Four police officers injured in clashes with West Bank settlers

Haaretz Last update - 15:10 19/06/2008
By Nadav Shragai, Haaretz Correspondent

Four Border Police officers were wounded on Thursday in clashes with settlers, which erupted when security forces came to two illegal outposts near the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar in order to post evacuation orders and to demolish one caravan. Settlers said that 11 of the Yitzhar residents were also wounded, and that one lost consciousness. Several settlers were reportedly arrested after they locked police officers inside Yitzhar following the demolition of a caravan at the nearby illegal outpost of Havat Shaked.

In addition to closing the settlement's gate, the Yitzhar residents also punctured the wheels of the police officers' cars in order to prevent their exit. A Border Police officer taking part in the operation refused orders to assist in the demolition of the caravan, and was arrested by his fellow officers. The officer, an ultra-Orthodox Chabad Hassid, broke down in tears and refused the order after reported pressure from the settlers to do so.

Reffering to the Gaza Strip cease-fire deal that Israel struck with Hamas, Yigal Amitai, a Yitzhar spokesman, said that "only those who make a deal with terrorists in the south and abandon Gilad Shalit and the residents of Sderot have the strength and the gall to fight residents of Samaria." Samaria is the biblical name for the northern West Bank. Amitai also said that Havat Shaked had already been evacuated four times.

On Wednesday, Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai told MK Uri Ariel, the faction head of National Union-National Religious Party, that the Israel Defense Forces and police intend to demolish six caravans this week in the illegal outpost of Bracha A., which is roughly 700 meters from Yitzhar. Vilnai defended the legality of the move, saying, "All of the issues on the matter [of the outpost] have been discussed several times in legal proceedings and therefore the state is determined to demolish it." MK Ariel called Vilnai's statement "shameful," and said that he and his colleagues would exercise their right to civil disobedience in the face of every planned demolition.