Extremists Disrupt West Bank Evacuation

August 16, 2005

Source: Haaretz

On August 16, 2005 Haaretz reported, "At midnight, hundreds of youngsters in Neveh Dekalim came to the entrance gate and blocked Gush Katif's main road. Several blocked an army jeep, smashed the windows and punctured the tires. The frightened soldiers fled in the sputtering vehicle, but not before their assailants had burned classified aerial photographs. Community leaders watched in silence... Suddenly the concern was real that the extremists in the large knitted skullcaps would take their wrath out not on the soldiers trapped in their tire-punctured vehicle, but on the adults who tried to gain control over what was happening. It was Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, one of the religious public's most prominent figures, who tried to persuade a handful of hotheads to unblock the road, and found himself in the eye of the storm. There ensued a shoving match with the rabbi, and even after the fight broke up, someone sought revenge, and tried to get to Aviner 'to let him have it.' Several yeshiva boys stopped the guy, while others stood by shouting at Aviner: 'You're not a rabbi, you're a dog.' That was the scene at 1 A.M., an hour after Gush Katif was locked down. Some were shaken and warned of 'civil war' - within the orange camp - but it signaled more the helplessness of civic leaders, including members of the Yesha Council, rabbis and the Gush Katif leadership, in the face of a furious group of anarchists."