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Uprooting Jews

Pre-retreat settler demonization continues


By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff
October 31, 2004

Efforts to portray the Jewish settlers as a community of dangerous fanatics prior to implementation of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s “disengagement” plan have been joined by Israel’s Police Department, settler officials charged Sunday.

A Gaza-based spokesman said the police had unjustifiably accepted the belief being championed by Israel’s left-wing media that the settlers would resort to widespread violence against those sent to forcibly evacuate them.

The Jews of Gaza have repeatedly insisted violence would play no role in their campaign to save the homes and communities in which they had invested so much blood, sweat and tears.

Preparing for war

Sharon’s government decided earlier in the month that Israel’s Border Police forces would carry out the forced removal of Jewish families from their homes in the Gaza Strip, while the IDF protected them from expected “Palestinian” attacks.

Training for that unprecedented operation has incorporated the assumption that at least some settlers would take drastic measures to defend their homes, such as kidnapping police officers, booby-trapping buildings, and using live fire against the enforcers of Sharon’s policies.

Several weeks ago, observers described a “disturbing” training exercise at an army base in southern Israel, where Border Police forces were practicing forced evacuation on some of their colleagues dressed as Jewish settlers.

The atmosphere of hatred was said to be shocking.

A number of IDF soldiers whose homes are in Judea, Samaria and Gaza witnessed the exercise and vocally protested the way the police were treating the make believe settlers.

Police officials asserted such preparations were necessary since “complex situations” could arise from forcibly uprooting entire communities.

“Unfortunately, the Israel Police has also decided to join the quest of de-legitimization Sharon has been conducting,” Gaza Beach Municipal spokesman Eran Shtrenberg told Ma’ariv Sunday.

Commentators have noted it is crucial for Sharon and his government to pain the settlers in a negative light in order to avoid widespread sympathy for them prior to disengagement.

Non-violent campaign

The settlers, for their part, have made it clear on numerous occasions that, while intense, the campaign to save their communities would not include violence.

A public relations effort launched by the Jews of Gaza earlier this month explained their strategy for victory.

A colorful and professionally done publication put out by the Yesha Council explained that the way to defeat Sharon’s plan was to mobilize massive public opposition, which in turn would convince those politicians whose support Sharon needs to vote down the plan.

“Violence is the weapon of the weak who has no confidence in himself,” the flyer read. “People of the truth act with strength born of confidence in the justness of their path and the faith of the public that supports them.”

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