- Title: Israeli police start evicting protesting youths from settlement houses
- Date: 28th February 2017
- Summary: YOUTHS STANDING IN FRONT OF POLICE FORCES POLICE FORCES SCUFFLING WITH MAN VARIOUS OF POLICE FORCES CARRYING PEOPLE WOMEN CRYING AND HUGGING (SOUNDBITE) (English) YEHUDA ETZION, OFRA RESIDENT, SAYING: "This is our land, this is the land of God. We are obligated to resistance to any destroyed. And we shall overcome."
- Embargoed: 14th March 2017 09:21
- Keywords: Israel Palestinians Ofra West Bank Settlement
- Location: OFRA, WEST BANK
- Reuters ID: LVA00365FP6IV
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Israeli police encountered mostly peaceful resistance from some Israeli settlers and their supporters as they began evicting them from a row of red rooftop houses on Tuesday (February 28) in the West Bank settlement of Ofra.
The eviction from Ofra's nine houses came just weeks after Israel evicted several hundreds of Israeli settlers from nearby Amona, the largest of scores of outposts built in the West Bank. The Supreme Court ruled in November, after a lengthy legal battle, that settlers had to leave because their homes were built on privately owned Palestinian land.
Scores of nationalist Israeli youths who flocked to Amona in support of the settlers scuffled with police, and thirteen were detained.
But in Ofra, residents who voiced criticism over the court's decision, have said there will be no violence.
Teenage boys and girls chanted and prayed on one of the houses while police carried them out. No casualties were reported.
"This is our land, this is the land of God. We are obligated to resistance to any destroyed. And we shall overcome," said Yehuda Etzion, minutes after he was carried out of a house by Israeli police forces.
Some policemen even held peaceful prayers with settlers before carrying them out of the houses.
While Israel evicted settlers it simultaneously announced plans for some 5,500 settlement homes in the West Bank, in a series of declarations since U.S. President Donald Trump took office. Trump, a Republican, has signalled he could be more accommodating toward such projects than his Democratic predecessor Barack Obama.
The announcements of more dwellings in the West Bank, territory captured in the June 1967 Arab-Israeli war and where Palestinians now seek statehood, drew rebukes from the Palestinians and the European Union.
Palestinians want the West Bank and Gaza Strip for an independent state, with its capital in East Jerusalem. Israeli troops and settlers withdrew from Gaza in 2005.
Most countries consider the settlements illegal and an obstacle to peace as they reduce and fragment the territory Palestinians want for a viable state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.
Israel disputes this and cites biblical, historical and political connections to the land, as well as security needs. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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