake up....
As part of their sanctification of the State and its institutions, the religious Zionists called the army uniform "kohanim garments". Who does not understand the abysmal and frightening alienation from Judaism symbolized by the black uniforms now worn by Israeli Defense Dorces? This chilling metamorphosis conveys the great crisis —- the stark contradiction to their beliefs —- now confronting religious Zionists.
At the beginning of the struggle against the disengagement, our newspaper wrote that the day wasn't far off when a mighty song of protest will burst out of the mouths of many knitted kippot wearing Zionists in Yesha: "We don't believe in the government of the apostates, and we don't acknowledge their laws!" This scenario is already too pale, and pictures of burning the state flag are no longer considered outside the realm of the possible...
While protesting the government's violence and identifying with the victim's pain and suffering, we shouldn't forget that, in the past, their ears were deaf to hearing Daas Torah, which called them not to be swept away by the nationalistic delusions of a "Greater Israel". At every opportunity, Rav Shach warned against the delusion of "Eretz Yisroel Shlaima". When the Degel Hatorah party was founded in 1989, he said that one of its goals is to warn and reject the belief in "Eretz Yisroel Shlaima".
Once, when he was speaking about the settlers' nationalistic delusions, a well known talmid chochom from Jerusalem came up and said he heard from the settlers that they were very insulted by his words. Rav Shach replied, "Listen well. It is clear that these people are precious. But the day will come when they will remove settlements, and since they make their main attachment to Judaism contingent on this thing, the crisis, G-d forbid, will cause their Judaism to be undermined! I want them to remember that there was an old man who cried out that this is not the main thing!” He said this at a time when no one dreamed that Israel's government would remove an entire bloc of settlements... He continued to speak his opinion out of hope that perhaps a crack, a doubt, a question mark would slightly dent the blind mistaken "faith" in "the holiness of the settlements" so as to partially diminish the terrible and stinging pain when this false belief would explode against the rock of reality.
[End of Yated Ne'eman comments]
If I can be so presumptuous as to make a metaphysical guess, I think the falsehoods behind Mizrachi are finally being bared, and this shatnez ideology is coming to its end. ln the coming years, its adherents will split up and become either traditional/secular Jews or Hareidi Jews. What we are seeing now is the beginning of this process. It's a process going on all over the Jewish world. A whole bunch of "isms" fell at World War Two (Communism, Bundism, socialism) and now we are seeing the last isms which had a hold on the Jews reaching its end (Zionism, religious Zionism, Reform, Conservative).
In 30 years there will be nothing left but Torah Jews.
But hopefully Moshiach will come before that.
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Letter to I.D.F. General: How Could You?
BY HILLEL FENDEL
Israel National News
February 9, 2006
Yaakov Tessler, 17, wrote to the I.D.F. Central Commander, asking why he was cruelly beaten in AMONA, nearly losing an eye, even though he posed no threat and was merely registering his protest.
The entire letter by 17-year-old Yaakov Tessler of Jerusalem:
Dear Central Commander Major General Yair Naveh,
Peace and blessing.
I feel an obligation to turn to you, as one who is entrusted with the values of the army and the rule of law on the one hand, and with Jewish values and the Torah's commandments, on the other.
I would like to address the events that occurred during the evacuation of the nine houses in AMONA.
As one who did not merit being in GUSH KATIF during the evacuation there, I felt a deep solidarity with the protest actions of the GUSH KATIF residents. I felt that this time, I could express my feelings by protesting. I therefore arrived happily in AMONA, with the understanding and knowledge that there was still an appeal pending to the Supreme Court that might allow the houses to be evacuated voluntarily, without a struggle.
My heart told me that the Supreme Court would certainly agree to this option, but I still decided to come in order to be certain that the houses would not be evacuated without the required protest against such an act of evacuating homes or communities in the Land of ISRAEL.
To my surprise, the Supreme Court preferred the forced evacuation, rather than having it done by agreement.
I prepared myself for the evacuation, with the intention of undergoing this event -- the evacuation of houses from the Land of ISRAEL and a struggle -- together with the cream of the crop of Israeli youth, struggling for their Land and inheritance with dignity and valor. I never dreamt or imagined that I would soon undergo such humiliation, murderous punches and injuries (my eye was saved from permanent damage only by miracle) by the policemen of the State of ISRAEL, over whom you, as the Region Commander, commanded.
I hereby declare that I held nothing in my hand, I threw nothing, I did not fight, I did not hit and I did not curse anyone. I sat in one of the houses with the understanding that very soon, I would be asked to leave, in accordance with a political decision and court order.
As I was sitting in the house, a group of Yassam police entered and did not make any request for us to leave. Instead, they simply started hitting us with clubs, very forcefully and painfully, as if those sitting in front of them were criminals and murderers. When I tried to go out, and despite my telling the Yassamniks that I was going on my own and that I didn't need to be dragged or hit, they struck me for no reason: They smashed my head against the wall, kicked me in my back, threw me on the floor, and hit me very hard with their clubs on my head, eyes and nose, to the point where I was severely and painfully injured.
All this occurred as I was asking them to be allowed to leave the house.
Up to this very minute, the feelings of dread and fear pursue me, entirely shaking up my feelings towards the law, the police, the army, the Supreme Court, and all the government institutions.
I would be very happy if your honor would respond to this letter, which is written from the depths of my heart.
Why, when you saw these things happening to me and my friends (there are tens of testimonies), did you not intervene and stop the evacuation? Why did you not tell the truth when you were interviewed?
How could you have planned and approved such a sensitive mission as the evacuation of parts of the Land of ISRAEL with orders for such terrible violence against the most idealistic youths in Israeli society?
I am sad to say to you, General Naveh, that it will be hard for me to forget or forgive those who injured me so severely, or to those who commanded those forces -- unless I receive a reasonable explanation and a public apology from all the elements who hurt me and my friends with no justification.
It is very unfortunate that precisely in the year before my enlistment in the army, and after having received an invitation to apply for the Israel Air Force pilots' course and for the elite Sayeret Matkal unit, this is the slap in the fact that I and my friends receive.
Enclosed is my photograph, taken after the police battle in evacuating me from the house in Amona.
Signed with sorrow,
with thanks and blessing,
Yaakov Tessler
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Knesset Establishes Commission to Investigate Amona Violence
BY EZRA HALEVI AND HILLEL FENDEL
Israel National News
February 9, 2006
The Knesset voted Wednesday to establish a commission of inquiry into alleged police brutality at AMONA last week. The precise mandate of the commission is yet to be determined.
The commission was established despite the objection of Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Kadima Party, as well as the Labor Party. Labor dropped its initial call for an investigation after advisors said it would harm the party in the polls.
Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz, speaking prior to the vote, said he sees no reason to establish a committee of investigation into the events at AMONA, and lends his full support to the demolition forces.
M.K. Zevulun Orlev (N.R.P.), whose colleague M.K. Sha'ul Yahalom put forth the proposal for the inquiry, said that the investigation was required in order to ascertain who gave the order to police to use "excessive force, including beating protestors in the head with batons and releasing horses into crowds, wounding those who were employing passive resistance as well as those who were not".
"Whoever is interested in investigating the behavior of the settlers, should feel free to do so as well", Orlev added.
The precise mandate of the commission will be determined by the Knesset House Committee. Following the 37-32 vote, Knesset Speaker Ruby Rivlin warned that the decision is valid only for the current, outgoing Knesset. If the commission is not completed before the end of the Knesset's current term, the next Knesset will not be bound to carry it out.
The Zionist Organization of America supported the call for an official inquiry into "how the police and protesters conducted themselves".
Z.O.A. President Morton Klein said, "The Z.O.A. is appalled and distressed at the violent scenes in AMONA, and at the Israeli government decision to demolish Jewish homes there, especially at this time, just days after Hamas' election victory, and in this excessively violent and confrontational way".
"The responsibility lies with Ehud Olmert", Likud M.K. Gideon Sa'ar said. "They [the AMONA supporters] announced that they were ready for a compromise -– did anyone speak with them? Did anyone listen to the military officials who asked why the place was not closed off earlier?"
Sa'ar then turned to Olmert, demanding, "What are you afraid of? Why are you against allowing the Knesset to do its job and inspect the actions of the government? If everything was done legitimately -– you shouldn't be afraid of an investigation!"
M.K. Effie Eitam (National Union), who suffered a head injury from a mounted policeman in AMONA, said that only by the grace of Heaven were there no deaths as a result of the violence carried out by security forces. "The question of whether the events at AMONA were the first chapter in a civil war or the brink of such events can only be answered through the establishment of an investigatory committee".
