Tens of thousands of Israeli right-wingers thronged the streets of downtown Jerusalem on Sunday night calling for the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into what they deemed the excessive use of force by police during the evacuation and demolition of part of the West Bank settlement outpost of Amona last week. The rally, which was organized by the mainstream Yesha Council of Jewish Settlements and was held under the slogan: "[Acting Prime Minister Ehud] Olmert is bad for the Jews," was the largest right-wing demonstration since the Gaza pullout last year.
The predominantly religious crowd of protesters, including a majority of teens, repeatedly called on the government to establish a state commission of inquiry into what they called "the brutal police violence" during the eviction of thousands of settlers from the illegal outpost, where more than 200 people were injured in the worst clashes between settlers and police in years.
"When we come to a situation where Jews are fighting Jews, and the country is fighting its own people, something is wrong and we have to stand up and say something," said Rachelly Shoshan, 18, from the West Bank settlement of Neve Daniel, who was attending the rally with a group of friends. "Olmert and Kadima are responsible for Hamastan" and "End Police Brutality" were among the placards in the sea of protesters at Zion Square on a windless winter night.
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Earlier Sunday, Olmert rejected calls from across the political spectrum for the establishment of a state commission of inquiry, saying that both the police and the army had to be left out of political debate.
To a get a real feel for the size of the protest one needs to read Arutz Sheva:
A rally protesting the political and security policies of Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert brought an estimated 100,000 demonstrators to Jerusalem’s Zion Square Sunday night.
The demonstration, the largest since the government uprooted 25 Jewish communities from Gaza and northern Samaria last August, is taking place under the shadow of last week’s demolition of nine homes in Amona and the brutal police reaction to people who protested the destruction.
The amazing thing about the Olmert led government is how closely it mirrors the Palestinian Authority.
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