Left Wing Activist Defends Teens at Amona Probe

Anat Roth, a left wing activist here in Israel testified yesterday at the Knesset's probe into the violence at Amona. She is conducting a study for the non-partisan Israeli Democracy Institute in Judea and Samaria, and not only was she present at Amona, but she was beaten by policemen herself.

She describes the instructions given to the group of teenage girls she was with here in the article in Ynetnews.com. They were told to sit down and resist passively by linking arms with each other, and were not to use violence. She relates how the girls were shaking with fear when the police came up onto the roof and started beating them with batons. She also reported that the police shouted threats and obscenities, and were the ones that threw rocks at the protesters, and not the other way around.

Roth is by no means in favor of the settlements in Judea and Samaria. In an interview on IDF radio she explained that not only has she worked with Labor party Knesset members Vilnai and Mitzna, but she is also a signatory on the Geneva Accords.

Her eyewitness testimony deflects some of the criticism that the probe is primarily a way for the right wing to bash the government.