"An investigatory committee is not aimed at the police officer who hit me, or against the horse that trampled me", Eitam, a former I.D.F. general said. "The security establishment wanted a compromise, the Attorney General enabled such a move, and in my opinion there was one man who wanted this bloody spectacle", he said, gesturing toward Olmert.
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O.U. Sends Sharp Letter to Olmert on Amona, Z.O.A. Condemns Violence
BY HILLEL FENDEL
Israel National News
February 9, 2006
Not many Jewish U.S. organizations have expressed opinions on the events at AMONA.
The Orthodox Union, generally silent on Israeli political developments, has written sharply to Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert: "We cringed as we viewed the elite Yassam unit proceed to mercilessly beat fellow citizens".
The Zionist Organization of America released a statement condemning the police violence at length, and concluded by supporting a call for an official inquiry into "how the police and protesters conducted themselves".
The Orthodox Union sent a sharply worded letter to Acting Prime Minister Olmert, condemning the police violence, as well as the hatred and policy shifts it might represent.
The O.U. is the United States' largest Orthodox Jewish umbrella organization, representing nearly 1,000 synagogues in North America.
The letter, dated this past Tuesday, states, "...we are compelled to write to you today to express our deep dismay regarding the violent scene that was broadcast around the world from AMONA last week. We cringed as we viewed the images of members of the elite Yassam unit, tasked with carrying out the rule of law, enter a house and proceed to mercilessly beat fellow citizens who were merely sitting on the floor exercising their right to civil disobedience. We never thought we would see such a dark day in the State of ISRAEL where Israeli citizens are trampled by the horses of their own police force".
The O.U. letter was signed by both lay and rabbinic leadership: Executive Vice President Rabbi Tzvi H. Weinreb, President Stephen J. Savitsky, Chairman Mark Bane and Director Nathan J. Diament. Copies were sent to Israel's Ambassador Daniel Ayalon and Consul-General Aryeh Mekel. Rabbinic leaders have asked to meet with Mekel on the topic, but he has not yet agreed to do so.
The letter criticizes any violent actions taken by the protestors, but adds, "we firmly believe that professional law enforcement units charged with carrying out difficult missions must remain calm, respond in a measured manner, and act with sensitivity in the performance of their duties. And we condemn in the strongest terms those police officers who violently attacked protestors who had not lifted a hand against any law enforcement official".
Written before the Knesset voted to establish an independent commission of inquiry, the O.U. registered its support for the same. The organization feels the inquiry should determine why the police brutality in AMONA occurred, and that lessons should be learned "so that such violent conduct by law enforcement personnel will never again occur".
The O.U.'s message to Olmert himself:
"We ask you to strongly condemn and punish those Israeli government representatives found responsible for ordering and executing the brutalities and gross violations of human and democratic rights that the world witnessed last week.
"And we urge you to send a clear message to Israelis, pained Jewish brethren in the Diaspora, and all people of good will worldwide that the use of excessive force by members of Israel’s security forces -– including all units of the Israel Defense Forces, Israel Police, Israel Border Police and any other security organ that may be involved should similar operations be necessary in the future –- will never again be tolerated.
"Whereas the Gaza disengagement was carried out with admirable discipline and heroic restraint, the security forces executed the AMONA mission with brutality and palpable hate. Thus, while security forces evacuated thousands of people from 21 communities in Gaza and four in the northern SHOMRON with little injury, the demolition of nine houses in AMONA was marked by violence that resulted in hundreds injured -– many severely -– and Jewish blood unnecessarily spilled.
"We hope the actions of the security forces do not represent a profound policy shift of your government whereby security forces involved in any future similar operations, should they be undertaken, are encouraged to attack protesters without restraint in order to suppress and intimidate those seeking to exercise their right to lawful protest.
"Jews worldwide have always taken great pride in the moral and humane manner with which Israeli security forces have executed their duties even in the most daunting of circumstances. We hope that you will promptly address our concerns and work diligently to help heal the rifts in ISRAEL and restore everyone's faith in the government and the security forces of the State.
"We continue to pray that G-d grant great wisdom, courage and fortitude to you and all other leaders of the State of ISRAEL in this challenging time to heal the wounds of our people and bring a genuine and lasting peace for all the people of ISRAEL".
The Z.O.A. statement read, in part:
"The Z.O.A. is appalled and distressed at the violent scenes in AMONA, and at the Israeli government decision to demolish Jewish homes there, especially at this time, just days after Hamas' election victory, and in this excessively violent and confrontational way...No worse timing could be imagined to send Palestinians the message that extremism and terrorism leads ISRAEL to demolish Jewish homes and evict their residents. It is sending the worst possible message of appeasement and retreat. We saw how the Gaza/northern SAMARIA retreat gave the terrorists a huge boost of popularity among Palestinians. This latest confrontation and demolitions in AMONA and the violence between Jews will send the same message and produce the same result.
"Just at a time when the world has been compelled by Hamas' election victory to face the fact that a genocidal terrorist movement has been overwhelmingly endorsed by the Palestinians, the Israeli government has succeeded in taking Hamas and its crimes off page one and instead made violence among Jews the main story. This is a propaganda triumph for Palestinian terrorists".
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More on the Police Violence in Amona, My Students Told Me...
BY BATYA MEDAD [mailto:shilohmuse@yahoo.com]
February 07, 2006
Yes, there have been an awful lot of posts and articles about the violence in AMONA, when the riot squads, soldiers and police came in force to destroy a few buildings. Some of you are probably tired of reading about it and seeing the pictures. And some of you may be wondering how come it is taking so long for people to recall and report all that happened there.
Experts in Post Traumatic Stress say that it takes awhile for the victim to be able to verbalize his or her experiences, and it's very important to do so and not repress it all.
Some of you may also be wondering why so many high school students were there instead of in school. I'll start there by saying that a number of high schools, including Yeshivat Tichonit Mateh Binyamin in BEIT EL and Ulpanat Ofra were there in AMONA, students and many of the teachers. Students were required to get parental permission. Girls from the Ulpana (girls high school) told me that their teachers went around checking up on the students at their own personal risk. My students from the Yeshiva Tichonit (boys high school) told me that they were together with their rabbi teachers. Students from other schools just arrived to demonstrate.
Last Wednesday, when I saw a number of my students in OFRA after the "pogrom" I decided that I needed to have them write their stories. That's one of the advantages of being an English teacher. Composition writing is one of the requirements, so I decided to take advantage of it. There were no classes on Thursday, since the kids were sent home to recover. That was fine, since my tenth grade class has a double lesson on Mondays.
I wasn't sure how my fifteen year old students would react to the assignment. Teenage boys are still teenage boys, so I opened their textbook to prepare a backup lesson. I couldn't believe it. According to the book, the next assignment was "A Letter of Complaint".
That was it! Just the gimmick or approach I needed to help them write. That was really siyaata d'shmaya, the hand of G-d helping me.
Almost a week after AMONA was the perfect timing, since the kids were feeling better, stronger and more willing to talk and even joke about it than they were last week. They also liked the idea of a letter, and we discussed the various options, to whom to write. First on their list was the "Yassamnik", the "riot police", next Olmert and President Katzav.
I'm not going to quote the letters directly, nor give any identifying material, but I'll just tell you what I discovered from their compositions. And I must tell you that it was a successful lesson. Everybody wrote, even one student who hadn't handed in a single assignment the entire year. I gave them all good grades, just for writing. This was not the time to penalize them for incorrect spelling and bad grammar.
Most of them addressed their letters to the Yassamnikim, asking them how they could have been so cruel and violent. "What did they do to turn you into animals?" That was a frequent theme.
I only discovered that their rabbis were with them when I heard the descriptions of how the police dragged the rabbis by their hair and threw them out of the window (of house #8) onto their heads.
My students described the event as a "pogrom" and "nightmare". They were beaten on all parts of their bodies, yes, all. And they told me that girls were beaten on their abdomen and were afraid that they wouldn't be able to have children due to the damage.
The kids were not prepared for violence. They were sitting peacefully, non-violent, passive resistance, just like they were instructed and that's their nature. They're not violent kids, especially this class. They were totally taken by surprise.
The only ones prepared for violence were the police and army. That's why they were all geared up for war. Reports by medics confirm that the police didn't suffer any serious wounds whatsoever, while the demonstrators did. And of course the pictures make it clear that all of the violence was by the (sic) security forces.
