Settler leaders surprisingly called temporary halt to a planned anti-disengagement demonstration to Gush Kativ settlement in the Gaza Strip.
Yesha Council Chairman Bentzi Lieberman said the bulk of the demonstrators would leave the Kfar Maimon campsite before the Sabbath starts, yet few hundreds would remain there as the action is not called off.
‘The struggle is continuing,’ Lieberman said. ‘We are certainly leaving a nucleus for various operational activities which will take place in the future. The remainder of the people will go to build up strength, they will go to their Sabbath meals, and they will wait for our call.’
Some settler officials said the march will continue to Gush Katif despite the police ban and the roadblocks.
Lieberman said that the decision to halt the march did not stem from despair. ‘We believe that this move, these three days, in which tens of thousands of people, men, women and children arrived for this, created a protest and a different agenda.’
Lieberman clearly stated that the goal of the demonstration is to foil the disengagement plan, and asserted that protests will continue.
‘It’s impossible to ignore the might of the people and this move, and this significant protest, which was intended to change or foil this plan. We are in any case continuing on. We are not despairing.’
The march organizers predicted that 100,000 people would participate in the rally and 40,000 would march to the Gush Katif settlements, only 20,000 joined the rally.
