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Right-wing Israelis Step Up Protests against Gaza Pullout
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(http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=DC6D58:3919ACA

Protesters use glue, chains to seal locks of post offices, courts,
other buildings





Israeli ultra-orthodox Jew Sharon Tel-Tsour, who opposes Sharon's Gaza
disengagement plan - June 5, 2005Jewish settlers and their supporters
are escalating protests against the Israeli government's plan to pull
out of the Gaza Strip this summer.  Lawlessness in the Palestinian
territories is raising questions about who will control Gaza once the
Israelis withdraw.

Right-wing Israeli protesters sealed shut 150 public offices, as they
stepped up a civil disobedience campaign against Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon's Gaza "disengagement" plan. The protesters used super glue and
chains to seal the locks of post offices, courts and other buildings
at the beginning of the work week. Police say five 16-year-old
suspects were arrested.

Settlement activist Israel Meidad.

"Well, at the present moment I think that we could say that first of
all we are fighting for democracy, which means that people have a
voice," he said. "We don't want to have the government's policies
completely override the people's right to protest."

The protests came as hawks in Mr. Sharon's ruling Likud party launched
a last-ditch





Right-wing acticists wear shirts with "Gush Katif" forever on the
back, referring to the bloc of Jewish settlements in Gaza to be
evacuated under Sharon's diengagment plan, as they march in the
Jerusalem Day parade in Jerusalem, Sunday, June 5, 2005campaign to try
to stop the pullout, in which 21 Gaza settlements will be dismantled
and eight-thousand Jews removed from their homes. Former Defense
Minister Moshe Arens of the Likud says the withdrawal will harm
Israeli security.

"I see nothing to compensate for the traumatic experience that we will
go through, nothing to compensate for pulling people out of their
homes, there's nothing to be gained," Mr. Arens says.

The Likud hawks are warning that Gaza will become a terrorist enclave
once Israel pulls out.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas wants Israel to coordinate the
withdrawal with him, saying he will maintain law and order. But so
far, Mr. Abbas has failed to seize control of the streets from
militant groups. In the West Bank town of Nablus, gunmen raided two
Palestinian Authority buildings, demanding guarantees that they won't
be disarmed. And in Gaza, militants briefly abducted a Palestinian
diplomat.

These acts of lawlessness play on Israeli fears that once the army
pulls out, Gaza will plunge into chaos.


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