Last update - 00:00 03/06/2007
IDF approves rally on site of evacuated West Bank settlement
By Nadav Shragai, Haaretz Correspondent
The Israel Defense Forces has approved a rally next Tuesday at the ruined settlement of Homesh in the West Bank.
The rally, in which MKs, yeshiva heads and other public figures will take part, will be preceded by a march past the old railway station at Sebastia where the settlement movement started.
The permit was given to the Yesha Council of Settlements, the Homesh First movement and the Bnei Akiva movement. It is the first time the Yesha Council and Homesh First, which has opposed the council's stands in the past, are cooperating.
The West Bank settlement was ruined as part of the disengagement plan in the summer of 2005.
In March of this year, two IDF soldiers were lightly wounded while attempting to prevent protestors from reaching the Homesh site.
According to the army, the protestors managed to make their way to Homesh mainly by taking shortcuts or by bypassing IDF roadblocks that were placed in an attempt to stop protestors from reaching the ruins.
This move followed an attempt by Defense Minister Amir Peretz and IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi to stop the march by requiring its organizers attain a parade approval.
In March, The Council of Settlement Rabbis called on supporters to march to Homesh in droves "from all corners, to announce and bless this miracle of return and settlement on every inch of our sacred land."
Israeli Nobel Prize laureate Professor Yisrael Aumann led the march to Homesh last spring, saying that the rebuilding of Homesh would be "a necessary turning point for the country."