90,000 Israelis will block transfer of Gaza Jews
By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff

February 15th, 2005

JERUSALEM - Some 30,000 Israelis gathered in southern Gaza Monday evening to protest Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plan to forcibly expel the area’s Jewish residents.

Benzi Lieberman, head of the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza (Yesha), said three times that number would descend on Gaza when the evacuation began in order to prevent its implementation.

That is unless Sharon agrees to put his plan to a national referendum, the results of which the settlers have committed to honor.

Sharon, however, has grown increasingly determined in his refusal to seek a public mandate for his 180-degree policy shift regarding the settlements.

‘Let the people decide’

Monday evening’s Katif Bloc rally took place under the banner “Let the people decide.”

It was the latest event in a campaign by the settlers and their supporters to convince Sharon to hold a national referendum on his “disengagement” plan – now embodied in the Expulsion and Compensation Bill currently making its way through the Knesset.

Right-leaning Israelis insist a referendum is necessary since Sharon was originally elected on a platform rejecting retreat from Judea, Samaria and Gaza and the transfer of Jewish civilians.

The prime minister does not possess a public mandate for his new leftist policies, it is argued.

The Gaza settlers have adopted the color orange to symbolize the struggle to save their homes. At Monday’s rally they unveiled their latest gimmick – an orange bracelet bearing the slogan “Let the people decide”.

Israelis will block evacuation

Should Sharon continue in his obstinate refusal to “let the people decide,” however, Israelis will descend on Gaza en masse to block the evacuation, Lieberman told the crowd.

Lieberman announced that more than 90,000 Israeli Jews had already pledged to travel to Gaza on the day the evacuation begins to prevent its implementation.

The original version of Sharon’s transfer law stipulated heavy jail terms for anyone who physically disrupted the expulsion of Gaza’s Jews.

Minor disturbances

At the same time as the Katif Bloc rally, small groups of Israelis demonstrated at the entrances to Jerusalem, Haifa, Bet She’an and Ashdod, blocking vehicular traffic into and out of those cities.

When police came to forcibly break up those protests, they met with violent resistance.

Some 50 protestors were arrested, and 10 police officers were reportedly lightly injured in the altercations. The number of demonstrators wounded by the police was not released.