40 activists evacuated by 200 police; none injured; 2 arrested for organizing incident, 1 woman arrested for attacking police.
By TOVAH LAZAROFF, BEN HARTMANPalestinians protest tents E1 370(photo credit: Ammar Awad/Reuters)
Police evacuated 40 Palestinian activists and their tents at 3 a.m. Sunday from an empty hilltop on E1, an unbuilt area of the Ma’aleh Adumim settlement.The activists had set up their encampment on Wednesday when United States President Barack Obama arrived in Israel for a 50-hour visit, to protest Israeli plans to build 3,500 apartments in E1.Palestinians have declared that the E1 area is a new village by the name of Bab al- Shams. They called their new encampment Ahfad Younis.Palestinians erected a similar encampment at a different spot in E1 in January that was also removed.Security forces had declared the area a closed military zone and asked the activists to leave. When they didn’t, police forcibly removed them.According to police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld, the evacuation took less than an hour, and there were no injuries or damages. Two of the organizers were arrested and questioned by Judea and Samaria police, he said.Rosenfeld added that one woman was arrested for attacking a police officer.
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