(1 Feb 2006) SHOTLIST
Amona settlement
1. Settlers on rooftop of building in Amona settlement
2. Barbed wire, tyres on rooftop
3. Settler looking down
4. Wide of police in riot gear with black smoke from burning tyres rising, pull in
5. Various of settler girls on roof
6. Girl throwing stone at security forces, running away, police on horseback and some in riot gear running towards her
7. Police at base of building
8. Settler with blood dripping down his face, walking away
9. Settler sitting on ground having bandage tied around his face
10. SOUNDBITE: (english) Benny Elon, Right-wing Knesset member and settler leader:
"I think it's a shame to see a few days before the elections, how like in a tyranny, acting prime minister using force and you have to see how they use the force against children, against old people and he thinks that it will make him popular. I hope and pray that he will get his punishment in the elections."
11. Settler women shouting
12. Girls, one holding head shouting
13. Soldiers taking sledge hammer to wall of building
14. Troops climbing onto roof
Jerusalem
15. SOUNDBITE: (English) Raanan Gissin, Israeli government spokesman:
"No-one but absolutely no-one has the right to take the law into its hand. If we allow that to happen we are no better than the Palestinian Authority and what is happening there. And therefore the issue of Amona, is an issue of principle. The principle of supremacy of the rule of law in a country, in a democracy like Israel."
16. Gissin walking away
STORYLINE
Thousands of club-wielding riot police, backed by bulldozers and water cannons, began evacuating this illegal Israeli outpost on Wednesday, pulling stone-throwing settlers from rooftops in the fiercest confrontation over settlements since Israel's pullout from the Gaza Strip last summer.
The battle over Amona, an Israeli hilltop enclave in the heart of the West Bank, was seen as a test for acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who has said he would act with determination against settlers violating the law.
Olmert is widely expected to withdraw from more areas of the West Bank and dismantle additional Jewish settlements, whether unilaterally or in a deal with the Palestinians, if elected prime minister in March elections.
The clashes at the Amona settlement outpost were on par with the most violent scenes during last summer's pullout from Gaza and parts of the West Bank, in which 25 settlements were dismantled.
Settlers pelted rocks, eggs and paint-filled balloons at helmeted riot police, who approached barricaded rooftops in the shovels of bulldozers. From behind barbed wire ringing the roofs, protesters also used sticks to beat back troops climbing up ladders.
Eventually, the helmeted officers got up on the roofs, wrestled with demonstrators and took them down in the same bulldozer shovels. By noon, the first of nine homes in Amona were being demolished by bulldozers.
Dozens of people were injured, and more than 40 rioters were arrested.
Israeli media said more than 50 police officers were among the injured, including one who was in serious condition. Two right-wing legislators, Arieh Eldad and Effie Eitam, were hurt on the side of the protesters.
In Jerusalem, Israeli government spokesman Raanan Gissin said no-one had "the right to take the law into its hand".
"The issue of Amona, is an issue of principle. The principle of supremacy of the rule of law in a country, in a democracy like Israel," Gissin said.
Israel has promised to dismantle two dozen outposts as part of its road map obligations.
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