ISRAEL: Opponents of Ariel Sharon's plan to evacuate thousands of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip and parts of the northern West Bank faced a double setback yesterday when police and soldiers continued to pen protesters inside a campsite and a parliamentary vote to delay disengagement failed.
About 10,000 anti-disengagement protesters - a fraction of the 100,000 called for by organisers - were last night corralled behind a fence at the site at Kefar Maymon, where they have been camped for the past two days.
Police and soldiers massed around the main gate of the campsite and formed human chains to plug holes in the fence created by demonstrators in the hope of a break-out.
The marchers had hoped to reach Gush Katif, the largest block of Gaza settlements, by yesterday evening.
Their parallel tactic to derail the disengagement plan - a vote in the Knesset to delay implementing the disengagement plan by between three and six months - was thrown out. Fifteen members of the Likud party of prime minister Ariel Sharon joined 28 other Knesset members but were outnumbered by 69 who voted against the motion.
Most Israelis support the disengagement plan, according to repeated opinion polls. Despite the setbacks, almost every protester insisted there would be no violence against the security forces. However, the potential for clashes remained last night.
Moshe Karadi, the chief of police, said he hoped the three- day demonstration was coming to a peaceful end. "Both sides understand that violence is out of bounds," he said. "We hope the pull-out opponents will express their protests the way they wish and that we, on our part, are able to proceed with preparations for the disengagement."
The protesters are mainly settlers from the West Bank but a minority have travelled from cities within Israel. Almost all described themselves as religious Jews. While all were adamant there would be no violence against security forces, they insisted they would get to Gush Katif.
After their initial failure to contain the demonstrators, the police succeeded in turning the crowd's chosen campsite into their prison. Most farming communities in Israel are fenced and gated for security reasons, making Kefar Maymon easy for the police to blockade. Even if the protesters managed to get through the many holes in the fence, it would be difficult for them to assemble in large numbers.
A spokeswoman for the Israeli police said anyone was allowed to leave the village so long as they made no attempt to travel towards the Gaza Strip.
The protesters insisted that the struggle was not over. "It is continuing," one protester, Bentzi Lieberman, said. "We are certainly leaving a nucleus of various operational activities that will take place in the future."
He said that despite the failure to get to Gush Katif, the march had been a success. Mr Lieberman told Israeli army radio: "It is impossible to ignore the might of the people and this move and this significant protest, which was intended to change or foil this plan. We are in any case continuing on. We are not despairing."