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Uprooting Jews

Sharon?s thought police take aim at opponents


By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff
March 01, 2005

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s cabinet Sunday approved the formation of a new legal unit tasked with prosecuting those who “incite” against the government’s plan to expel the Jewish residents of Gaza and northern Samaria and surrender those areas to the Arabs.

Settler leaders accused the prime minister of instituting “thought police.”

The government has used claims of violent threats against its ministers and other public servants as justification for cracking down on retreat’s opponents.

But the Knesset security chief Monday echoed past statements by the police admitting there was no actual evidence supporting those claims.

Thought police

Sharon’s “thought police forbid us to think differently than the government,” the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza (Yesha) said in a statement issued following Sunday’s cabinet meeting.

That accusation came as a response to the cabinet’s unanimous decision to establish a new unit in the Justice Ministry to prosecuting those Israelis who are deemed to have engaged in rebellion or incitement against the forced transfer of Jews.

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, who tabled the proposal, said lawyers assigned to the unit would devote their time to preparing indictments against those suspected of transgressing Sharon’s law and squashing appeals by those already convicted.

“The new unit's purpose is to shut the mouths of those who are opposed to the disengagement plan and to brand them inciters,” the Yesha statement read. “The democratic right to protest is slowly disappearing in face of the holy disengagement plan.”

No evidence of physical threat

Government officials have justified such draconian measures by pointing to the supposed flood of physical threats against public servants involved in the disengagement process.

Over the past several months, every claim of incitement has been enthusiastically reported by the leftist media in an effort to demonize the settlers and their supporters, right-wing observers complain.

But the police have repeatedly had to admit there are no actual intelligence warnings of planned physical violence when pressed on the issue.

Knesset Security Officer and former Mossad agent Yitzhak Shadar reiterated that fact in an interview with Army Radio Sunday.

“There are no threats on the Knesset or Knesset Members by the right-wing,” Shadar said. “The picture that has been presented [by the media] is exaggerated.”

Shadar said the only “full-fledged” threat facing Israel’s public servants remains Arab terrorism.

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