More Than 100,000 Protest Sharon Plan
Sun Jan 11, 7:10 PM ET
By LAURIE COPANS, Associated Press Writer
TEL AVIV, Israel - More than 100,000 settlers and their backers on Sunday protested the Israeli prime minister's plans to evacuate Jewish settlements as part of a peace agreement or a unilateral withdrawal from Palestinian areas.
The demonstrators filled a Tel Aviv square to listen to ministers from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's own Cabinet heap criticism on him. Some threatened to leave the ruling coalition of he carries out the plan.
Sharon has warned that in a peace deal, Israel would not be able to retain all of its settlements in the West Bank and Gaza. He has also said some settlements would be moved if peace efforts collapse and Israel moves unilaterally to draw its own boundary with Palestinian areas.
Gathering in Tel Aviv's Rabin square, named for Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (news - web sites) who was assassinated there by a Jewish extremist after a peace rally, the crowd carried signs protesting against Sharon and his plan.
Tel Aviv police chief Yossi Sedbon said police estimates put the crowd at 120,000 people.
Among the protesters were many members of Sharon's own Likud party, including a dozen lawmakers.
"Uprooting settlements rips apart the nation," read one sign. "Sharon ? resign, we don't want you any more," said another.
Housing Minister Effi Eitam of the pro-settler National Religious Party accused the prime minister of weakness. "In the battlefield there is no disengagement plan; you know that would be running away," he said
"We won't dismantle settlements and we won't expel Jews," Eitam said to the cheers of the crowd. "We will not be a party to dismantling settlements."
The settlers and their supporters believe they have a God-given right to live wherever they want within the biblical land of Israel, which includes the West Bank. Palestinians say the settlements are an encroachment on land they claim for a future state.
"All of Zionism is based on the belief that we have a right to this land," Likud lawmaker and parliamentary speaker Reuven Rivlin told AP.
"I came to demonstrate for the land of Israel. I am against the dismantling of settlements, I am against the disengagement plan and I will vote against it in the Knesset (parliament)," Rivlin said.
Organizers said all the lawmakers present had signed a pledge not to support legislation that would uproot settlements or create a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza.
Protester Micha Cohen, 35, said he had come to the demonstration with his two small children "because for us the struggle is for their future ... we see settlements as important places that should not be evacuated."
Many of the protesters were teenagers bused in by their schools and youth movements.
"Sharon can't ignore such a big group of people," said settler leader Pinchas Wallerstein. "There is no doubt that it will be much harder to dismantle settlements after this."
Also in the crowd was a small group from the outlawed Jewish extremist group Kach, waiving the group's yellow flag and calling for the expulsion of the Arabs.
"The best thing is to throw (the Arabs) out. But the government won't do that, they are clowns," said one 17-year-old Kach member who identified himself only as David and said he was originally from California.
Security at the event was heavy, with 1,300 police guarding against possible attacks. All protesters entering the square had to first pass through a metal detector. Police, wary of the number of guns carried by settlers, posted signs reading "If, God forbid, there is a terror attack, it is absolutely forbidden to use personal weapons. "
Police also cordoned off a memorial to Rabin, fearing it could be defaced during the demonstration.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=736&e=8&u=/ap/20040112/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_settler_protest
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