[center] IS ISRAEL RACIST.
That's not a question. In moves reminiscent of the UK hiving off six of the nine Ulster counties to insure a loyalist majority, Israel intends repeating the same.
Reuters - Israel bars Gaza settlement visitors before pullout ...{Press now} [/center]
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Non-Jews now outnumber Jews in Israel and the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, but the planned Israeli pullout from Gaza will ensure a Jewish majority in the other two areas for two decades, a study showed on Thursday. REUTERS/PETER ANDREWS
Israeli religious rightists condemn the plan, saying it forsakes Jewish claims to biblical land and rewards a Palestinian uprising that began in 2000.
Ultra-nationalist settlers and their supporters have mounted months of protests, at times violent, to overturn the Israeli parliament's approval of the plan to evacuate all 21 settlements in Gaza and four of 120 in the West Bank
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Amnesty International condemns discriminatory laws passed by the Israeli Knesset [/center] Quote:
Palestinians welcome the prospect but suspect Sharon devised the plan as a smokescreen to cement Israel's hold on much larger West Bank settlement blocs he says are strategically vital.
Around 240,000 settlers live in fortified enclaves among 3.8 million Palestinians, who fear rapid settlement growth in the West Bank will strip them of land central to their dream of a viable state. The West Bank is 15 times the size of tiny Gaza. (Additional reporting by Jonathan Saul in Pe'at Sadeh and Matt Spetalnick in Tel Aviv)
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[center] Reuters - Israel bars Gaza settlement visitors before pullout ...{Press now}
Source: Reuters ...11 Aug 2005 17:20:04 GMT ... By Mark Heinrich[/center]
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JERUSALEM, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Israel shut Jewish settlements in Gaza to non-residents on Thursday to choke off a quiet influx of rightist radicals bent on obstructing a pullout from the occupied territory due to begin next week.
The move, taken two days ahead of schedule, betrayed concern that hundreds of radical Jews who entered settlements with temporary visitor passes were digging in to reinforce resistance to evacuation vowed by hard-line settlers.
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