I received many reports of the riot police telling demonstrators that they "didn't want to hurt" they "wanted to kill". Not only was this shouted back to demonstrators asking "Why are you trying to hurt us; aren't we all Jews?" But the police kept repeating it also at the first aid stations and hospitals, even to the family of Yechiam ben Rachel.
There's something very wrong in the State of Israel.
Batya
http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/
http://samizdatblogfree.blogspot.com/
http://me-ander.blogspot.com/
http://shilohpics.blogspot.com
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"The 'injured' policeman"
Israel Resource News Agency
February 7, 2006
www.israelbehindthenews.com
A personal note: Last Wednesday I was doing a shift in MADA (Magen Dovid Adom) in Jerusalem as an ambulance driver. The level of violence was not foreseen my MADA -- I suspect it was withheld from them by the security authorities.
Within a half our of the violence starting police teams were ready at all the hospitals to record the names of the injured police. MADA was put on emergency alert and standard mass casualty emergency procedures were put into action.
By 16.30 there were 215 wounded brought to five Jerusalem hospitals. 59 were police. I transferred the only so called badly injured policeman from Haddasah Har Hatzofim to Ein Karem.
The facts:
He was walking, fully conscious, violent -- he threatened injured settlers in the emergency room with physical violence. His injury was a bad cut under the eye and he was transferred because Ein Karem has plastic surgeons and he needed their services.
All the other police injured that I saw had minor cuts and bruises. None had broken bones that I am aware of.
All the injured settlers I saw had broken bones, legs and arm injuries, and head wounds. A lot of blood. The atmosphere was that of a terrorist attack with the prevalent undercurrent that this time the attackers were Jews.
The media of course made a kiddush out of the "badly" wounded policeman -- and I witnessed first hand how the media presents the facts -- lies, half truths, and disinformation. It was a very sad day for me and left me with many sleepless
hours.
Abba
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Anti-Olmert Rally Brings 100,000
BY SCOTT SHILOH
Israel National News
February 6, 2006
A rally protesting the political and security policies of Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert brought an estimated 100,000 demonstrators to Jerusalem's Zion Square Sunday night.
The demonstration, the largest since the government uprooted 25 Jewish communities from GAZA and northern SAMARIA last August, is taking place under the shadow of last week's demolition of nine homes in AMONA and the brutal police reaction to people who protested the destruction.
Banners reading "Olmert is bad for the Jews" and "Olmert is bringing about civil war" were positioned at the center of Sunday night’s demonstration.
Speaking at the rally, M.K. Uri Ariel (National Union) said, "Yes it's correct, Olmert is bad for the Jews...Olmert wants to shed Jewish blood and we won't let him. We'll remove him from office" on election day, scheduled for March 28.
Ariel called on the government to set up a special committee to investigate the large-scale police brutality that characterized last week's demonstration to save AMONA from demolition.
"I call on Olmert not to run away from an appointing a committee to objectively investigate" the prime minister's involvement in calling for the brutal confrontation, said Ariel.
The mayor of OFRA, Yitzhak Meir, read passages from the Book of Psalms (Tehilim) and led the demonstrators in prayer for persons wounded by police at AMONA and for those wounded in Sunday's terrorist attack in PETAH TIKVA.
Video footage showing mounted police attacking and beating back demonstrators at AMONA was shown on giant video screens during the rally. A video showing M.K. Effie Eitam (National Union) being trampled and mauled by mounted police was repeatedly shown to counter government claims that Eitam violently engaged the police by throwing rocks at them.
Tal Yahav, representing AMONA residents said, "The number of people who came to us, to AMONA, was incredible, men, women, young adults, and young couples with children..." Yahav also demanded that the government investigate the police brutality against the unarmed demonstrators.
"This violence was deliberately directed against us", she said. "We never dreamed that Jews in this country would beat other Jews without mercy with horses and truncheons".
******************************************************************************
Incidents of Police Violence and Abuse Continue to Surface
BY HILLEL FENDEL
Israel National News
February 6, 2006
YESHA Council leaders met with Public Security Minister Gideon Ezra this afternoon, demanding a public inquiry into the accusations of police brutality and sexual harassment at AMONA last week.
Ezra refused to entertain the idea of a public inquiry, saying that the Cabinet had decided against it. "Individual complaints will be investigated", however, he said. "The police force is not a punching bag. It was sent to carry out a difficult mission, and will fulfill every mission it is charged to do".
YESHA senior figures said afterwards that the refusal to establish the commission indicates that there is something to hide. In any event, M.K. Sha'ul Yahalom is preparing a Knesset initiative to order an inquiry, and it is expected to be passed.
The two-hour meeting was a stormy one, and included many raised voices. The YESHA leaders brought reports from teenaged girls who said that Yassam (special unit) and Magav (Border Guard) policemen had called them prostitutes, threatened to rape them, and touched their private parts.
A 52-year old woman said that when a Yassam policeman took her out of a house in AMONA, he placed his hand under her sweater. She slapped him in the face. Other policemen then approached her in a threatening manner, but then left her.
Minister Ezra said that Police Commissioner Moshe Karadi had ordered a review of the incident, as is customary, and that the findings are to be ready within ten days.
At 4:30 PM this afternoon, a march is to be held in downtown JERUSALEM, protesting the police violence. Organizers fear that the police at the march will attempt to arrest youths they suspect of throwing rocks at AMONA.
One youth who participated in the AMONA protests, and who prefers to remain anonymous, explained his view of the events:
"We had no intentions of throwing rocks, but when we saw the way the police charged in with their horses and clubs at the people standing around, we just felt that there was no choice; we had to do something. So we took the rocks that we had brought up to hold down the barbed wire and threw some of them".
Fifteen-year-old Avishag S. of HAIFA, who says she is still in pain and now has developed fever, told the following story:
"I was in house #6, and the Yassamnikim came in through the window. One of them pulled me up by the ear, while beating me with his club in my stomach. He didn't just hit me; he turned the stick around almost inside me -- and then another one kicked me in the back, and then sort of threw me out the window, giving me glass splinters in my leg. That's what they did with all the girls there...
"After a few seconds, my stomach began to hurt me terribly, and I just started screaming in pain, all doubled over. An army medic told me I had better go to the clinic, but a Yassamnik didn't let me pass. Only when they brought me a stretcher -- because I couldn't walk -- did he let me go through.
"In the clinic, they didn't know exactly what to do, but they saw that there was a real fear of damage to an internal organ -- so they called an ambulance. But throughout this time they couldn't give me any painkiller, and so I was yelling in pain the whole time. Once I was in the hospital (Shaarei Tzedek), they gave me an ultrasound and infusions and everything. That's when they finally told me that I was just a millimeter away from having an internal organ damaged, which would have meant a dangerous operation. I was also very worried that my uterus was affected, but in the end, they reassured me on that as well".
"I hope that next time, the whole nation will be there -- not to attack, but to defend".
It has now been learned that even Magen David Adom (M.D.A.) medical teams were not immune to police attacks.
Shalom Galil of BEIT EL, an experienced medic, told this story:
"I was outside house #6, and a Border Guard officer called out, 'Medic! Medic!' So I came and he said that someone was hurt inside the house. I climbed in through the window [the doors were sealed - ed.], and I looked for the patient. Two Border Guard policemen were there and said, 'No one is here, get out,' and they started beating me. At the same time, they pushed me towards the salon, where two other policemen were blocking the way. I screamed that I was an M.D.A. medic, and of course they saw my orange M.D.A. vest, but they didn't care and kept on beating me, until I was finally able to get out".
Another medic, Mordechai Ben-Aros of KOKHAV YAAKOV, had a similar story:
"Most of the M.D.A. personnel were in the first-aid tent, treating the wounded, while we were three paramedics outside in the 'field'. We also had stretcher-carriers and other volunteers, but we were treating the wounded...
"At one point, we came to a house, and the commander asked me to go in and deal with those who were hurt. When I went in, with my bright orange vest, there were policemen who recognized me from previous houses -- but one of them pushed me into a corner and started screaming at me and did not allow me to go up to the roof and check who was hurt. At the same time, a Yassamnik started hitting me without stopping. I tried to say that the officer had told me to come in, and they said they didn't care and kept on beating me... Afterwards, at another house, they told me to go in to check the wounded, but we chose not to".
In another case, an army officer whose name is known did not allow an ambulance to go from OFRAH to AMONA.
Another paramedic said that Magen David Adom management instructed its volunteers not to publicize the stories.
