Police and Activists Clash at Shvut Ami Outpost

(IsraelNN.com) Police and activists clashed at Shvut Ami (“Return of My People”) on Monday in the government’s ongoing efforts to destroy the nascent hilltop community.

Activists reported that three youths were injured by police who were trying to destroy the outpost. Police arrested three young women who they said attacked officers at the site.

The outpost, one of five established during the Sukkot holiday, is located near the Jewish town of Kedumim in Samaria. Some 200 people arrived the first day to help build the new community, but many had left to return to their jobs and homes by the end of the holiday.

The other communities have already been dismantled, though activists have said they will return to the sites to strengthen the Jewish presence throughout Judea and Samaria.

Security forces also tried to destroy Shvut Ami at the end of Sukkot, but failed to do so after dozens of activists returned to the area to rebuild the site. One week ago, the ten remaining holdouts at the time were arrested and hauled off to the nearby Kadum police station, including the two boys.

Many activists in the past have accused the police of beating them and then accusing them of assault.

Two minors, ages 14 and 15, were arrested last week during another attempt by police to forcibly evacuate activists from the community. Ten people were hauled off to the police station at the time, including the two teens.

Orit Struk, a spokesperson for the Yesha (Judea and Samaria) Civil Rights Organization later said the two teens were brutally beaten at the police station by Officer Abu Salman Aslah.

Strook said Aslah removed the teens from the police vehicle that transported them from the community and took them to a secluded spot outside the police station. No one else was there to watch as he kicked, punched and beat the two boys, inflicting bruises all over their bodies.

Struk was informed of the incident a short time later and submitted an urgent complaint to the Police Internal Investigation Department. A police spokesman told Arutz-7’s Shlomo Piotrokovsky “the police will take action in accordance with [the unit's] recommendations.

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U.S. Micromanaged Israeli Evacuation (Oversaw Uprooting of Small Jewish Communities)

WND ^ | October 16, 2007 | Aaron Klein

U.S. micromanaged Israeli evacuation Oversaw uprooting of small Jewish communities

Posted: October 16, 2007 5:12 p.m. Eastern

JERUSALEM – The evacuation the past few days of five makeshift Jewish communities in the West Bank was micromanaged behind the scenes by the U.S. government, WND has learned.

Israeli police, backed by the Israel Defense Forces, clashed in recent days with Jewish activists and West Bank Jewish residents while destroying the five small outposts the government deemed illegal, because construction was not coordinated with proper housing authorities. The outposts, erected alongside existing legal West Bank Jewish communities, were first built Sept. 30, during the Jewish Succot holiday.

Israel strictly enforces regulations against Jewish building in the West Bank while hundreds of thousands of illegal Palestinian outposts have been constructed the past few years. That includes massive apartment complexes and refugee camps on hundreds of acres of land in Jerusalem owned by the Jewish National Fund, a Jewish nonprofit that uses donor funds to purchase property for Jewish settlement.

Four of the five new makeshift West Bank Jewish communities were evacuated by Israeli forces last week. Meanwhile, police are still struggling to uproot the final outpost, named Shvut Ami, Hebrew for “Return of My People.” Activists and police authorities clashed yesterday at the community, located near the Jewish town of Kedumim.

(Excerpt) Read more at worldnetdaily.com ...

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