Woman Sets Self on Fire to Protest Gaza Evictions
A middle aged woman set herself on fire as part of massive protests against the evacation of the Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli troops begin forced Gaza evictions – Woman sets self afire in protest (CNN)
Israeli troops Wednesday entered the largest Jewish settlement in Gaza, Neveh Dekalim, to evacuate as many as 4,000 people, many of whom had barricaded themselves inside a synagogue. In protest against the evacuations, a 54-year-old woman in the Israeli city of Netivot set herself on fire Wednesday, police said. She was taken to a Beer Sheva hospital in serious condition. A protest was being held at a junction nearby, authorities said.
In Neveh Dekalim, unarmed Israeli soldiers led or carried away settlers or protesters who had infiltrated the settlements. Some of them were angry and tearful. Buses full of troops and policemen were brought in to transport them. “I don’t want to, I don’t want to,” screamed one woman as she was carried away, The Associated Press reported.
Officials said four troops would be brought in for every person refusing to leave. The buses transported settlers to temporary housing.
Lovely.
I have been looking at the photos from Gaza and wondering whether the dog-bites-man headline “Jews Strongly Disagree with One Another” would be anti-Semitic. Perhaps someone at OTB can advise?
Clearly an overreaction. But let’s be clear that this is a HORRIBLE policy move by Sharon. Pragmatism dictates that providing security for 8500 Israelis among 1.5 million Palestinians, but the policy is a betrayal of the encouragement the government gave for these people to occupy Gaza.
To Sharon’s credit, he plead with the people on Israeli nation television not to blame the soldiers but himself if they dislike the policy thus taking responsibility for his actions in a Trumanesque way.
Commendable.
I do pity the Israeli left, which is having to watch this conciliatory policy being carried out by … Sharon. The cognitive dissonance would have me hitting the bottle pretty hard.
As I watched the removal of the residents of Gaza being forcibly taken away, I really felt sorrow for the entire Nation of Israel. On the one hand, Sharon is making a gigantic gesture to achieve peace in the Gaza Strip, but I’m afraid this is going to go down in failure. He will not gain any understanding with the terrorist loving Europeans and the Palestinians will continue with their reign of terror. The one thing I have learned is, That you cannot trust any Arab. They will continue with their lies and killing just like they have done for years and the Europeans will continue to hate the Israelis.
Sharon now has only one option open and that is, If the Palestinians continue with the terror, He will have to re occupy the entire of the Gaza Strip and hope like hell hat he gets some understanding from the rest of the world. If not, Israel will have to continue the fight with terror alone, with the help of the US.
The entire situation is and will be one of sorrow.
“You cannot trust any Arab”?
A good test for these beliefs is to substitute “Jew” or “American” for “Arab” and then decide what you would think of that belief.
Anyway, I would guess Sharon would wall off Gaza before he’d reoccupy it. The occupation has been a festering sore for years now. Why repeat the experience?
Anderson, I don’t understand your “substitution”.
Am I to think that you are one of the few that does not trust Americans or Jews?
If that is the case, then I can only assume that you are one of those anti American Left wing Liberals that have a love affairs with terrorist like those who glorify running America into the dirt. Please clarify.
OK, call me a naif, but I don’t understand why Israel doesn’t say to the Gaza settlers: OK, if you want to stay here, you can, but we’re pulling out and you will be Jewish citizens of the Palestinian State. How many would stay? Hard to say, but at least they would have a choice; after all, there are Arabs in Israel.