It was also learned that a woman ambulance driver was taking a wounded policeman to the hospital, and he cursed her and abused her the whole route. A complaint has been filed with the police.
Roni Daniel, Channel Two's veteran anchorman, reported from the scene:
"The policemen here are raining blows down on the settlers one after the other. The blows are unnecessary, they are hitting just to vent their rage, there is no need for it. The police behavior on the roofs has to be investigated. The violence here is unnecessary".
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Yehoram Gaon Decries War Against Land of Israel Lovers
Singer Yehoram Gaon compares the idealists who were beaten in AMONA
to the pioneers who built the GALILEE 70 years ago,
and bemoans the war against those who stand fast to the Land of ISRAEL"
BY HILLEL FENDEL
Israel National News
February 6, 2006
Popular singer and actor Yehoram Gaon delivered a long discourse on his views of last week's violence in AMONA. His politics, as expressed in his service as a one-man faction in the Jerusalem Municipality and his weekly Friday afternoon radio program, are generally left-wing. This Friday's show was different, however. "Only one who fights for his land", Gaon said on Israel Radio's Reshet Bet, "acquires it, by virtue of his love and dedication".
Excerpts from Gaon's talk:
I know that "without fear of the government, one person would swallow another" [Ethics of the Fathers 3:2]. I know, as a loyal citizen, that one must adhere unconditionally to the statutes of the government...But even so, I was not party to all those interviewers and commentators who, from their high perch above, rebuked every settler who arrived in their studios, giving free lessons in ethical civics and law enforcement -- to the point where I wanted to yell out, 'Hey, who appointed you?'
As opposed to them, I was really so sad when I saw these boys fighting our army forces, and I didn't know who was fighting whom, or why. It was like a play put on from above for the media...
I thought about the pioneers of HANITA and the "stockade and tower" communities built during the pogroms of the late 1930's...who, against the establishment of the time, built their homes there and became a symbol of heroism and daring Zionism.
I thought: What would have happened if they would have heard or known that those who continue their path in 2006 would be evacuated by blue-and-white army and police at the order of the State?
What would [Yehoshua] Henkin -- whose entire life was dedicated to redeeming lands of Eretz Yisrael in the JEZREEL VALLEY, the HULEH VALLEY, and more -- have said? What would he have said about those who continue his ways as they stand on roofs and -- yes, I know, it's terrible, throw stones on the police and army that come to evacuate them?
Have you noticed that something has gone totally wrong in the Zionist agenda of the People and State of ISRAEL?
It's getting worse and worse, deteriorating to a situation in which a real collision is unavoidable...How many wounded or dead will we have to suffer in order to remove a caravan or two from some desolate hill on which some youths settled to prove their love for the Land of ISRAEL?
They call them, justifiably, law-breakers. But... law-breakers are those who fire Lau missiles at their competing gangsters' homes and kill people along the way, and drug-dealers and pimps. So with all the due respect that you do not give them, at least agree with me that the law-breakers in AMONA have a different type of motivation.
...Why are they, of all people, being persecuted? Do you realize how many building violations there are in Israel? Why specifically them, and why specifically now? And who wants to prove what this time, and to who, and why specifically at their expense?
Like Hillel the Elder, I sandwich in this matza not only the establishment, but also the leadership of the settlers...
But it appears that the youth no longer have leaders other than this Land. The Land is leading and directing and forcing its will, and sending them to fight for it, and they agree to do so -- like a lover for his loved one, with great truth and without compromise. Zionism '06.
I know it's not popular today to say nice things about the settlers. All my colleagues in radio and television are very, very angry at them -- but what to do? Only one who fights for his land, cities and fields, and for every caravan and every clod of earth, acquires it, by virtue of his love and dedication.
One need only flip through the pages of the history of this land to understand what was always self-evident. Our neighbors [the Arabs] know this secret very well. They never rushed; they are tied and bound only to this Land and its olive trees. And they know that this is the way, the only way, to become its masters. Conquerors come and go; that's history. But the man who is bound to his land, acquires his eternity upon it.
Looking at these "law-breakers", it's impossible not to think about the big city [TEL AVIV], the city that never stops. Hand on heart: How many of us would leave our warm house, our dreams of getting rich, our cafes and nightclubs... to be with the Land of ISRAEL, that it should not remain alone? How many of us, out of our own free will, would spend time on a barren, wind-swept hill in a caravan?
...[Nothing] is worth these terrible pictures in which we saw such great force expended -- force that is nothing more than rage that is really just great weakness... Horses charging forwards -- yes, I know, in reaction to stones; and clubs being wielded -- yes, I know, in reaction to stones. But suddenly the face of our police and army has changed, and they are getting further away from us, as if in a bad dream. They are suddenly different, estranged from this beautiful and good Land...
...OK, fine, so there were polls, and 60% are not interested in AMONA and blame the settlers. These 60% -- are not interested in anything.
In the end, the ones who will remain in this Land for many years to come will not be those 60%, but rather the "law-breakers" from AMONA and KATIF. Because they made a vow, as the everlasting nation in an everlasting covenant, for this land...
Can you actually think that these, the very best of our sons, would disengage themselves? That they would not enlist in the army? When it comes to the Land of Eretz Yisrael, which is their only and true leader, they will run to fulfill every mission to defend it -- and even from the roofs of AMONA and amidst the hoofs of the attacking horses.
True, this is a critical moment in the process of determining our borders according to the demographic majority. This is a dangerous concept, and food for thought: If the borders of the Land of Israel are to be drawn according to Jewish-Arab demographics, then in another 50 years or less, our borders will be reduced to the beach front of Tel Aviv. That is why borders according to demographics are not such a good idea. We have to think of something more creative, something that will leave us here for a few more good years, even after we no longer have a demographic majority.
It would be a good idea to think long and hard about this: When the regime fights the people of AMONA, who is it actually fighting? Are these youth the State of Israel's real enemy?
And oh, something else I wanted to say: It's a good thing that Hamas is no longer around, and all the charters calling for our destruction have been revoked, and IRAN has voluntarily shut down its atomic reactor. Now we can finally turn to our real problems...
*****************************************************************************
"Mass Protest Against Police Violence in Downtown Jerusalem"
BY HILLEL FENDEL
Israel National News
February 5, 2006
www.IsraelNN.com
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=97951
A mass rally at Zion Square at 7 PM tonight will demand a national commission of inquiry into the police brutality at AMONA.
Olmert has decided against a public inquiry.
Stories of police brutality during the AMONA destruction/evacuation continue to be revealed, and voices calling for a public inquiry are increasing. Nevertheless, at this morning's Cabinet meeting, the government headed by Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert decided not to accede to the public calls.
The YESHA Council, organizing tonight's rally, has asked the police not to bring horses, in order not bring about additional clashes. Mounted policemen and their horses stomped on and knocked down many youths and adults at AMONA, causing many injuries.
M.K. Effie Eitam, who was hospitalized overnight with a head wound, is reported to have been injured by a horse.
Video clips of policemen beating unarmed demonstrators will be shown on giant screens at the rally this evening.
In one televised scene from AMONA, I.D.F. Central Commander Major General Yair Naveh was speaking in defense of the police, when a man screamed out, "Why did you [plural] kick boys in the testicles?!" As the camera showed the man being pulled away by two burly policemen, he continued to yell, "Why did you smash them in the stomach? I saw people being smashed in the stomach!"
A shaken-up spokesperson for AMONA said from the scene, "People are walking around with blood gushing from their heads...The police abused girls, clubbed people in the head, smashed them in their stomach after they were tied...It's simply a disgrace that this is Israel Police and the body that is supposed to enforce our laws".
Earlier this afternoon, at 4:30, a demonstration against the media coverage of the AMONA violence will be held. University students in an organization called "Orange Cell" will protest outside Israel Broadcasting Authority headquarters in the Romema neighborhood of JERUSALEM. The group accuses the press of slanting and distorting its coverage of what happened on Wednesday.
"We saw how the media made it appear that the residents and youths were the violent ones in the story", one student said, "while the police were 'just doing their work...' All rules of fair play were broken and the situation reached an absolute low -- and yet the press reacts with apathy".
The students call upon the public at large to join them. They will bring an old television set, mock television sets and newspapers, which they will burn to express their shock and outrage at the "television liars".
Public Security Minister Gideon Ezra, who said after the AMONA destruction was completed that the police are to be "congratulated" for their work in AMONA, has agreed to meet with YESHA Council leaders. They will ask him to agree to a public inquiry into the violence, and to mete out justice to the uniformed thugs. "We hope to thus prevent deaths in the next clash", said a Council leader.
