JERUSALEM - Police Chief Moshe Karadi instructed investigators Friday to launch a criminal investigation into allegations of incitement voiced at a far right rally Thursday.
Earlier Friday, Karadi had instructed investigators to launch an investigation into the remarks and defamatory pamphlets and stickers distributed at the rally to check whether they constituted incitement to violence.
| Suspected incitement to violence at far right rally (Photo: Haim Tzach) |
The convention, attended by thousands, quickly had turned into a show of force by far right activists, who slammed the government while repeatedly resorting to Holocaust imagery and terminology.
Activists handed out stickers proclaiming “Sharon, you are bringing a Holocaust upon us,” and leaflets warning that “in each one of the settlements there are more weapons than in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.”
The rally was held just days after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon signed the Gush Katif evacuation orders .
'Crime against humanity'
The world defines the disengagement plan as a war crime and a crime against humanity, right-wing activist Elyakim Haetzni told the audience.
“If Sharon unleashes his plan against the Jews, his place is next to (Serb war criminal) Slobodan Milosevic,” he said. “The Jewish army is being tasked with this deed and it appears as if the devil is dancing within us and leading us to lose our minds.”
No government in Israel can extract the state from this deathtrap, only the nation itself, Haetzni said.
“You are stronger than the government of Israel, you don’t owe anything to the Americans, to the nations of the world, and to the Arabs,” he said.
Insubordination orders
Meanwhile, a decree was distributed among the crowd, instructing audience members to disobey government orders.
It said partners to the crime (of disengagement) would be held responsible for the bloodshed.
“Every soldier or policeman ordered to directly or indirectly cooperate with the expulsion must refuse the order, even if it costs them their jobs, this is a matter of life and death,” the decree said.
In mourning
Haifa rabbi Gedalia Axelrod performed a mourning ceremony aimed at the disengagement plan.
He called out against the terrible infliction threatening the
Jewish race in Israel and the rest of the world. He also slammed the religious Zionist rabbis for supporting Sharon’s plan for withdrawal.
After the ceremony the rabbis sat on the ground and covered themselves in sacks as a sign of mourning.
Protestors were awarded a certificate of appreciation for attending the rally.
Knesset Member Avshalom Vilan called on Attorney General Menachem Mazuz to look into statements made during the rally and consider whether any violations of the law took place.
Meanwhile, Peace Now Secretary General Yariv Oppenheimer turned to Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and ask that rabbi Axelrod be dismissed from his job in the wake of his participation in the rally.
“The Yesha rabbis who incite against Sharon belong in prison,” he said.
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