TEL AVIV, Israel, March 26 (UPI) -- Thousands of Israeli settlers and supporters Monday trekked for hours to the ruins of a hilltop settlement in the northern West Bank demanding it be rebuilt.
The Homesh site was one of four northern West Bank settlements Israel evacuated in August 2005, after having cleared out of the Gaza Strip. While it completely withdrew from Gaza, and the settlements or what is left of them are in Palestinian hands, the Israeli army remained in the northern West Bank.
Over time, Israeli disenchantment grew over the unilateral disengagement policy since it did not produce the hoped-for peace. Palestinian militants kept firing rockets across the border and crossed it themselves to kidnap Cpl. Gilad Shalit.
Israeli hardliners claimed the pullback was a mistake and demanded the four West Bank settlements be rebuilt. The Committee of Yesha Rabbis, a hawkish group that took part in Monday's move, called its adherents to "go with thousands of Jews to resettle" there.
"This spirit of devotion and heroism ... will overcome our internal and external enemies," the committee said.
"We're going to rebuild the settlement," an activist told marchers over a megaphone.
Last week another group of settlers moved into an unfinished Arab building in Hebron claiming they bought it for $700,000. The original owner denied having sold it.
Critics maintained the settlers and squatters broke the law. Hebron settlers failed to receive the defense minister's consent to the deal. The law requires such consent when buying property in densely populated urban areas.
Police had warned marchers that they would be breaking the law by going to Homesh, but the protestors' leaders maintained they would go anyway. The authorities feared people would try to sneak over and that they would be risking their lives by entering or nearing Palestinian areas, so they compromised, an authoritative military source confirmed.
The army deployed two battalions in the area and blocked a section of the Nablus-Jenin road so that the marchers could walk safely.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told reporters, "There is an understanding this would be a day visit and that it would end in the evening."
But after sunset many people were still there. Police talked of 2,000 to 2,500 people, but Channel 2 TV reported 3,000 to 4,000 people were there. The campaign conforms with a pattern honed over past decades. Determined nationalists move to an area, sometimes reach agreements with the authorities and do not necessarily fulfill their part.
Retired Brig. Gen. Ilan Paz, who headed the Civil Administration in the West Bank, said, "There is no such thing as letting them get there and (expecting them) to leave on their own."
Paz recalled that six years ago he allowed protesters to stay for a week's mourning period at the site of a deadly attack on settlers. The squatters' leaders promised they would leave when the week is over and never did. By now the site is a settlement called Givat Assaf and comprises stone houses.
Monday, thousands of people set out from the settlement of Shavei Shomron, 5 kilometers (3 miles) from Homesh. The straight line is not long, but the road winds and includes a difficult climb.
Carrying backpacks and sometimes little children, marchers said it took them three hours to reach the former settlement's water tower, the only structure that remained at Homesh.
The army was supposed to prevent them from carrying equipment for prolonged stays, so food and other equipment was piled up in Shavei Shomron. In past settlement attempts it did not take long before squatters complained of shortages and tried to generate public pressure to get supplies through.
Tuesday, they are planning a festive circumcision there of a baby born to a former settler whose husband was killed in a Palestinian attack. It remains to be seen how many people will stay despite the near-freezing temperatures. In the evening the army organized a shuttle service to Shavei Shomron, and busses were filling up. A military source said temperatures were expected to drop to 1 or 2 degrees Centigrade (34-36 F), and some squatters and families do not have suitable clothes for such weather.
Police meanwhile assembled hundreds of men nearby to evacuate the hard, determined core that would stay behind, but it is not clear when they will be ordered into action. Since the August 2005 disengagement, the government hesitated to force settlers off lands. In February 2006 it clashed with settlers and supporters in Amona, when it tried to evict people from houses illegally built on privately owned Arab land. That led to a bitter clash, and the Yediot Aharonot newspaper this week quoted a threat that in a future clash security men would be hurt so badly that even their mothers would not recognize them.
The Haaretz newspaper noted the army and the police lost their deterrent capability over the settlers, adding the march "is not a demonstration. It is a feeler. If the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) exhibits weakness, the country will find itself in a long confrontation with tent encampments of the right-wing youth."