Orit Strook, of the Judea and Samaria Civil Rights Organization, said that almost all the police arrived in AMONA without name tags, "which is not coincidental".
Strook's organization, as well as the Honenu Legal Rights Organization, held an open meeting at the Gold Hotel in JERUSALEM last night. Strook said that their goals were to collect evidence of police brutality, and to discuss ways to have the violence investigated.
"We will be happy if a public commission is established", she said, "but many of us feel that we can't exactly rely on their findings 100%. For who will sit on the committee? Supreme Court judges, the same ones who rely on the AMONA internet site for their rulings, but apparently don't look at the Hamas internet sites..."
"So we would therefore like to investigate the violence ourselves, including the decisions and process that led to this violence. Two or three years ago, we had a series of meetings in the Knesset to determine rules and guidelines for any future outpost evacuations. Very clear rules were drawn up governing how the police should act -- but we saw that in the case of AMONA, they were not only not fulfilled, they were ignored in advance. For instance, the police force was supposed to number four policemen for each passive protestor, so that they could carry them out peacefully -- and instead, as we know, they did the opposite, beating passive protestors without mercy".
Q. "But you can't argue with the pictures showing protestors who threw rocks?"
A. "You also can't argue with the numbers: they didn't bring enough policemen to deal with them passively, which means that their intention from the outset was to use great force...They prepared hardly any policewomen, and they didn't wear name tags, and the like -- these are rules that they took upon themselves according to the Knesset regulations, yet they ignored them...
"In the end, though, the policeman who hits in the field is just the last link in the chain, which begins with the people who wear suits and ties and sit in air-conditioned rooms where they make the decisions, and they are the ones who bear the full responsibility"
A list of videos showing police brutality at Amona:
media.a7.org/inntv/06/feb/amona-alimut.wmv
a two-part video, first showing a horse trampling a protestor, and then the infamous scenes of a brutal beating inside one of the houses
news.walla.co.il/?w=/3850/852627
a wounded protestor cursing the army and telling how the Border Guardsmen, with rocks in their hands, smashed the protestors: "I said I want to go out peacefully, but they kept clubbing me in my back, neck, legs..." M.K. Effie Eitam is seen with an infusion telling how was first felled by a police horse, then hit by a policeman, and then lost consciousness. Yaakov Tessler, age 17, is seen with the area below his eye swollen to tangerine-size, explaining how he was beaten despite his pleas.
216.86.150.60/videos/0/359875_53c30.wmv
with German music in the background; at 1:50, horse runs over one or two people; at 2:06, a mounted policeman whips protestors
http://news.walla.co.il/?w=//852618
Channel Ten scenes
yeshanews.com/?id=47029
assorted scenes
mms://s39wm.castup.net
more of the same
Neriah Zamir, 19, a student in Yeshivat Elon Moreh, a resident of MORESHET in the GALILEE, who was evacuated by helicopter to the hospital:
"I was sitting in the kitchen of house number 9, the last house in the line. I couldn't see anything outside, but I heard my friends saying how the police were beating one boy, and grabbing another one by the testicles, and the like...
"We heard the Yassamnikim breaking the windows in one of the other rooms and starting to come in. When they came towards us, we threw cottage cheese and chocolate cups at them, as our way of protesting. They came into the living room and started hitting without discrimination, without mercy. I saw one policeman lifting up his club and smashing it down again and again and again, seemingly without end...Then they jumped over to another group and started hitting there as well...I remember scenes of them screaming, 'Get out!' -- and then Boom!, they would smash someone...
"We started trying to crawl out towards the hall, and when I got there, one policeman gave me a terrific blow to the head and then to my eye. I passed out for a short time and the next thing I remember was being near the door, and that everything looked blurred from my left eye...
"Once outside, the police refused to let me go towards the army medics, even though people were being treated there and even though I heard people saying, 'He's hurt!' Finally I made my way up to the AMONA makeshift clinic, and from there I was flown to the hospital in JERUSALEM, where they found that the wound was, thank G-d, would not cause permanent damage. I was released two days later, on Friday..."
Aharon Tebger, 23, GIVAT ZE'EV, a student at Bar Ilan University:
"I was in the salon of house #8, together with some expellees from SHIRAT HAYAM [in GUSH KATIF] and others. The other two rooms were full, and the police first broke into those room. We heard screaming, and we saw a lot of boys running away from those rooms towards the kitchen; they were very scared and some were already bleeding. But everything was happening at once, so we still didn't realize exactly what was going on.
"At the same time, the police were trying to break into our room, and soon they came upon us from both sides. We screamed that they should put away their clubs, that we were not fighting with them, but they said that rocks were thrown at them...Then one said, 'you have until a count of three to leave through the window', and then he counted quickly 1,2,3 and then they started beating and pushing, while the other police came from the other direction. First they started hitting us on the legs, and then on our heads.
"I was one of the last ones in the room, and one policeman told me to go one way, but then two others hit me hard in my head. I fell down, and then -- five of them were on top of me, hitting me in head and kicking me all over my body. Five on one, and I was on the floor!
"Then they brought me to another room, where I got out through the window; I had no choice, because if I stayed there, they would smash me again. Someone helped me get to the road, and only then did I realize that I was full of blood. They took me on a stretcher to the clinic, and from there by ambulance to Ein Karem Hospital, where I received stitches in three places: near my eye and on my head. I also was hit on my limbs, and I still have trouble walking".
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Hendel: Olmert's Advisor Said His Job is to Make Settlers Hated
BY HILLEL FENDEL
Israel National News
February 3, 2006
www.IsraelNN.com
M.K. Tzvi Hendel, an expelled resident of GUSH KATIF now living in YAD BINYAMIN, said that Acting P.M. Olmert's political advisor said outright that his job is to get the public to "hate the settlers".
Hendel made the accusation at a National Union Party press conference Thursday night. Specifically, he said that Eyal Arad, Olmert's strategic political advisor, had told a leading YESHA (JUDEA/SAMARIA) personality, "The nation hates you [the Jewish public living in JUDEA and SAMARIA] as much as it hates the Arabs, and my job is to make sure they hate you even more".
Hendel offered to resign from the Knesset if it turns out Arad did not say that.
Ynet reported Arad's response: "Those words were never said, and as proof, there is no one who is willing to admit that he heard them from me. I therefore expect Hendel to resign, and immediately".
Arad, a former advisor to Binyamin Netanyahu, ran Ariel Sharon's victorious campaigns in 2001 and 2003. In 2004, Arad served in ROMANIA as the strategic advisor in the campaign of the anti-Semitic presidential candidate Corneliu Vadim Tudor, head of the Greater Romania Party. This, despite Romanian Jewish leaders' description of Tudor as an "enemy of the Jews," and the Foreign Ministry's statements at the time that Tudor was "xenophobic, anti-Semitic and anti-democratic".
The National Union Party press conference was held in the wake of the police violence at the AMONA evacuation/destruction. The party's stance is that a national commission of inquiry must be established to trace the orders and events leading to the brutal police violence that brought about some 200 civilian injuries.
In addition to Hendel, speakers included M.K.s Effie Eitam and Aryeh Eldad, who were both injured by the police at AMONA, and party director-general Nachi Eyal, whose 15-year-old son had to be resuscitated by an ambulance driver after he was beaten by police at AMONA.
Public Security Minister Gideon Ezra, despite the host of video clips and other evidence showing that policemen used sadistic violence against peaceful protestors, said Thursday, "The police should be congratulated for carrying out the mission".
Nachi Eyal, whose son awoke from his coma during the course of Wednesday night, said, "I read that a police officer said that they used 'kid gloves'. Kid gloves split a boy's head open and nearly kill him? How is it possible for an Israeli policeman to stand and smash children's skulls? How can such people grow up here in our country?"
"It can't be", Eyal continued, "that we foster a pack of Amstaffs [a breed of dangerous dog] that the moment they are released, they don't stop, leading to dozens of people in the hospital with head wounds. This cannot be allowed to occur in a country like ours".
M.K. Benny Elon said, "Based on what I saw there, I can say that the fact that no one was killed is a miracle. There must be a public commission of inquiry, which is the minimum we can do to prevent a civil war. The committee must check what briefing the Central Commander gave the special Yassam police, and what instructions the Central Commander received from above".
