Today eight Peace Now activists were detained for questioning at the entrance of the Nofei Nehemia settlement, east of the Ariel settlement. They were released after a short interrogation. The incident occurred during a tour of three West Bank settlements—Nofei Nehemia, Givat Assaf, and Magron—organized by the movement in cooperation with around 200 activists.

When the activists arrived at the gates of the Nofei Nehemia settlement, a large army and police force took the uncommon step of detaining them, claiming that the area was a closed military zone. The force tried to forcibly remove those participating in the tour even though the tour had been coordinated in advance with security forces.

When the army and the police could not produce the decree declaring the area a close military zone, the participants left their buses and walked to the Nofei Nehemia settlement, where they were met enthusiastically by young settlers. At the entrance of the Givat Assaf settlement, a prominent member of the Settlers Council, Pinchas Wallerstein, arrived and spoke with tour participants.

Although most of the participants were leftist activists, there was a large group of right-wing activists headed by Ron Breiman, the head of Professors for a Strong Israel, who accompanied the tour to observe how the left explains to its activists what is happening on the ground.

Reader responses to the article

The peace camp is the shit camp—Liam.

Peace now and war later—Eli.

Why do we say peace activists, rather than collaborators with the enemy?—Adir.

Why are the Oslo criminals bothering our settler brethren?—We should put the Oslo criminals on trial!

I think that Peace Now passes information to terrorists

Who will investigate settlers' claims that Peace Now members pass on information used to carry out attacks?—Who will investigate them?