WEST BANK / JERUSALEM: More than 160 people injured in clashes between Israeli settlers and police ordered by interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to partially demolish an unauthorised West Bank outpost

Record ID: 859349

  • Title: WEST BANK / JERUSALEM: More than 160 people injured in clashes between Israeli settlers and police ordered by interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to partially demolish an unauthorised West Bank outpost
  • Date: 1st February 2006
  • Summary: SETTLER BEING CARRIED AWAY BY POLICE FROM INSIDE HOUSE HOUSE BEING DEMOLISHED/SOLDIER
  • Embargoed: 16th February 2006 12:00
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  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAX9Y9O41AHCYJTT18L17NFDAJ
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  • Story Text: More than 160 people were injured on Wednesday (February 1) in clashes between Israeli settlers and police ordered by interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to partially demolish an unauthorised West Bank outpost.
    In scenes as violent as the worst confrontations between Jewish ultranationalists and security forces during Israel's Gaza pullout five months ago, settlers rained bricks and buckets of cooking oil on baton-wielding police at Amona outpost.
    Stepping out of the shadow of the incapacitated Ariel Sharon, Olmert took a calculated political risk in challenging far-right settlers ahead of a March 28 general election.
    Opinion polls show him leading the centrist Kadima party to victory on a platform of seeking peace with the Palestinians but taking unilateral moves, such as the possible scrapping of isolated settlements in the West Bank, if no deal is in sight.
    Riot police on horseback used clubs to beat back a crowd of several thousand made up mostly of religious youngsters, some wearing the orange ribbons that had symbolised resistance to a Gaza pullout most Israeli supported.
    "Today unfortunately, Israeli soldiers and Israeli police have been dealing with disturbances from extreme settler elements as we take down the unauthorised outpost of Amona. We are doing so because this is part of our road map commitment," said Israeli Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mark Regev.
    The demolition had been slated to take place at dawn but was delayed by a last-minute appeal by settler leaders to the Supreme Court, which then decided in a hearing to give the go-ahead for the operation.
    Olmert has targeted 24 unauthorised outposts for removal in line with a long-standing promise by Israel to its main ally, the United States, to do so under the terms of a U.S.-sponsored peace "road map".
    At Amona, bulldozers crushed the walls of nine stone buildings after riot police dragged protesters off rooftops barricaded with razor wire. Police used pepper spray and water cannons to quell resistance.
    Medics set up a first aid centre where they wrapped bandages over the bloodied heads of protesters and police officers. Some 60 police were among the more than 160 people injured.
    "Never in my life has this happened. I don't know what is the reason that someone made a decision to strike and use so much violence," said settler leader Pinchas Wallerstein.
    Despite the operation, Israel intended to allow several dozen families in trailer homes to remain at Amona pending further discussion and possible legal moves.
    Echoing Sharon's policy, Olmert has also pledged to hold on in any peace treaty to large Jewish settlement blocs in the West Bank, occupied land which Palestinians want along with Gaza for a state of their own.
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