M.K. Aryeh Eldad, whose arm was broken by police at AMONA said, "One policeman told me that the order was to 'mow their faces down'. The responsibility for the smashed skulls lies with the Central Commander and on Olmert. The rocks that flew in AMONA were the rocks of GUSH KATIF, and the rocks that will fly next time will be those of AMONA. This public understands that Olmert is going against them all the way, and they are responding as one who is pushed against the wall with no ability to react".
M.K. Eitam, who was released from the hospital over 24 hours after suffering a head wound at AMONA, said, "If we don't want to deteriorate to civil war, a public commission of inquiry headed by a Supreme Court judge must immediately be established".
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More Testimonies of Police Brutality at Amona
BY HILLEL FENDEL
Israel National News
February 3, 2006
Even when the protestors expressed no opposition and asked to leave, the policemen still continued to beat them. Teenagers talk, and testimonies are gathered for a public inquiry.
Many teenagers around the country are still physically and emotionally bruised by the violent evacuation and destruction of nine homes in AMONA, in the BINYAMIN region. Testimonies are included below.
Bruriah C., 18, a youth leader in PETACH TIKVAH:
"I can tell you that it hurts very much... We were standing outside the second house, when very suddenly, the police and their horses came charging into us. One horse jumped... and kicked me; I wanted to leave and walk away, and so did many others of us -- but the police didn't let us. They just closed in on us and continued swinging their clubs and beating us...
"One of my girls [from PETACH TIKVAH] was grabbed by two policemen, and I tried to get her away from them. At that point, a Border Guard policewoman gave me a very hard clubbing on my head -- it hurt terribly and I felt totally dizzy. I tried not to fall down...they gave me another blow and then I fell down, screaming out in pain. Somehow I got out, and an army medic treated me. I heard them saying that if there was a helicopter available, I should be evacuated to a hospital, but if not, then I should be the first one in an ambulance...
"At some point, I fainted; I know I wasn't breathing for a while, and they had me on a gas mask...In the hospital, I was lying down the whole time, but I kept seeing more and more of us coming in, bleeding terribly and with severe head wounds and the like -- and at the same time, maybe five policemen were also brought in, with little scratches".
Asked how she views what happened in retrospect, Bruriah said,
"It is still totally shocking to me. They came with all their defensive shields and heavy equipment, and they still kept hitting us, with no mercy. I am still in shock...Next time, we have to be even stronger; if that's how they come at us, then we can't give in".
A-7: "But they are coming in the name of the law?"
Bruriah: "It's so obvious that this has nothing to do with law. They came with murder in their eyes. We begged that they should let us go away, but they didn't let us; they just kept beating us... This is really a pure example of [the words of Psalms], 'they come with chariots and horses, and we come in the name of G-d'".
Yaakov L., 16, BEIT EL:
"We were on the roof of house number 7, and when the police came onto the roof, they just started hitting us with abandon. Even those who said they're willing to go -- they got hit even more. It seemed that whoever opened his mouth got hit hard.
"As for me, I don't even remember if I said anything or not, all I know is that I never felt so much pain in my life. They smashed me all over, and especially on my head and arm. My arm was all blue and blown up; I was sure it was broken, but thank G-d it turned out that it was not. But they cracked my skull; I was taken to the hospital, and am walking around now with a big bandage all around. It hurts now only if I touch it..."
For every ten policemen in AMONA, the police sent one cameraman to film the events. The police are already working intensively to review the recordings in order to identify and arrest any youth seen throwing rocks or otherwise attacking policemen. Israel Television news reported, however, that the police declined to answer queries as to when they might be reviewing the tapes to identify policemen who used excessive force.
This Saturday night in JERUSALEM (8:30 PM, Gold Hotel), several concerned groups will be holding an emergency session in light of the police brutality at AMONA. The gathering of evidence such as photos, films and eyewitness accounts of violent policemen will be discussed and planned.
Also at issue will be the events leading up to the AMONA destruction, as well as the double standard inherent in the overlooking of tens of thousands of Arab violations of the building code.
The event will be coordinated by Honenu, YESHA Civil Rights Organization, and Merkaz Medini L'Yisrael
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Teenagers Tell How Police Beat Them at Amona
BY HILLEL FENDEL
Israel National News
February 2, 2006
Teenagers all over the country are trying to recover from the mostly unprovoked physical blows they suffered at AMONA yesterday, and even more so from the emotional duress they are experiencing.
The banner draped from one of the AMONA houses reads, "Every house that is destroyed is a victory for Hamas".
Yechiam Eyal, 15, of PSAGOT, was atop one of the houses slated for destruction, together with many others. When the police arrived -- stepping off the shovel of a giant bulldozer that lifted them up and crossing over the barbed wire -- the boys on the roof went to one side and sat down.
At that point, says Yechiam's brother Yotam,
"the police just came over to them and started bashing. One policeman hit my brother three times on the arm, and apparently broke it. Afterwards they smashed him on the head, and that caused his condition to deteriorate. No policeman took the trouble to help him, and they kept on pushing him even after he was bleeding from the head. Once in the ambulance, they gave him something to put him out". Yechiam regained consciousness over the night, and has even begun to speak.
The ambulance driver, who came to visit Yechiam Thursday afternoon, said, "What really happened in the ambulance is that his condition deteriorated to the point that I had to perform resuscitation for a minute and a half".
"The police came with the purpose of killing", another brother, Amotz, concluded. A soldier in the Paratroopers Brigade, Amotz received permission not to take part in the AMONA operation. "I give my all to this country, and then it comes and spits in my face", he said.
The AMONA community leadership asks that everyone who was hit in the head by police clubs be checked medically. The request was issued after it was learned that some teenagers hit in the head yesterday discovered only today the symptoms of a concussion.
Avraham Fishman, a photographer from KEDUMIM, related the following story:
"I was sitting inside one of the houses, with some 40-50 others in the living room -- yes, it was very crowded, and there were many more in the other rooms -- and our plan was that when the police would come in, we would sit in a line and be dragged out...I was photographing, and my video shows that when the police came in, they did not allow us this option; they said quite clearly, 'Either you leave on your own or we beat you' -- and they did...
"One policeman is seen hitting someone over and over and over, and I was hit by three policeman. You can see clearly in the pictures how everyone is sitting; no one cursed them or anything".
Rivka K., 14, of the Ulpanah in OFRAH:
"We were a bunch of girls standing around the 6th house, trying to be a passive force against the police entry into the house. With no warning, the police just rushed us, crushed us, hit us with their clubs...Many of the girls fell down, and then I found myself on the floor, alone, and then two policemen started dragging me away on the rocky ground, and at the same time another one was hitting me, and mocking me: 'Go home, little girl'. Then he stopped, and another one started hitting me. They dragged me to a pole, and continued to mock me. Then they left me...
"As I looked around to join my friends, I kept seeing more and more people getting beaten up, and I kept on crying again and again".
Rivka was speaking this morning from the site of the destroyed homes in AMONA, where she and several dozen others had arrived to clean up the garbage and rubble left behind. She said that some people had already begun "rebuilding" one of the ruins out of doors and bricks.
Shlomit T., 13, BEIT EL:
"I was standing with other girls, forming a line around one of the houses. Our goal was to prevent the police from coming in to the building, using passive resistance. We knew, for reasons of modesty and the like, that we would try just to talk with the police when they came, and certainly not to fight. We were standing with our arms locked together when the police came rushing down on us and didn't even give us a chance. They started right away with the clubs, one policeman hit me in the leg, then he pulled me and I said, 'Stop, I can go by myself', and he threw me down on the ground and then hit me with his club on my face, right near my eye. I was dizzy for a couple of seconds, and then I got up and was able to get away...My face was swollen for a while, but I had an x-ray and I'm much better now".
Elazar K., 19, a student in Yeshivat Beit Orot:
"We were outside the houses, planning to stand in a line and show passive resistance. We were standing near the two big barriers of bricks and burning tires. Then the policemen came, and started advancing towards us, with their horses, like a big powerful wave. On the level above us we could see horses scattering the girls...
"They first came to us and merely touched us, then they went back -- without talking to us at all -- and then they came again, but this time charging towards us with full force, hitting us also with their clubs. I fell down from the force of a blow, and somehow made my way backwards -- and then I felt my head and realized that I was full of blood. I made my way to the medics on the side, where they gave me initial treatment, and then to another station where army medics were treating us. Some of us refused treatment from the army medics, saying, 'First you smash us and then you treat us?' I was in no position to do this, but I showed them the irony of the situation...
"In the ambulance with me was someone who had been expelled from GUSH KATIF, and the medics said he had a broken jaw. Speaking with difficulty, he said that some [special police unit] Yassamnikim had set upon him, even though he wasn't really doing anything, and threw him to the ground and laid into him with blows. Luckily for me, the Yassamnikim didn't attack me; it was only the police...
