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Israel Gearing Up for West Bank Evacuations

Julie Stahl

Jerusalem Bureau Chief

Eshkol, Israel (CNSNews.com) - Israel was gearing up for the evacuation of four West Bank settlements on Monday, the final phase of removals in the implementation of the disengagement plan.

On Monday, the last Jewish community in the Gaza Strip was being evacuated less than a week after the evacuations began. There is still work to be done there -- demolitions, removing military installations -- but for the most part, the 8,000 residents have been removed from their homes.

There are four settlements in the northern West Bank, an area that Jewish people call the Biblical name of Samaria. Just like in Gush Katif, many believe this land is part of their eternal Biblical inheritance.

The two northernmost settlements of Ganim and Kadim, which were both secular communities, were evacuated earlier voluntarily.

Many of the residents of Homesh also left the community in advance of the disengagement, but an estimated 1,000 activists have taken up positions there to try to resist the evacuation.

The tiny population of neighboring Sanur -- an artist colony -- has also been augmented by hundreds of anti-disengagement protestors.

Security forces have estimated that the removal of those in Homesh and Sanur could be much more difficult than any situation they had encountered in the Gaza Strip.

Evacuation of the synagogue in Kfar Darom was by far the most radical event, where protestors on the roof of the community's 18-month-old synagogue pelted security personnel with paint bombs for hours before the building was stormed by the police anti-terror squad.

Dozens of security forces and others were lightly injured in the fray. More than 150 people were arrested.

As is expected in the north, those who caused trouble in Gaza were not permanent residents of the communities but rather those who had come to protest the disengagement.

Despite the withdrawals in the West Bank, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said on Sunday that building would continue in major settlement blocs in the West Bank and that there would be no future disengagement.

"Each government since 1967 -- right, left and national unity -- has seen strategic importance in specific areas [in the West Bank]," Sharon said. "I will build."

Sharon mentioned the settlement of Ma'ale Adumim, which is just outside Jerusalem, and said that Ariel -- not far from Tel Aviv but more than 10 miles inside the West Bank -- would also be part of Israel forever.

Sharon said that there would be no second disengagement.

Sharon's disengagement plan won both favor and criticism for the fact that it was initially envisioned as a unilateral plan, designed to disconnect Israel from the Palestinians without any treaty or agreement.

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