Amona

Amona

Click here to read the Knesset summary. As we suspected. As we knew. As even the government can't hide.

Amona was a turning point for many of us. Just as the wounds of the beaten have not yet healed, so too has the full impact of what was done there not yet formed in the minds of those who were there and those who saw the pictures of what was done.

The fact that the government is too frightened to call for an Inquiry shows that even they understand that new lines have been drawn in the sand.

For now, I offer you only a portion of the words and pictures of Amona.

According to MK Tzvi Handel, Eyal Arad, Olmert's strategic political advisor, had told a leading Yesha (Judea/Samaria) personality, "The nation hates you [the Jewish public living in Judea and Samaria] as much as it hates the Arabs, and my job is to make sure they hate you even more."

Public Security Minister Gideon Ezra: "The police should be congratulated for carrying out the mission."

Public Security Minister Gideon Ezra: “The police did their job in Amona according to the law, and police officers should be praised for accomplishing their mission as they were instructed by the Israeli government.”

How can we comprehend that in our country, Jewish policemen and women would be given an order by a Jewish government, to do this...to Jews who were not armed...who were exercising their right to protest.

The police have an obligation to stop those who are throwing stones, those who instigate violence. They do not have the right, not in our country, to do what was done in Amona. Beyond politics, beyond grandstanding...there is a basic faith we must have in our government, a love that must be among our people. Yitzchak Rabin nurtured the idea that "settlers" were different from Israelis. Amona is the final stop for that way of thinking. When settlers are no longer Israelis...the police and Yasamnikim are able to cross the lines and laws of our society...while 57% of Israelis blame the settlers.

When did this become acceptable in our society?

From IsraelNationalNews:

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=97967

A list of videos showing police brutality at Amona:

• media.a7.org/inntv/06/feb/amona-alimut.wmv - a two-part video, first showing a horse trampling a protestor, and then the infamous scenes of a brutal beating inside one of the houses
• news.walla.co.il/?w=/3850/852627 - a wounded protestor cursing the army and telling how the Border Guardsmen, with rocks in their hands, smashed the protestors: "I said I want to go out peacefully, but they kept clubbing me in my back, neck, legs..." MK Effie Eitam is seen with an infusion telling how was first felled by a police horse, then hit by a policeman, and then lost consciousness. Yaakov Tessler, age 17, is seen with the area below his eye swollen to tangerine-size, explaining how he was beaten despite his pleas.
• http://www.israel-wat.com/1.asx - with German music in the background; at 1:50, horse runs over one or two people; at 2:06, a mounted policeman whips protestors
• http://news.walla.co.il/?w=//852618 - Channel Ten scenes
• yeshanews.com/?id=47029 - assorted scenes
• mms://s39wm.castup.net - more of the same
  

Some Testimony

Neriah Zamir, 19, a student in Yeshivat Elon Moreh, a resident of Moreshet in the Galilee, who was evacuated by helicopter to the hospital:

"I was sitting in the kitchen of house number 9, the last house in the line. I couldn't see anything outside, but I heard my friends saying how the police were beating one boy, and grabbing another one by the testicles, and the like...

"We heard the Yassamnikim breaking the windows in one of the other rooms and starting to come in. When they came towards us, we threw cottage cheese and chocolate cups at them, as our way of protesting. They came into the living room and started hitting without discrimination, without mercy. I saw one policeman lifting up his club and smashing it down again and again and again, seemingly without end... Then they jumped over to another group and started hitting there as well... I remember scenes of them screaming, 'Get out!' - and then Boom!, they would smash someone...

"We started trying to crawl out towards the hall, and when I got there, one policeman gave me a terrific blow to the head and then to my eye. I passed out for a short time and the next thing I remember was being near the door, and that everything looked blurred from my left eye...

"Once outside, the police refused to let me go towards the army medics, even though people were being treated there and even though I heard people saying, 'He's hurt!' Finally I made my way up to the Amona makeshift clinic, and from there I was flown to the hospital in Jerusalem, where they found that the wound was, thank G-d, would not cause permanent damage. I was released two days later, on Friday..."

Aharon Tebger, 23, Givat Ze'ev, a student at Bar Ilan University:

"I was in the salon of house #8, together with some expellees from Shirat HaYam [in Gush Katif] and others. The other two rooms were full, and the police first broke into those room. We heard screaming, and we saw a lot of boys running away from those rooms towards the kitchen; they were very scared and some were already bleeding. But everything was happening at once, so we still didn't realize exactly what was going on.

"At the same time, the police were trying to break into our room, and soon they came upon us from both sides. We screamed that they should put away their clubs, that we were not fighting with them, but they said that rocks were thrown at them... Then one said, 'you have until a count of three to leave through the window,' and then he counted quickly 1,2,3 and then they started beating and pushing, while the other police came from the other direction. First they started hitting us on the legs, and then on our heads.

"I was one of the last ones in the room, and one policeman told me to go one way, but then two others hit me hard in my head. I fell down, and then - five of them were on top of me, hitting me in head and kicking me all over my body. Five on one, and I was on the floor!

"Then they brought me to another room, where I got out through the window; I had no choice, because if I stayed there, they would smash me again. Someone helped me get to the road, and only then did I realize that I was full of blood. They took me on a stretcher to the clinic, and from there by ambulance to Ein Karem Hospital, where I received stitches in three places: near my eye and on my head. I also was hit on my limbs, and I still have trouble walking."