"Once in the hospital, I saw about 30 of 'our' guys come in with bad injuries, in the head, ribs, neck and the like - and only one injured policeman brought in."
Elazar A., from CARMEL in the SOUTH HEVRON HILLS region, was also standing between the two lines of bricks and burning tires when he was attacked. He told his story shortly after getting his broken finger set:
"We were set upon with policemen swinging their clubs. I received many blows to my arms and legs, and one extra sharp one that broke my finger. But then, I got an even bigger one on my head, causing a wound that ended up having to be double-glued...I fell down, and over my body, they kept on hitting other people. Finally someone got me out of there, and later I was taken out on a stretcher...
"Once in the hospital, I was sitting there with four others who had been hurt, and there was one Border Guard policeman who was also hurt. When he saw us, he started yelling at us and getting up to throw something at us, until he was restrained by some people there".
Naamah G., 15, BEIT EL:
"I was on the roof of the fifth house, and the police came from behind, where we did not expect them. One of the policemen just came over to me, grabbed my ponytail and began twirling me around by my hair. Then he gave me a slap and a few others also hit me very hard, and I ran towards my friends. Then they started dragging us, with one of them choking me very painfully by sticking his finger under my chin..."
Phone and fax numbers of relevant officials:
Police Chief Karadi -- 02 5308100 fax 02 530 8118
President Moshe Katzav -- phone: 02 6707211, fax 02 5671314
State Comptroller's Office -- 02 666 5000, fax 02 666 5204
PM's Spokesman -- 02 5666920 fax 02 566 9245
PM Olmert's personal spokesman -- 02 6662301 fax 02 666 4400
Chief Rabbi Metzger 02 5377872
Chief Rabbi Amar 02 5371305
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Cracks Between Religious-Zionist Public and Army
BY HILLEL FENDEL
Israel National News
February 2, 2006
I.D.F. Commander "disappointed" by Supreme Court; I.D.F. officer arrested for leaking info of planned destruction in AMONA; calls are repeated not to enlist in the I.D.F.; soldiers request to leave army.
photos are from hashkafah.com
The Military Police arrested a young 2nd Lieutenant last night on suspicion of having leaked AMONA operational plans to anti-destruction protestors. He was interrogated, and if the suspicions are substantiated, he stands to be indicted by the Military Prosecution.
O.C. Central Commander Major General Yair Naveh -- the yarmulke-wearing brother of former Health Minister Danny Naveh of the Likud -- made statements irksome to both sides in the current dispute. Yesterday, he said the police "were close to being in danger of their lives" from the youths in AMONA. This morning, it has been learned that during the destruction, he hinted at criticism of the Supreme Court.
Arutz-7's Haggai Huberman heard Naveh say, "I hoped and prayed -- because I knew that we would reach a high level of violence -- that the settlers would receive Supreme Court approval. Unfortunately, the Court decided otherwise".
Naveh was referring to the ruling of yesterday morning shortly before 10 AM. Six hours earlier, Justice Elyakim Rubenstein had issued an interim order, at the request of the Binyamin Regional Council, against the destruction. A three-justice panel convened at 8:30 AM, and by a majority of Justices Edna Arbel and Ayala Procaccia against Rubenstein, rejected the request to delay the destruction by a week in order to afford another chance at finding a peaceful solution.
Naveh said, "I tried up until the last second to reach an understanding, and even during the events themselves... This is not a success, but rather a failure on everyone's part. It was clear to all that this would be violent".
Eran Sternberg, who served as spokesman for GUSH KATIF, renewed his call for the religious-Zionist public to cut off ties, at least temporarily, with the I.D.F. "There is no question that in light of the catastrophic situation developing in front of our eyes", Sternberg said, "it is impossible to continue to live in illusions. It is now clear that it is no longer just an issue of a specific order, but rather an entire army operating and educating its soldiers to an ethos of destruction".
"Only if we suspend our enlistment and cut off our ties with the I.D.F.", Sternberg said, "can we send a sharp, non-violent message that is worth more than 1,000 barricaded roofs".
Refusal within the I.D.F. to take part in the operation was not as widespread as in the case of the disengagement, but some instances did occur. Among them are the following:
The personal driver of the Deputy Battalion Commander responsible for the destruction refused to take part in the destruction, saying he is willing to stand trial for his decision.
In addition, following yesterday's events, an I.D.F. officer in an elite reserve unit sent a letter to his commander, turning in his stripes.
The letter states,
"I feel, like my entire population sector, persecuted, humiliated, and the target of repression in every corner. After GUSH KATIF, when I saw the 'army of the people' expelling Jews from their homes with no compassion and destroying entire communities with no hesitation, and thereby destroying families -- I had terrible doubts as to whether I could continue in this army...When I put on my uniform, I felt nauseated... Yesterday, on my way home [to YESHA], an officer stopped me [at the roadblocks preventing protestors from reaching AMONA] and asked me who I am and where I'm going. I answered, 'I'm just like you, an officer in the same army as you'. He said, 'So what? Show me your I.D. card'. At that moment I felt that he and I are not in the same army, or maybe he's in the army and I'm not; I felt like a suspected terrorist who has to show his identity card...I always wanted to volunteer as much as possible -- but that's it; no more. This is not the army of the people, but rather a political army that is motivated only by self-fulfillment and advancement, no ideology...I hereby return my ranks to the I.D.F.; I have no desire for them, they only make me ashamed. I no longer want to be in this army".
He later explained that though the police were those who used excessive violence, but "the commanders of the operation were leading I.D.F. figures Yair Naveh and Yosh Division Commander Yair Golan".
Arutz-7 also received a copy of another letter from an I.D.F. sergeant asking Chief Reserves Officer Brigadier General Ariel Heiman to exempt him from reserve service. "The return of the army to its original goals will open the door to my return to the army", the letter concludes.
One man said on television, "I fought in Israel's wars, and helped liberate JERUSALEM. For 30 years I have been giving inspiring talks at Ammunition Hill in Jerusalem, describing the heroic battle and how the State of Israel won -- but no more. I won't do it again".
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Katzav Condemns Amona Violence; Special Knesset Session Called
BY HILLEL FENDEL
Israel National News
February 2, 2006
President Moshe Katzav has criticism of both sides in yesterday's AMONA violence, B'Tselem calls for an investigation, and the Knesset Speaker has agreed to a Likud/Shas request for a special session.
President Moshe Katzav said that "red lines" were crossed yesterday, and that what happened in AMONA is "intolerable". He said that the police must explain why they used horses and clubs, and chastised the settlement enterprise leaders for organizing the protest without controlling the protestors.
Katzav said he accepts Labor M.K. Yuli Tamir's call for a public commission of inquiry into the events.
The B'Tselem civil rights organization, too, has asked Attorney General Menachem Mazuz to order an investigation into the "excessive police violence" during the evacuation/destruction of the homes in AMONA.
B'Tselem says that illegal orders may have been handed down, and that individual policemen must be investigated for acting with violence towards protestors who did not actively resist.
Labor Party Chairman Amir Peretz, who met with President Katzav, joined his call for an inquiry -- but directed his anger at the settlers. "A settler must not raise his hand against a soldier or policeman", he said, "and the police deserve our full support".
The National Religious Party said it would also demand a national inquiry. N.R.P. head M.K. Zevulun Orlev said that according to what he has learned, "most of the protestors exhibited only passive resistance, and yet despite this, the police used strong violence that led to the injuring of 200 people".
The YESHA Council, as well, demands an investigation into the violence of yesterday. The organization will hold a large rally in JERUSALEM this coming Sunday to demand as much. YESHA Council leader Pinchas Wallerstein said, "There is no doubt that the police received instructions to hit us without provocation. Whoever was in the houses was hit, even if they just sat on the floor arm-in-arm. The police came with their clubs to break our bones".
As an example, KIRYAT ARBA resident Rabbi Shraga Orazi, 50, was in one of the houses -- and was hit mercilessly, precisely after he informed a Yassam policeman that he was ill. "We agreed beforehand that none of us would raise a hand to the police", Rabbi Orazi told Arutz-7's Ruth Avrahami, "and we would simply sit in our places...When the police burst in, they immediately began hitting us".
The rabbi, who suffers from asthma and type-1 diabetes, said, "I turned to one of the policemen and asked him not to hit me because I was sick. When he heard this, I saw his eyes light up, and he started to hit me with great zest, over and over".
