JERUSALEM, 29 October 2004 — Right-wing Jewish extremists violently opposed to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s planned withdrawal from Gaza, are plotting a string of protest moves to thwart the project, including potentially explosive action at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem.
Itamar Ben Gvir, one of those involved in organizing the resistance activities, said detailed plans had been laid out in order to derail the so-called disengagement plan, which was approved in a Parliament vote late Tuesday. “Sharon can sit and decide what he wants but at the end of the day, no-one is going to sit quietly while Jews are being expelled from their homes,” he told AFP.
The resistance plan, which includes the establishment of 30 new settlement outposts, was put together over the last fortnight by several dozen activists, including rabbis, supporters of the extremist right-wing rabbi Meir Kahane and residents of several settlements in the southern West Bank, Ben Gvir said.
“Members of the extreme right intend to paralyze the country, to threaten the lives of officers, to incite against Sharon and even to take action against the Muslims on the Temple Mount so as to ferment unrest,” the Yediot Ahronot newspaper reported Wednesday, using the Israeli term for the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
MPs on Tuesday backed Sharon’s so-called disengagement plan which will see 8,000 settlers removed next year from the Gaza Strip, home to about 1.3 million Palestinians. Three months ago, Israel’s public security minister warned there was an increasing likelihood that Jewish extremists could launch a spectacular attack on the mosque compound in a bid to scupper the pullout.
At the time, senior security sources said they were studying the possibility that activists could try to crash an unmanned drone packed with explosives or even send a suicide bomber amongst Muslim worshippers during a prayer session.
Ben Gvir admitted it was possible that certain activists “might try and force their way onto the Temple Mount” but he denied that any violent activity had been planned. Right-wing activists were expected to run a “disobedience” campaign among police and soldiers, to set up “resistance” training grounds and carry out activities to block access to certain government buildings and major traffic intersections across the country.
Israel’s peace camp, which for years regarded Sharon as the ultimate hawk, is now hailing the prime minister over his plans. Governments of all hues have withstood domestic and international pressure to pull out of any part of the West Bank or Gaza Strip since their occupation began after the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.
Yossi Beilin, a one-time justice minister who was one of the chief architects of the Oslo peace accords with the Palestinians in the 1990s, said Sharon’s project must be regarded positively. “I do believe it was a big victory for the peace camp in Israel,” Beilin, who heads the leftist Yahad party, told AFP. “This is not exactly what we want, but it’s a small beginning.”
Beilin is one of the driving forces behind an unofficial peace blueprint known as the Geneva Initiative. But while the Geneva plan was drawn up with Palestinians, Sharon is implementing his so-called disengagement plan on a unilateral basis. Beilin said Sharon was making “a huge mistake in withdrawing without any coordination with the Palestinian side.”
Yariv Oppenheimer of the settlement watchdog Peace Now also gave a qualified welcome to the decision by MPs to approve Sharon’s plan to dismantle all 21 settlements in Gaza and another four in the northern West Bank next year. “It’s not our dream, we want to see much more but it’s a beginning. Now we hope it will be implemented, that’ll be the real test,” he said.
