Settlers plan Israeli pullout disruption
Jewish settlers opposed to Sharon’s Gaza pullout plan have changed the addresses on their ID cards to become residents of illegal settlements that are due to be evacuated.
Colonists from the occupied West Bank and parts of Israel made the ID card modifications to get by Israeli checkpoints ahead of the Gaza pullout, according to an Israeli newspaper on Tuesday.
Jews who are opposed to Sharon’s Gaza plan intend to resist from within the settlements by increasing the number of settlers in the area, said Haaretz.
Young families and youths from West Bank settlements and other parts of Israel, who want to strengthen the settlement blocs’ communities with resisters have recently moved into the area.
At least 20 new families have already settled in the area demarcated for evacuation, said the paper.
The Israeli military has however not decided when Gaza will be declared a closed military zone and bar any new settlers from the area.
It has also been reported that Israeli security forces intend to prevent anyone who is not a resident of the settlements from entering the area as they seek to reduce the number of people who will be within the area as the time for evacuation draws closer.
Sharon’s assured majority
Israeli parliament began a two-day debate on Sharon‘s plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements. A final vote on the plan was expected on Wednesday, with Sharon assured a majority.
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Sharon is said to be assured a |
The parliament vote is to be followed on Sunday by a Cabinet endorsement of the pullout plan, already authorized by Sharon in principle several months ago.
The procedural vote is necessary because the Justice Ministry ruled that Jewish settlers who will be forced out of their homes must be given five months’ notice and will be compensated for relocation.
The Cabinet will be asked later to vote on each of the withdrawal’s four phases as they come up.
Demonstrations
On Monday, hundreds of Jewish settlers and their supporters blocked several main roads during evening rush hour, scuffling with police, burning tyres and causing traffic jams, to protest the Gaza plan. Police dragged protesters away and detained dozens.
Jewish extremists opposed to the Gaza plan have issued death threats against Sharon and his ministers.
Sharon told legislators on Monday that he has hired private security guards to protect the grave of his wife, Lily, for fear it would be desecrated by opponents to his Gaza plan.
In response Israel’s minister of Public Security Gideon Ezra strongly recommended, that an Israeli, who had threatened the ministers and their families, be placed under administrative detention.
Administrative detention
According to an Israeli public prosecutor this is would be the first time an Israeli has been recommended for administrative detention.
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Jewish settlers changed their |
Administrative detention is detention without charge or trial, authorized by administrative order rather than by judicial decree.
It is allowed by international law within rigid limitations.
An Israeli human rights organization, B’Tselem, charges that Israel’s use of administrative detention violates those limitations.
Human rights violations
Israel has violated numerous limitations and resolutions, and has openly contradicted article 49 of the Geneva Convention, with reference to Israel holding Palestinians for prolonged periods of time without trying them and without informing them of the suspicions against them, says B’Tselem.
Israeli military order 132 also allows for the arrest and detention of Palestinian children as young as 14, up to an age of 17.
These youth are confined with adult prisoners and criminal convicts.
This practice contravenes the Fourth Geneva Convention and the UN Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty, according to the rights group.