The extremist Peace Now organization responded: "The demand for a commission of inquiry is miserable, unnecessary mistake".
In response, YESHA Council Director Avner Shimoni said, "If Peace Now thinks it's a mistake, then apparently they know something that the rest of the country does not". Peace Now was responsible for the original court suit that led to the destruction of the nine AMONA homes.
Shimoni said that the YESHA Council will soon submit a Supreme Court petition demanding the destruction of over 30,000 illegal Arab-sector structures that have been declared illegal.
A Russian Neo-Nazi site appears proud to inform its readers of what it calls the "pogrom" in AMONA. Headlining its story, "Massive Anti-Jewish Pogrom...in Israel", the site features photos depicting some of the most extreme violence in AMONA. One of the pictures is captioned, "These are not Russian Kosssaks -- these are Israeli mounted troops".
The site provides background for the story by explaining,
"Israeli police stormed the Jewish settlement of AMONA...The evacuation of this small settlement, numbering nine houses, established a few years ago with Sharon's consent, started with the confirmation of the Supreme Court. Citizens of AMONA and Ultra-Right Jewish organizations, numbering 2,000 people, concentrated in AMONA in its defense. Against them were arraigned 2,000 soldiers and about 3,000 police. In the end, the eviction transformed into a huge Jewish Pogrom, in which the role of the attackers was played by...Jews. We [hereby] bring to your attention to a photo essay of the eviction of Amona".
Twelve people are still hospitalized following yesterday's violence in AMONA. M.K. Effie Eitam (National Union), spent the night in the hospital with a head wound, and was released this afternoon. Fifteen-year-old Yechiam Eyal of PSAGOT, who was rendered unconscious by the police violence, is now listed in moderate condition. The others are in light condition.
Thirty-four people were arrested yesterday, and 19 of them are still in prison. Four have already been indicted.
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Divorce from the State?
BY HILLEL FENDEL
Israel National News
February 2, 2006
Menorah Hazani is a young mother who was among the expellees from HOMESH in the SHOMRON last summer and who was at AMONA yesterday. In an article for Ynet today, she wrote:
"It will take me days to recover from what I saw, and I will not forgive the policemen and the Magavnikim (Border Policemen)...I saw the black swarms of policemen walking by me, with no beginning and no end, like a large mass without identity, and something within me cried out a long and bitter cry...
"I knew there was no point in talking with them; they are brainwashed and closed, and nothing would move them any longer. They are experienced in expulsion and destruction, and ever since the destruction of GUSH KATIF and northern SHOMRON, the craving of the animal of destruction has just grown...
"If there was something good in the expulsion, it is the awakening of our [religious-Zionist] public from the unconditional loyalty to the State, and the understanding that an [ISRAEL] without Jewish identity is pointless and faceless...
"The beautiful youth that was there -- 'the precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold' -- whom I salute for their courage against the wild black animal -- has turned into a national enemy. Everyone persecutes them everywhere: in the courts, they treat them with all stringency as if they were dangerous criminals, in the jails they humiliate them mercilessly -- undressing them, preventing them from having tefillin and kosher food, putting innocent ulpanah [religious high school] girls together with dangerous and violent criminals -- and the media long ago targeted them and makes sure to jab them morning and evening. Even the leaders of the religious-Zionist public, if such a thing still exists, remember to condemn them every once in a while without knowing for what or why.
"But truly, why? Everyone knows that this youth has a new message. They are not ashamed of their Jewish identity and their love for Land and Nation. This youth goes with long side curls and large yarmulkes, and its beautiful eyes dream dreams that the average Israeli cannot digest. These are scary dreams, because they are of a sober, clear-eyed Jewish nationalistic character.
"This youth is the enemy of the 'state of all its citizens' [as opposed to a 'state of the Jews'] that [Chief Justice] Aharon Barak wants to lead. They don't have the apologetics and natural head-bowing toward the generation of their parents. And when there is no leadership and no clear statement -- these youths are they who set the tone".
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Police Strip Shirt Off Jewish Mother During Protest
BY ISRAEL NATIONAL NEWS STAFF
Israel National News
February 2, 2006
During a protest at the SHILOH junction north of AMONA, a dozen police jumped a mother of nine, delivered strong blows to all parts of her body and then stripped off her shirt in public.
The woman, who recently gave birth, told her story to our correspondent on condition of anonymity. She explained that she is ashamed to gain publicity for being stripped in public by the police.
The incident began when a small group of people, including women and children, began a protest at the police roadblock against the demolition of homes in AMONA. One girl crossed the road, and an officer told her to move out of the way. When she talked back to the officer, a policewoman teamed up with the officer, and they pushed her with force to the ground.
"At this point", said the mother of nine, "I approached the officers and told them that they were using excessive force for no reason. A friend of mine tried to take a picture of the policewoman's badge, but it was tilted to the side. I extended my hand to straighten her badge, and my friend took the picture". According to the mother, the badge displayed the name: Yana Rosenfeld, #7467875.
"Yana ripped her badge away from me and called out to all the policemen there to arrest me. Within seconds, a dozen officers approached me to arrest me. They grabbed me, pushed me to the ground, and kicked me in my stomach, head, and all parts of my body. Yana kicked me right in my womb. Yana was yelling, 'Hit her hard. Smash her'".
Naomi Shachor, wife of the chief Rabbi of nearby MAALEH LEVONAH, came over when she saw the policemen trying to arrest a protestor. Naomi says,
"We were trying to pull her back towards us. They grabbed her...I saw her on the ground, and they started to pull off her sweater...The ones who did it and pushed her were men...It was a very terrible and shocking moment for me. I am still trying to get myself together from it".
The assaulted mother continued,
"As they assaulted me, they began ripping my shirt. With no shame, several officers deliberately ripped off my shirt, and I was left there exposed. At this point, I started resisting so strongly that they backed off of me a bit, I grabbed my shirt from an officer who was holding it, and fled away in shame".
Naomi added, "I felt a lot of shame for her. I felt they crossed a border line that we thought we had, and apparently we don't have anymore. This is part of our modesty...We tried to talk to them afterwards, and they didn't want to understand. [I tried to explain to them] that this is something that shouldn't have been done. We were women; we were standing there democratically speaking out what we think should be said, conveying our feelings without anything else, and it was wrong to do it. [To see policemen violate the dignity of] a woman, a young mother...
"I am a history teacher. I saw photographs of that from a different era, and I cannot erase [those images]...I will not say what era -– everyone knows. My feelings are very hurt about it. The policemen expressed no regret. We kept on trying to put some sense in them. [She was there exposed] in the upper half".
According to the assaulted mother who returned to the road, the policewoman who had the badge "Yana Rosenfeld" disappeared for several minutes and returned with a different badge bearing the name: "Chaya Cohen".
The incident did not deter the mother from future activism:
"The Land of ISRAEL is in our veins. My husband and I will continue to act for the sake of the Land and will educate our children to appreciate its value".
The assaulted mother and eyewitnesses say they have names and badge numbers of other policemen who participated in the stripping.
Arutz-7's request of the police for comment on this story has gone unanswered.
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About the Root & Branch Association, Ltd.
The Root & Branch Association, Ltd. (incorporated 1981) [www.rb.org.il],
an all-volunteer, non-member organization,
promotes cooperation between the State of Israel and other nations,
and between B'nai Israel (Children of Israel) and B'nai Noach (Children of Noah)
in the Land of Israel and abroad, to build a better world based on the universal Noahide Covenant and Seven Noahide Laws as revealed by the G-d of Israel to Noah and his family following the Flood and by G-d to Moses and the Children of Israel at Mount Sinai as recorded in the Bible and Jewish tradition
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The Root & Branch Association affirms G-d's TORAH, LAND and PEOPLE Covenants with Israel:
G-d gave His TORAH (Written and Oral) to the People of Israel
G-d gave His LAND (the Land of Israel) to the People of Israel
G-d chose the PEOPLE of Israel to observe His TORAH (Written and Oral) in the LAND of Israel, and there to be a Kingdom of Priests and a Holy People [Shemot/Exodus 19:6]
and a Light to the Nations [Yeshayahu/Isaiah 42:6]
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"I will be as the dew unto Israel; He shall blossom as the lily,
and cast forth his ROOTS as Lebanon.
His BRANCHES shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree,
and his fragrance as Lebanon.
They that dwell under his shadow shall again make corn to grow, and shall blossom as the vine;
The scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon".
[Hosea 14:6-8]
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