JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon slammed Israelis who protested his Gaza pullout plan by blocking roads and the wounding of a Palestinian boy during clashes with Gaza settlers, and vowed he would not allow such violence to scuttle the withdrawal in the summer, Yedioth Ahronoth said on Thursday.
“What is happening before our eyes isn’t a struggle for the Gaza pullout but for the image of the country,” he told the newspaper. “I won't allow this situation to continue. The situation is not lost, and we will win.”
Speaking hours after tens of thousands of rightists and settlers blocked dozens of major highways all around the country in their latest in a series of demonstrations, Sharon said the protesters are dividing Israelis.
“We are witness to endless attempts by small, radical groups that plant hatred among Israelis instead of bridging the gaps,” he said. “What they are doing is ignoring the country’s real problems and the dangers hovering above it with the intention of disrupting everyday life.”
Israel plans to evacuate all 21 settlements from the Gaza Strip and four of 120 in the West Bank. Many settlers and staunch right-wingers claim the territories as their biblical birthright and have vowed to resist the pullout, Israel’s biggest from land Palestinians want for a state.
Israel at a standstill
Settlers have launched several road-blocking protests in recent months, bringing Israeli traffic to a standstill for hours at a time. Meanwhile, Palestinian mortar bomb and rocket attacks have also increased despite a cease-fire Sharon declared with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in February.
But the violence, usually involving terrorists, took a new twist on Wednesday when Gaza settlers took over a structure in a Palestinian town near their settlement and engaged in stone-throwing clashes with residents before being stopped by the army, which injured several settlers and a Palestinian boy.
Sharon condemned the assaults, saying: “The wounding of the Palestinian boy is a barbaric, wild and heartless act.”
Israel has already begun to mass forces in Gaza in an attempt to remove rightists who it suspects have been fomenting violence. Security sources said the army will seal off the Gaza Strip soon to stop settlers from flocking to the area and fortifying it ahead of the pullout.
The prime minister said he would not let the violence deter Israel from carrying out the withdrawal.
“I have no regrets or feelings or desperation,” he said. “The withdrawal is a good move for Israel and it will take place as planned.”
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