Settlers turn hotel into Gaza fortress

Israeli extremists dig in for last stand against expulsion by Sharon

Conal Urquhart in Gush Katif
Sunday June 5, 2005
The Observer

RIght-wing Israeli extremists are turning a Gaza hotel into a fortress
to resist the Israeli army’s attempts to expel them forcibly in August
when Gaza is cleared of its Jewish settlers. Among them are supporters
of Baruch Goldstein, a settler who shot dead 28 Palestinians as they
prayed in 1994.The activists, who have come from Hebron and Gush Etzion
in the West Bank and Jerusalem, have taken over the deserted Palm Beach
hotel and are stockpiling food. They say 15 families have moved in as
they carry out renovations and they expect a hundred more to arrive
by 15 August, when Israeli forces are set to begin their withdrawal.

Their takeover comes as increasing numbers of settlers in Gaza are
turning their backs on the extremism of their West Bank counterparts
and preparing to leave peacefully. That pragmatism, however,
is rejected by the activists who took over the hotel last week,
declaring it their private property and installing guards with Uzis.

Nadia Matar, the head of Women in Green, a right-wing settler group,
believes the hotel will become a centre of resistance. ‘Tens of
thousands of people will break down fences to get here to stop [Prime
Minister Ariel] Sharon’s plan. That’s why we are stockpiling tents
and food so we can support them when they come.

‘We do not need to use violence to stop disengagement. Our numbers
will be enough. There will be 30 families living at the hotel, and
there are a further 150 who will come to stay . This is not easy. It’s
a sacrifice.’

Matar was joined by other figures from Israel’s extreme right,
including Baruch Marzel and Itamar Ben Giver, believed to have links
to Jewish underground groups that have claimed the lives of nine
Palestinians since 2000.

Many see the fight to thwart Sharon in apocalyptic terms. Shalom
Woollens, 44, who arrived in Israel five years ago from New York,
said the Gaza settlements are the Jewish line in the sand. ‘This is
the fulcrum of the battle on terror. I am putting my life on the line
for this.’

Matar added: ‘This is not just a fight for these settlements. It’s
a fight for Western civilisation. If we lose here, Arab terrorists
will see that their violence is rewarded.’

The hotel was built in Gush Katif in the Eighties on a beautiful beach
closed to the Palestinians. Since the beginning of the intifada in
2000, it has had no customers and was closed down.

Not all the protesters present the battle in such stark terms as
Matar, however. Danny Cohen, 33, a teacher from Jerusalem, mixed his
activism with pleasure as he playfully buried three of his four sons
in sand on the beach. ‘It makes a nice change and I hope it will make
a difference. My wife is on extended maternity leave and I commute
to teach in Jerusalem. We will stay until we are sure the threat
to the settlements is over. I have informed the army that I will
only serve my reserve duty here. If they want to send me to prison,
I will go to prison with the same pride with which I used to perform
my military service,’ he said.

But the extremists appear to be in a minority as large numbers of
Gaza settlers resign themselves to their fate. In Rafiach Yam, one
of Gush Katif’s settlements, many houses are already deserted.

Near Nitzanim, the bulldozers are flattening land for new housing
for those who are fleeing from Gaza. It is an irony. Once this area
was home to Palestinian families who fled to Gaza.

Among those who have decided to resettle near Nitzanim is Martin
Granot, 54, who is rinsing his aqualungs in the shade of his palm
trees. In an ice-box lie several large grouper fish he harpooned
that morning. ‘This is paradise. If there was a way to stay with the
Palestinians, I would,’ he said.

As well as leaving their home, he and his wife will close their textile
factory which employs about 60 Palestinians. They cannot continue to
manufacture clothes without the benefit of hiring Palestinians at pay
rates of between £1 and £2 per hour and the tax advantages available
to settlers.

He believes it is not only his family who will suffer. ‘The
Palestinians are crying more than I am,’ he says. ‘Because they will
have no work once we are gone.’

Abbas puts off Palestinian elections

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced yesterday that
parliamentary elections due next month would be delayed, a widely
expected move that the militant Hamas group said stemmed from fears
it would do well at the ballot box.

In a public decree, Abbas said he had decided to postpone the 17
July poll to allow time to resolve a dispute over proposed reforms
to voting laws. He gave no new date for the election, but said one
would be given in a future presidential announcement.

The delay could stoke tensions between Abbas’s Fatah faction and
Hamas, which had been poised to make a strong showing in its first
campaign. Hamas had reacted to earlier hints of a delay by accusing
Fatah of manoeuvring to cling to power.

Hamas, the Islamist vanguard of a Palestinian militant revolt,
agreed to a ‘period of calm’ until the end of this year after Abbas
and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared a ceasefire last
February. But the deal between Abbas and militant factions hinged in
part on his promise of more power-sharing through elections.

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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress