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Peace Process

Battle to save Jewish Gaza escalates


By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff
December 20, 2004

The grassroots battle to save Gaza’s Jewish community from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s policy of ethnic cleansing escalated Monday, as Sharon inched closer to forging an alliance with Shimon Peres’s Labor that would allow implementation of his plan.

On Sunday night, Binyamin Regional Council head Pinchas Wallerstein dispatched a letter to his fellow Jewish settlers urging them to disobey Sharon’s “disengagement” law by pouring into Gaza to disrupt the planned evacuation.

He called on the public to engage in civil disobedience against Sharon’s policies, despite the disengagement law’s threat of up to five years in prison for each offender.

"I call on the public to break the transfer law and to be ready en masse to pay the price of going to prison,” Wallerstein wrote.

"Only with a large amount of people, who already today commit to resist the evacuation and pay the price of going to jail, is there a chance that this government will understand the severity of its decisions,” he continued.

"I am not afraid to go to jail," Wallerstein concluded. "I hope that the masses, like me, will understand that this is the price we are obligated to pay to non-violently resist the immoral crime of forcefully uprooting Jews from their homes."

When questioned about his letter on Army Radio Monday morning, Wallerstein pointed out that his call for non-violent resistance was far more reasonable than the situation that would result from a decision to uproot Arab towns.

“We all know that if there was a government decision - with the same majority — to evacuate two or three Arab villages, the entire world and the Israeli public would be up in arms,” he explained.

“But the moment the decision fell on the evacuation of settlers — it gets some sort of positive connotation.”

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni Monday called on Attorney General Menachem Mazuz to launch a probe into Wallerstein’s letter and determine whether or not he had broken the law against incitement.

Speaking to reporters in Jerusalem, Sharon said he viewed Wallerstein’s words as “harsh comments.”

Sharon insisted the laws he initiated “must be kept,” despite the pain the settlers must be feeling.

“I'm confident we will take all steps so the law will be kept. The disengagement will be implemented according to the schedule the government decided upon and which the Knesset approved by a large majority,” the prime minister said.

The government’s ominous tones notwithstanding, Wallerstein’s call for civil disobedience gained some determined right wing allies Monday.

Arutz 7 carried a press release by the pro-Land of Israel movement Women in Green that offered “fervent support” for Wallerstein.

“Pinchas Wallerstein must be allowed to continue to spread his message,” the statement read.

Women in Green hailed Wallerstein’s efforts, and called on all members of the security forces to disobey any “illegitimate order to transfer Jews from their homes.”

“No soldier or policeman should lend a hand to help transfer Jews from their Homeland. No Jew, and certainly not the Jewish State of Israel, has the right to turn against what is clearly Promised by the G-d of Israel in our Bible.”

Meanwhile, Professors for a Strong Israel released its own statement, continuing to label Sharon’s transfer plan as “immoral legislation.”

The organization, which is comprised of hundreds of university faculty members from throughout the country, said it was sure there were thousands of Israelis prepared to risk jail time to defend the right of Jews to live where they choose in this region.

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