Israeli settlers raided a former illegal settlement, attempted to build a synagogue, and vandalized nearby Palestinian property

Date: 23 / 07 / 2007 Time: 10:59

Bethlehem – Ma'an – 

Hundreds of Israeli right-wing settlers began marching to the evacuated northern West Bank settlement of Homesh on Sunday morning. The settlers were stopped in their tracks by Israeli police, but Israeli sources report, the settlers hid in the area, raided the site during Sunday night and proceeded to build a synagogue.

The settlers also erected a wooden tower on a hill north of the former settlement to mark two years since disengagement.

Homesh was one of four illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which were evacuated during Israeli disengagement in 2005. Right-wing settlers regularly attempt to reenter the site and inhabit the area.

Israeli daily, Haaretz, reported that Israeli settlers waited in the area for the authorities to leave and then entered the site carrying building materials and began reconstructing a synagogue, which had been demolished during disengagement.

Also on Sunday evening, hundreds of extremist settlers, who had been barred from entering the area of the former illegal settlement by Israeli police, made their way to nearby Palestinian villages and hurled rocks at local residents' homes.

Israeli military sources also reported that the settlers vandalized two army vehicles.

Israeli settlers take control of Homesh settlement 

Monday July 23, 2007 12:59 by IMEMC staff - IMEMC & agencies

Israeli border police and Israeli army troops started on Monday to evacuate hundreds of right-wing illegal Israeli settlers who managed to infiltrate the abandoned Homesh illegal Israeli settlement and commenced with building a synagogue there. Using water canons and batons only, the troops managed to arrest a number of activists, while others escaped to nearby Palestinian-owned land.

The police evacuated the settlement on Sunday, but several hundred settlers managed to bypass the huge number of Israeli police and army troops and infiltrated the settlement on Monday morning.

Israeli occupation soldiers on Sunday detained 11 right-wing Israeli settlers after they clashed with local Palestinians in the vicinity of the abandoned Homesh settlement, located near the northern West Bank city of Nablus. The settlers, who were attempting to reoccupy the abandoned Homesh settlement, were arrested on suspicion of vandalizing military property.

Of the approximately 300 settlers who attended the action, 70 entered Burqa village, located near Nablus, and clashed with local residents. Settlers attacked the residents in their homes and destroyed animal shades and cars.

Since Homesh was abandoned under the terms of the disengagement plan in 2005, the former settlement has been the site of much right-wing settler activity. On a number of occasions, and often under the protection of the Israeli army, settlers have re-entered the area in an attempt to reoccupy it.

Most recently, the Homesh First Organization, an umbrella group of right-wing settler associations, has called for the reoccupation of the ex-settlement, with Yossi Dagan, a senior member of the group, stating: “Today the public understands that returning to Homesh is the answer to Qassams. The public spirit fuels us with great optimism. Today the public understands that the disengagement was a mistake. Even the residents of Tel Aviv must demand Homesh be reclaimed, so that God forbid what's happening in Sderot and the Gaza-perimeter communities won't happen in central Israel.”

According to a Peace Now report, there are approximately 121 official Israeli settlements. These settlements are built on confiscated Palestinian land and, as a direct contravention of the Fourth Geneva Convention, have been declared illegal by various UN Security Council resolutions and a number of international legal bodies, including the International Court of Justice.

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Note to readers:

The Israeli settlements as well as the Land-Grab, Apartheid Wall in the Palestinian occupied territories have been built illegally on confiscated Palestinian lands. These represent a major violation of international law, Geneva Conventions, and they obstruct reaching a peaceful resolution for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

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