Friday, Jul 09, 2004
Fears of far-right plot to kill Sharon
By Chris McGreal
JERUSALEM, JULY 8. Israel's intelligence service has warned of the growing concern for the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon's safety amid rising support on the far right for violent resistance against his plan to remove Jewish settlers from Gaza and parts of the West Bank.
The Shin Bet has increased protection for the Prime Minister, following threats from extremists to defend the settlements by force, and religious rulings from some rabbis justifying violence.
Amid echoes of the assassination nine years ago of the then Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, Mr. Sharon told Parliament he was disturbed at the warnings.
"It pains me that, as someone who all his life defended Jews in the wars of Israel, I now need defence against Jews, for fear someone might try to harm me,'' he said. "This is something that must be uprooted. All these conferences and rhetoric cannot be allowed.''
Last week, the rabbi of Jerusalem's old city, Avigdor Neventzal, told colleagues from the settlements that anyone who gives up part of Israel to non-Jews is open to a din rodef - religious licence for a Jew to kill a Jew. The rabbi qualified his ruling by saying it is not possible to put the ruling into practice in modern times.
Two Cabinet Ministers drew parallels with Rabin's assassination by Yigal Amir, who used din rodef as his justification for the murder.
The Justice Minister, Yosef Lapid, said: ``These are examples of playing with fire, and the grave of Yitzhak Rabin is a reminder of this.''
Among those who have supported violence to defend the settlements is Uri Elitzur, chief of staff to the former Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu. Rabin's family has accused Mr. Netanyahu and other right-wing politicians of contributing to the climate that led to the 1995 murder.
Earlier this week, the Shin Bet chief, Avi Dichter, warned the Cabinet about a process of `radicalisation' within the far right. He singled out statements by some rabbis and leaders of the settler movement giving religious justifications for violent resistance against the forced evacuation of about 7,500 Jews from Gaza, and even attacks on politicians and senior military officials.
"I am worried about an escalation in violence,'' said Mr. Dichter.
The outlawed far-right Jewish group Kach this week said "there are no more red lines'' when it comes to the actions justified "to prevent the expulsion of Jews from their land.''
On Sunday, Israeli television showed a film of three settlers associated with Kach instructing pupils at a school in Gaza to resist the evacuation by beating up officials involved in the removals.
One of the three, Itamar Ben-Gvir, told the Jerusalem Post the settlers would defend their homes any way they could.
"I do not believe we will be the first to open fire, but if the security forces fire on us then the settlers will fire back,'' he said.
Mr. Dichter told the Cabinet one of the army's leading rabbis, Lieutenant Colonel Yekutiel Wisner, had been beaten up by Kach supporters in Jerusalem because of his involvement in the removal of a synagogue from an illegal settlement.
Moderate rabbis have called for the prosecution of those who incite violence. But the settlements' rabbis committee called Mr. Dichter's statement "incitement and provocation to hatred'' against settlers.
Last month, the same committee issued a ruling requiring religious soldiers and policemen, many of whom live on the settlements, to defy orders to become involved in the "expulsion of Jews''.
The leader of the National Religious party, Effi Eitam, who quit the Government last month in protest against the withdrawal from Gaza, warned that the country will be further split if the Government forces troops to move the settlers. -
© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
Copyright © 2004, The Hindu.