|
| Week ending Shabbat, January 14, 2006 |
14 Tevet, 5766 |
|
Record Growth in Judea and Samaria:
Surely supporters of the disengagement expected the number of Jews living throughout Israel's post 1967 six-day-war borders would have declined in the months following the disengagement. What has happened is the exact opposite. According to the statistics reported by Israel's Interior Ministry, 250,179 Jews were officially registered as residents of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza prior to the start of the disengagement (August of 2005). Included in that number were the 9,224 Jewish residents of Gaza and northern Samaria who were later forcibly expelled from their homes. Now, six months later, the number of Jews living in Judea and Samaria (no longer including Gaza) has increased to 253,074. This extreme increase reveals that in just four months, more than 12,000 Jews moved into Judea and Samaria. This is an increase of 4.8 percent. Even if the thousands of Jews who were expelled moved into Judea and Samaria (which is not the case), the total number of new Jewish residents in the Yesha areas has still grown by approximately 1.5 percent. With undercounting taken into consideration, conservative estimates are that the number of Jews living in Judea and Samaria totals 278,000. Currently Jewish growth in Samaria and Judea considerably outpaces that of the Arabs. If this trend continues as it has for the past 30 years, the Arab and Jewish population in Judea and Samaria will reach parity in a few years. A Jewish majority in this region is only a matter of time.
United Kingdom Bank Sued:
In New York's Federal Court a lawsuit has been filed by a group of American victims of Palestinian terror. The filed suit is against the National Westminster Bank, accused of permitting Interpal, a recognized UK-based Hamas charity organization, to open accounts and transfer funds. This recent case is one of several where lawyers in both Israel and the United States are suing banking institutions for effectively supporting terrorist organizations. If the banks are found guilty they could be forced to pay damages totaling millions of dollars.
A victim of the bombing of the No. 2 bus in Jerusalem in August 2003, Zvi Weiss was left severely wounded. Twenty-two others people were murdered in the incident. Nitzana Darshan-Leitner, one of Weiss's lawyers, told The Jerusalem Post that there was clear evidence to suggest that money from Saudi Arabia reached Hamas terrorists via Interpal. "In 2003, the US declared that the charity in question was undoubtedly linked to a functioning terrorist organization and all their bank accounts were frozen by the UK," she added.
Marching to a New Beat:
"March Dondurama" is Israel's first marching band and they have been performing at clubs, parties, festivals, and just street corners throughout Israel. A recent performance was on a street near Jerusalem's outdoor market (ha shuk). Inspired by the Breslav Hassidim (photo left), the orthodox group that drives around the city blaring loud music and dancing in the streets in an attempt to make people happy, the "March Dondurama" set out to do the same, but without the religious twist. Group participants include some professionals along with a career army officer, a film student, a biology teacher, and a design student. One member had succeeded at a similar venture in Brooklyn, New York.
Foiled Attempt to form Kidnapping-Cell:
It was released this week that Shadi Halawe of Gaza was arrested a month ago in a joint General Security Service-IDF-police operation. After entering Israel by way of the Sinai Desert, Halawe was assigned by the Hamas terror organization with the mission of forming a cell to abduct Israelis. Their intentions were to use them as hostages for the release of Arab terrorists held in Israeli prisons. The twenty-six year-old terrorist admitted that, as a member of both Hamas and Islamic Jihad, he had taken part in a variety of terrorist activities against Israel over the past several years. After joining Islamic Jihad in 2002, Halawe became involved in planning and perpetrating various types of attacks against IDF forces, involving bombings, shootings, and grenade and rocket attacks. He also admitted to having recruited one of the three terrorists who killed four soldiers in the Erez Industrial Zone in June 2003. Halawe joined Hamas in 2004 and furthered terrorist activities by firing RPG shells and placing bombs in many attacks against IDF forces in Gaza. He also participated in dozens of attacks against Jewish communities in Gaza and surrounding areas.
Halawe told interrogators that Hamas operative Mahmoud Shambari asked him to take on the mission of forming a kidnapping cell in Judea and Samaria. Halawe actually left Gaza twice. The first time was just after the IDF left Gaza, and the Gaza-Egyptian border was left unsupervised. Mobs of Arabs crossed into Egypt, so he returned to Gaza for fear of being arrested by Egypt. He later requested a PA ("Palestinian" Authority) permit to leave for medical reasons, which was given to him without question. Once he was in Sinai he hired a smuggler to get him into Israel for $1,000. Together with other illegal infiltrators he was soon arrested by Israeli forces.
Demolitions in Gush Etzion:
Wednesday afternoon IDF soldiers fired tear gas into a house in Sde Boaz [just north of N'vei Daniel and about a twenty minute drive south of Jerusalem] in an effort to dispossess the residents (with other demonstrators) from their home. When the first house was leveled, both the soldiers and the brave protestors turned their attention to the foundations of another home. It had recently been painstakingly built over recent weeks by a young man who had just become engaged and was preparing his home for his new wife and eventual family. They had received less than twenty-four hours notice of the demolition. The scene was tremendously emotional and charged. Strong hearted, faithful youths locked arms and refused to move as they faced a violent response from their own army. When asked if the violence was mutual, Arutz-7 reporter Ezra HaLevi said, "The protestors were told in advance by the leaders here that violence is not our way, and the like... But there are certainly verbal provocations, and the soldiers just seem to be losing it [meaning control of themselves]. They arrested the person who was serving as the leader, and then when someone else took over, they arrested him as well."
When asked how many people participated in the protest, HaLevi said, "There have been hundreds throughout the day, and right now I would say that there are about 250. The weather has been totally crazy - first it was sunny, then rainy and windy and foggy, then it cleared up again, and now it has begun hailing very heavily. We're atop the highest point in Gush Etzion ..." "There are more than 100 soldiers, he reported, but no females, "so many girls have been dragged by male soldiers."
At the same time, IDF forces are also preparing to destroy houses in the Binyamin community of Amona next week, as well as in Hevron. The Amona destruction has been put on hold, however, at least until after a Supreme Court hearing on the issue next week. In Hevron, eleven families fear a forced evacuation from their homes near the Avraham Avinu neighborhood. Land of Israel supporters from around the country have been asked to arrive at these two spots, in order to prevent the expulsions - both of which are seen to be test-cases in the expected battles over many Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria in the future.
Suicide Bomber Fails:
On Thursday Israeli Defense Force (IDF) security forces together with Border Police surrounded two houses in Jenin (Northern Samaria). The intent was to arrest wanted Islamic Jihad terrorists known to be hiding there. Three surrendered and came out. Then suddenly a suicide bomber who was strapped with explosives ran toward the soldiers and blew himself up. He managed to kill himself, but failed to injure anyone else. He was immediately followed by another terrorist who ran out of the house wearing a bullet-proof vest and fired on the troops. He was shot dead and the soldiers took control of the house. Explosives and weapons were found in the house.
Islamic Jihad terrorists have carried out six suicide bombings in 2005. Seeking to reduce the infrastructure of the terrorist group in the two "Palestinian" Authority-controlled cities, the IDF has increased operations in Jenin and Tul Karem. This effort has dramatically increased since the Disengagement.
|
| | |
