After listening to the joint press conference between President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Monday, I curled up in front of my laptop ready to pen a blistering critique of the premier and his plan to withdraw from Gaza. But as the words began to flow, so did my perspiration, as I began to consider some of the heavy-handed tactics now being used against critics of the withdrawal.
In recent weeks especially, there have been a growing number of incidents in which those opposed to the plan, or even those merely assumed to hold such views, have found themselves and their most basic of freedoms trampled upon. Take, for example, the mass arrest of dozens of Orthodox Jewish youth this past Sunday after protesters blocked Tel Aviv's Ayalon highway for several minutes.
According to various reports, many of those detained by the police had nothing to do with the demonstration. They were arrested simply because they were religious and happened to be in the vicinity of the protest. This included a 10-year-old boy wearing a kippa, and a religious soldier in uniform. Several teenage kids in the area were said to have been taken to police stations and held incommunicado for hours without their parents receiving notification, as required by law.
There have also been a number of instances in which people standing on street corners and holding signs against the Gaza withdrawal were taken away by police – for no apparent reason other than exercising their right to protest peacefully. In one case, a 14-year-old girl was arrested a few weeks ago and held for 24 hours in police custody without being allowed to see her parents. She was denied access to her medications, even though she suffers from chronic asthma and was at risk of a potentially dangerous asthma attack.
With less than 100 days to go until the proposed Gaza withdrawal, something terribly frightening is happening here in Israel. Some of the tactics being employed by the authorities simply have no place in a democratic society, calling into question their underlying commitment to that most fundamental of civil liberties – the right to disagree with government policy.
Now I don't consider myself an alarmist; nor do I belong to the category of those who employ frenzied language to get a point across. But I don't think it is exaggerating to say that many people opposed to the withdrawal are starting to wonder whether they can truly express themselves without fear. Earlier this month, late one night, a prominent activist involved in organizing buses for people to visit Jewish communities in Hebron and Gaza was arrested at his home in the center of the country and held into the early hours of the morning. It remains unclear why he was taken into custody, other than to frighten and intimidate him. Things have reached the point where even people who "look" like they might be going to a protest can find themselves receiving special attention from the security forces.
This past Monday evening, a busload of Jews from Samaria was stopped by police as it made its way toward the Gush Dan area to deliver Pessah goods to needy families. According to eyewitnesses, the police refused to let the bus continue on its way, claiming that it posed a "potential threat that may lead to the blocking of roads and other protest actions." Only after being held up for 90 minutes were the 50 passengers allowed to continue with their charitable undertaking.
Say what you will about Sharon's plan to withdraw, there can be no excuse for such tactics. If it were just a matter of an isolated incident or two, it could perhaps be dismissed as an aberration. But the sad fact is that there is a clearly a pattern at work, one in which innocent Israeli citizens are being harassed and/or silenced because of their political views.
I would even go so far as to suspect that support for the Oslo Redux plan does not have the widespread support of the Israeli public as one could reasonably assume from reading the papers here in the West. There has been a number of rather draconian incitement laws passed in recent weeks. Administrative detentions of Israeli citizens are rising alarmingly.
According to Barbara Lerner opposition to the pull-out from Gaza has reached deep into the IDF where less than a month ago 10,000 soldiers have signed a statement refusing to remove Jews from their homes. Contrast this with the original refuseniks (IDF soldiers) that refused to serve in the Occupied Territories only numbered in the hundreds. Furthermore, the High Court in Israel has heard a petition from reservist officers requesting that they not be compelled to take part in the eviction of their families or neighbors from Gaza come July.
It should be remembered that a unilateral withdrawal from Gaza was the cornerstone of the Israeli Labour party platform under Amram Mitzna in the 2003 election. Ariel Sharon and the Likud party loudly criticized and actively ran their election campaign against a pull-out from Gaza. For their efforts against the Labour disengagement plan in Gaza the Israeli electorate returned the Likud with its largest majority and served the Labour Party with their soundest defeat. Sharon has refused any and all entreaties to hold a national referendum on the Gaza disengagement claiming that he has the full support of the Israeli public behind his disengagement plan but does he? The truth is we will never know.
This past week schools across Israel have had their door chained shut by protesters against the disengagement plan. The highways and roads have been blockaded. Prime Minister Sharon did not utter an idle glib remark when he stated at the Bush Crawford Ranch that it feels like the "eve of civil war in Israel." The last time Jews were evicted from their homes, businesses, schools and synagogues in Gaza it was in 1948 by the Egyptian Army.
No comments:
Post a Comment