Settlers attempting to repopulate Homesh settlement have recently been forced to abandon their efforts, in the face of mounting protests against their presence. On Saturday afternoon, the settlers were seen packing their belongings and leaving the settlement, signalling an apparent victory for the Palestinian villagers in the area who rejected the return of Jewish settlers to Homesh.
Over the past several weeks, hundreds of protestors from the villages of Burqa, Bizzariya, Silat ad-Dhahr, Sabastiya and Beit Imrin, all located in the Homesh area north of Nablus, mobilized and marched towards the settlement to demonstrate against the resettlement and the closures, confiscations, and expansions that would inevitably ensue. Each time, the demonstrators were met with repression by Occupation forces, who fired upon them with tear gas and rubber bullets. Undeterred by the repression, the protests continued and eventually resulted in the evacuation of Homesh.
This victory represents a major breakthrough for those who were involved in the demonstrations, and also for the West Bank as a whole, which is currently experiencing a new wave of grassroots mobilization. Several villages are now engaged in weekly actions against the Occupation, and successes such as this one are sure to inspire even more resistance.