Settlers call for non-violent resistance

Leaders unite, call for more effective protest to home demolitions.

By TOVAH LAZAROFF
house demolition 224 88 (photo credit: AP [file])
house demolition 224 88
(photo credit: AP [file])
In a unified call for non-violent resistance, the rabbinical and political leadership of Samaria called Thursday evening on all residents to mount organized acts of civil disobedience against any IDF attempt to demolish new housing or any other structures in their communities.
Over the past few months, IDF enforcement actions against those who have violated the 10-month moratorium on new settlement construction have passed relatively quietly.
On Thursday, 25 community heads and 14 rabbis in Samaria pledged to challenge that enforcement more effectively but emphatically without violence.
In glossy pamphlet titled “Heading Out to Battle,” they instructed residents to stymie the IDF through civil disobedience only. In particular, they called on residents to block the paths of security personnel as they attempted to enter settlements to carry out demolition orders.
They asked the residents not to engage in the “price tag” policy ofretribution, in which, after past demolitions, settlers carried outacts of vengeance against Palestinians.
They also said that people must not act violently toward security personnel.
In the pamphlet, published by the Samaria Citizens Committee, settlersleaders said they had initiated an organized resistance campaignbecause the IDF had told them of its intention to demolish structuresat 46 construction sites, including, in some cases, homes that werealready finished.
“We must respond to this kind of destruction,” the pamphlet said.
A united response was particularly important, it said, in light of theproximity talks with the Palestinian Authority and reports of Israel’sintention to withdraw from more of the West Bank.
It added that it did not appear as if an end to the moratorium was anywhere in sight.