Neve Dekalim evacuation
Photo: AFP
Once again: Cops vs. evacuees
Police officers attending convention in Jerusalem hotel greeted with chants of ‘a Jew does not expel Jews’ from Neve Dekalim evacuees, who are staying in the hotel since the Gaza evacuation
After they banished us from our homes, now the police officers are coming to the hotel in which we are staying - they are eating, drinking, laughing – this is completely insensitive, Gaza evacuee Zion Ochayon told Ynet Wednesday after a police convention on dealing with hazardous materials was held in Jerusalem’s Shalom hotel, where close to 40 families who were recently evacuated from the Neve Dekalim settlement in Gaza are staying.
On Tuesday dozens of Israel Police officers and Border Police officers in uniform arrived at the hotel and were greeted with chants of, “a Jew does not expel Jews” and teens wearing orange shirts reading, “I was banished from my home.”
One of the wheels on a police car was punctured by the evacuees.
"Couldn’t they have held their convention somewhere else?" Ochayon asked.
“How could they do such a thing? All the anger and resentment that the evacuee teens and children are carrying with them boiled over and they began to chant ‘a Jew does not expel Jews.’
“We have been staying here for close to two-and-a-half months now, without a permanent solution in sight. The people of Gush Katif have a lot of patience – even when mortars were fired on us – but this patience will run out at some point.”
A police source said in response, “a meeting between police officers and evacuees should not be charged. The police carried out the mission (settlement evacuation) in accordance with the government’s decision.”
Police sources added that they wish the evacuee families a pleasant stay in the hotel and hope they will move to permanent residences soon.
