“It’s the first real test for Olmert.It will become a critical test of how serious the government is about this.”

So you can’t claim that Olmert has nothing to do with this.

This is very much about Israeli vs palestinian land. This is the heart of the issue. Otherwise, why isn’t the government doing the same thing with illegal Beduin houses in the Negev?

Furthermore, just because you think the removal of the houses was justified and sanctioned by a court order, does NOT give the police carte blanche to do as they like. There is a concept in law regarding unreasonable force. The police have no right to use it. If they are defending their lives, then of course they can use more force – that is called reasonable force. But there seems to have been instances of policemen lashing out at some protesters who happened to be there, but were not throwing the boulders etc. You seem to automatically accept the notion that all the police were blameless, and all the protesters were to blame. This is a simplistic, wrong approach IMHO.

You also said that “The protestors picked the wrong event to protest”. So you don’t believe in freedom of speech or the right to civil disobedience? I, of course, condemn any violent civil disobedience, but I think some of the protesters were just there making noise.

I repeat what I said before – some of the police and protesters should be ashamed of themselves.

They picked the wrong event to do this in. This wasn’t a Disengagement. It was a court order, staing that 9 houses on this legitimate settlement of Amona were built without permits. Therefore, these people were squatters. They didn’t destroy the settlement. They didn’t destroy all the houses, only the 9 built without permits. So, it has nothing to do with Palestinian vs Israeli land. Because, as long as these families come back and get permits, they can fully build houses in this LEGITIMATE settlement.

So, let’s get the facts straight. You want everyone to be ashamed of themselves. I dont think the police need to be. Israel is a country of law, regardless of whether this was the right move or not. Olmert has nothing to do with this. What these people did was illegal, and it was brought to the court by a left-wing group. Now, I don’t agree with their tactics. The judges still said these 9 families were legally squatting on land.

These kids threw bricks, stones, and other projectiles at the police. They threw STONES!! No better than the Palestinians. When Palestinians throw stones at the Israeli army, we say that the they should shoot, kill, or whatever back at the Palestinians in order to defend themselves. But, we have Jews doing the same thing from closer range, the police should be ashamed of themselves for defending themselves. The police should have come in with rubber bullets in hand. It’s ridiculous to put this as shameful on both sides, when one side should never have been there to begin with.

Either we live by law, or we are destroyed. Whether it’s right for Olmert to be going after this is irrelevant. The protestors picked the wrong event to protest. This wasn’t a question of Disengagement. They had a problem with this, they should have appealed to the courts, not thrown CINDER BLOCKS at the police!

-OC

What really happened? Please post as many links to different media from the event as possible!

Here’s Channel 2 video link and another from Ynet news.

http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2006/02/police-beat-and-injure-hundreds-of.html