ISRAEL/JERUSALEM: SETTLERS OPPOSED TO ISREL'S PLANNED PULLOUT FROM GAZA PARALYSE ISRAELI ROADS

Record ID: 400309

  • Title: ISRAEL/JERUSALEM: SETTLERS OPPOSED TO ISREL'S PLANNED PULLOUT FROM GAZA PARALYSE ISRAELI ROADS
  • Date: 16th May 2005
  • Summary: (BN12) JERUSALEM (MAY 16, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. LV GROUP OF SETTLERS PROTESTING AT SIDE OF HIGHWAY 0.02 2. SLV OF PROTESTORS BEING DRAGGED AWAY 0.19 3. CLOSE OF BOY CHANTING 'JEWS DON'T TRANSFER JEWS' 0.25 4. SLV OF SETTLERS PROTESTING 0.30 5. CU TYRES ON FIRE 0.37 6. SLV TYRE BURNING AT SIDE OF HIGHWAY 0.44 7.
  • Embargoed: 31st May 2005 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: MAY 16, 2005
  • City:
  • Country: Israel
  • Reuters ID: LVA7SDW1A7N62WP5WFO881NEKXY2
  • Story Text: Settlers opposed to Israel's planned pullout from
    Gaza paralyse Israeli roads.




    Jewish ultranationalists, some setting tyres ablaze,
    paralysed rush hour traffic in Israel on Monday (May 16) in
    the biggest such protest against a planned withdrawal from
    settlements in the occupied Gaza Strip.

    Settlers and their supporters have vowed to bring
    Israel to a halt in the run-up to the withdrawals planned
    for August, the first from settlements on land they see as
    a biblical birthright and Palestinians want for a state.

    Police arrested dozens of protesters some 40
    intersections as Israelis headed home from work.

    In Jerusalem, protesters blocked roads with burning
    tyres. Teenage girls darted into the traffic and lay down
    in front of cars chanting anti-Israeli government slogans.

    At an intersection in central Israel, several dozens
    blocked a main highway leading to northen Israel. Teenagers
    chained themselves to each other and sat in the middle of
    the highway, angering citizens making their way home.

    At the entrance to Sderot, a southern Israeli city
    frequently a target of mortar fire and rocket attacks from
    the adjacent Gaza Strip, right wing activists blocked the
    main entrance to the city. Scuffles erupted between
    settlers and Israeli police forces and several were
    detained.

    "Jews do not expel others Jews," chanted others, to
    hoots of solidarity from cars carrying orange flags -- in
    the colour of the main Gaza settlement bloc adopted as a
    protest symbol.

    Polls show that most Israelis support Prime Minister
    Ariel Sharon's plan to dismantle all 21 settlements in Gaza
    and four in the northern West Bank -- evacuating around
    9,000 settlers -- as a way to "disengage" from conflict
    with the Palestinians.

    Palestinians want the West Bank and Gaza Strip --
    captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war -- for a
    future independent state.

    Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has cleared all the
    legislative obstacles to carrying out the withdrawals, but
    the settlers and their allies have vowed to do all they can
    to peacefully to prevent evacuations.

    Demonstrators have previously blocked roads with
    burning tyres, but they have generally been moved on by the
    police before causing too much disruption.





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