Israelis plan 90km human chain

2004-07-25 12:26

Jerusalem - Tens of thousands of Israelis were expected for form a human chain later on Sunday in a show of strength against the government's plans to pull all Jewish settlers and troops out of the Gaza Strip.

Organisers were hoping for a continuous line of protesters from the Nissanit settlement in the north of the Palestinian territory to the centre of Jerusalem, a distance of some 90km.

Up to 15 MPs from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Likud party were expected to take part in the protest, the largest organised so far against the so-called disengagement plan which will also involve the evacuation of four northern West Bank settlements but the de facto annexation of other larger settlement blocs.

The protest was to be held on the eve of commemorations which mark the destruction of the first and second Jewish Temples. The chain was to end at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City, the holiest site in Judaism.

One of the organisers of the protest, Ariav Moshe, said he expected more than 100 000 people to take part, adding that 600 buses had been laid on to transport the protesters.

"We want to say to Sharon: stop this process and the people of Israel are behind us," he told AFP. "The demonstration will be a massive but non-violent show of strength."

Rachel Saperstein, a resident of the Gush Katif settlement bloc in southern Gaza, had travelled to Jerusalem to join in the protest.

"We are sending a message to the prime minister and the government that the people are against the expulsion of Jews from Gush Katif," she told AFP.

"We regard this as a test case. If they can do it to Gush Katif, other communities all over Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and eventually Jerusalem will be disengaged from the country.

"The people of Israel have a right to settle in any part of the historical land of Israel," she said.

"This is a very dangerous precedent. If he (Sharon) can expel Jews, any country in the world can expel Jews."

Sharon's cabinet approved the disengagement plan early last month but the move triggered the departure of three cabinet ministers, stripping the premier of a parliamentary majority.

The prime minister is now looking to form a new broad-based coalition government to ensure the pullout plan can win approval in the Knesset.

The pullout of the Jewish residents of the 21 Gaza settlements is scheduled to be concluded by September 2005 and all troops should have left by the end of next year.

- AFP