Opponents of Ariel Sharon’s plan to evacuate thousands of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip and parts of the northern West Bank faced a double setback on Wednesday when police and soldiers continued to pen protesters inside a campsite and a parliamentary vote to delay disengagement failed.
About 10 000 anti-disengagement protesters — a fraction of the 100 000 called for by organisers — were on Wednesday corralled behind a fence at the site at Kefar Maymon, where they had been camped for two days.
Police and soldiers massed around the main gate of the campsite and formed human chains to plug holes in the fence created by demonstrators in the hope of a breakout.
The marchers had hoped to reach Gush Katif, the largest block of Gaza settlements, by Wednesday evening.
Their parallel tactic to derail the disengagement plan — a vote in the Knesset to delay implementing the disengagement plan by between three and six months — was thrown out.
Fifteen members of the Likud party of Sharon joined 28 other Knesset members, but were outnumbered by 69 who voted against the motion. Most Israelis support the disengagement plan, according to opinion polls.
Despite the setbacks almost every protester insisted there would be no violence against the security forces.
Moshe Karadi, the chief of police, said he hoped the three-day demonstration was coming to a peaceful end. ”Both sides understand that violence is out of bounds,” he said.
A spokeswoman for the Israeli police, Superintendent Sharon Brown, said anyone was allowed to leave the village as long as they made no attempt to travel towards the Gaza Strip.
The protesters are mainly settlers from the West Bank, but a minority have travelled from cities within Israel. Almost all described themselves as religious Jews. They insisted that the struggle was not over.
”We are certainly leaving a nucleus of various operational activities that will take place in the future,” said Bentzi Lieberman, adding that despite the failure to get to Gush Katif the march had been a success. — Â