Seven rightwing Knesset members joined Jewish settler militants in a demonstration outside the Dahaishe refugee camp near Bethlehem today to protest the government’s alleged failure to provide West Bank settlers with adequate protection.
They are demanding harsher measures against Arabs who throw rocks at Jewish vehicles or otherwise create disorders, including summary expulsion from the territories. The Dahaishe camp, a frequent trouble spot, was raided by security forces last week. More than a score of its residents were arrested for questioning in connection with stone-throwing and Molotov cocktail attacks. But the settlers were not mollified.
The MKs who joined the protest outside the camp today are Michael Eitan and Uzi Landau of Likud; Avraham Verdiger and Rabbi Haim Druckman of the rightwing religious faction, Morasha; Geula Cohen and Gershon Shafat of the Tehiya party; and Avner Shaki of the National Religious Party.
Eitan and Landau face possible party discipline because the Likud Executive had warned them not to participate in the demonstration. The Labor-Likud unity coalition faces a non-confidence motion introduced by Tehiya which accuses the government of being too soft on Arab trouble-makers.
The MKs joined Rabbi Moshe Levinger, the Gush Emunim leader from Hebron, who has been camping outside Dahaishe for the past three months. Shortly before they arrived, Levinger and his followers fired into the air and chased Arab youths into the camp after they allegedly threw stones at them. Security forces clamped a curfew on the camp after the incident.
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