Yesha (settler's council) endorses Wallerstein's call to resist pullout (from Gaza, n. Samaria)

Dec. 19, 2004 21:38 | Updated Dec. 20, 2004 18:47
Yesha endorses Wallerstein's call to resist pullout
By YAAKOV KATZ

The Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip (Yesha) convened Monday evening and released a statement supporting Wallerstein's call to break the law and go to jail if necessary to resist the evacuation of settlements.

"The Yesha Council repeats Mr. Wallerstein's statements that the proposed law to remove Jews from their homes is immoral, violates human rights, and contradicts democratic principles and must be opposed even if the price is sitting in jail," Yesha Council head Benzi Lieberman read.

Before reading the prepared statement, Lieberman also said that Yesha will not do anything to cause a civil war.

Attorney General Menahem Mazuz will examine the comments made by Binyamin Regional Council head Pinchas Wallerstein and determine whether Wallerstein has broken Israeli law by calling for civil disobedience against the Gaza pullout.

Under the headline "Compensation Law Equals Immoral Transfer," Wallerstein - head of the Binyamin Regional Council and senior member of the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza (Yesha) - fired off a letter to settlers Sunday night urging them to break the law in the fight against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan, even if it draws jail time.

Mazuz will convene the top echelon of the Justice Ministry on Monday at 7 p.m. to discuss Wallerstein's letter and decide whether to open a criminal investigation against the settler leader.

"I hope that Pinchas Wallerstein will realize how serious his words are when they are said by an elected official, and I hope that the Yesha Council will show responsibility and distance itself from these statements," Mazuz told reporters.

During a break from the Yesha Council meeting on Monday evening, MK Effi Eitam, chairman of the National Religious Party (NRP), backed up Wallerstein's letter, referring to it as a "genuine outcry."

"Wallerstein's letter was a genuine cry for help at a time when the political system is corrupt and is fooling the public," Eitam said, "there is no other way to maintain sanity at a time like this and the council will call on the public to defend democracy and on the politicians to hold general elections."

Eitam also said that the council would not call for actions that will create a rift within Israeli society and will not issue a call for a rebellion. However, he said, "we will not allow for the law to be trampled."

Nevertheless, Eitam added that Sharon is obligated "to return to the people" and to hold a national referendum on the disengagement plan.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Monday called Wallerstein's remarks "very harsh."

"I know Pinchas Wallerstein well. We have known each other for years. I don't believe that this is his way. I understand the pain involved in the withdrawal. It is painful for me too, but the disengagement is vital. The rule of law will be maintained," Sharon said.

Sharon made the comment at a meeting with Presidnet Moshe Katsav. Katsav, who worked with Wallerstein several years ago, rejected his stand and said that he was sure that Wallerstein did not wish to be remembered by future generations as someone who legitimized breaking the law.

Katsav urged the Yesha Council to tell all those opposed to disengagement not to break the law.

Attorney General Mazuz has received a flood of petitions since Sunday evening urging an investigation of Wallerstein.

MK Ehud Yatom (Likud), an opponent of disengagement, on Monday called on Wallerstein to retract his statement. Yatom said that if Wallerstein does not retract his call for civil disobedience, Mazuz would be right in opening an investigation. Speaking to Army Radio on Monday morning, Wallerstein said, "I believe that what I represent is the central line in the Yesha Council."

Wallerstein said a Jerusalem Post article on Friday, which reported settler leaders as divided whether to issue an official call to break the law, caused a "media frenzy" and forced him to "clear the air" on his opinion for his constituents of the Binyamin region.

"The Israeli government approved in a first reading an immoral bill, which allows for the crime of uprooting Jews from their homes," Wallerstein wrote in a letter sent to settlers in the Binyamin region on Sunday. "I call on the public to break the transfer law and to be ready in the masses to pay the price by going to prison."

Speaking on Israeli Radio, Yehoshua Mor-Yosef, secretary of the Yesha Council, said that Yesha's anti-disengagement campaign until now has failed. "Our concept of 'We have Love and it will win' has been defeated under the heavy hand of the prime minister."

Regarding whether Yesha would decide to endorse Wallerstein's statements, Mor-Yosef said, "There is certainly a significant escalation here both in the expression and the direction and therefore we have to consider ... our position opposite these unusual statements," Mor-Yosef said.

"We will not lead people to violence. We are against violence and will continue to be against violence, even if that means losing Gush Katif itself and the Shomron," Mor-Yosef told Army Radio.

In his letter, Wallerstein called "on the public to break this immoral [disengagement] law in light of the trampling of rights involved.

"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."

"I am prepared to go to prison I don't want to wait for the actual evacuation I want many to follow me and say "yes, we are ready to pay the price that the Israeli public demands – that we go to jail – then we will go to jail.

"I am calling for a non-violent resistance to this immoral crime of uprooting Jews from their land.

"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. But the moment the decision fell on the evacuation of settlers – it gets some sort of positive connotation. There are some who say there is nothing to be done. I say there is something to be done," Wallerstein said on Army Radio.

Wallerstein called the soon-to-be new Israeli coalition "illegitimate" and said that all the differences between Labor and Likud are being put aside "for their great mutual love of uprooting settlements and banish Jews from their homes."

Good for Mr. Yatom. There is a right way to protest and a wrong way.

I would like to remind one and all of what had ocurred in Yamit. The settlers lost and were moved out. Of course, they made a bundle of cash in the process and much p.r.

The same will take place now. The settlers will holler and scream and carry on, but they will lose. Meanwhile they will take the govts. money and move on to another political arena to discomfit the govt. What a way to make a couple of bucks, eh? Phooiah!!!

I never understood it either. The Israeli government is heavily subsidizing those people to live there and is paying them to leave.

If they don't want to leave, all Israel has to do is pull the military out and let the settlers defend themselves.

I never understood it either. The Israeli government is heavily subsidizing those people to live there and is paying them to leave.
If they don't want to leave, all Israel has to do is pull the military out and let the settlers defend themselves.

My suspicion for awhile has been that the Israeli government would rather have them playing pioneer in the West Bank than pestering less-than-observant Jews in Israel proper. A combination of US pressure, the cost, and increasing military dislike for service in the territories (service in Hebron is particularly unpopular for non-orthodox troops) is causing this philosophy to be reconsidered.

There's little if any chance of Israel retreating to the "Green Line". Unfortunately, the settlements that are the most isolated and the least defendable (Gaza, Hebron, and Itamar come to mind) also contain the settlers that are there for ideological rather than financial reasons, and will resist the hardest.

Sharon's walking a tightrope, and he's in the middle, the toughest part.

-Eric

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