Yesha Council members (Archive photo) Photo: Ronny Sofer
Wants to calm things down. Halutz Photo: Haim Horenstein
‘Keep army out of it’
During lengthy meeting in Tel Aviv, settler leaders slam top IDF officials for using army to contain anti-pullout protests. “If there’s a teacher or taxi driver demonstration tomorrow, will the army also be used?” one settler official asks
TEL AVIV - Yesha Council leaders and top army officials met for more than four hours in Tel Aviv, in a session initially characterized by participants as “tense and sensitive.”
However, attendants later said the meeting ended on a positive note, with both sides agreeing to continue their dialogue.
During the session, Army Chief Dan Halutz told settler leaders violence is not a legitimate form of protest, and added that verbal violence at roadblocks is also unacceptable.
Halutz also stressed that the IDF does not pick its missions, but noted the army attempts to accommodate would-be evacuees and soldiers who reside in Gush Katif.
Halutz Speaks
'We won't close down hesder yeshivas' / By Hanan Greenberg and Ilan Marciano
Chief of Staff Dan Halutz reassures yeshiva rabbis that army has no intention of closing down programs that mix army service with yeshiva study despite repeated cases of insubordination by yeshiva student-soldiers
IDF officials are interested in easing growing tensions between pullout objectors and security forces, which peaked with last week’s mass demonstrations at Kfar Maimon and
Kissufim.
'Would you use army against teachers?'
The settler leaders, in turn, demanded the IDF refrain from interfering in what they refer to as “popular-democratic acts of protest against the disengagement plan.”
At the beginning of the meeting, settler leaders slammed army officials over the IDF’s involvement in the disengagement plan.
The Yesha Council’s Pinchas Wallerstein criticized the conduct of soldiers during the clash at the entry gate to Kfar Maimon in the second day of a mass anti-pullout march last week.
“It’s very severe that in a democratic country soldiers are being used in the face of disturbances by civilians in an area where the State of Israel is the sovereign,” he said. “If tomorrow there’s a teacher or taxi driver demonstration, would the army also be used against them?”
Soldiers as bouncers?
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz spoke last week in favor of the Yesha Council, saying the settler leadership restrained its people and prevented a confrontation with security forces at Kfar Maimon.
Halutz has expressed similar views on the matter.
Security establishment officials said they estimate fruitful deliberations with the settler leadership would ease tensions on the ground and prevent friction that may lead to verbal or even physical confrontations between pullout objectors and security forces.
IDF officials have expressed their disgruntlement with the fact that IDF soldiers served as “bouncers” at the Kissufim roadblock and Kfar Maimon demonstrations, adding that if the friction between pullout objectors and security forces were to be reduced, so would the number of troops allocated toward pullout-related tasks.
Meanwhile, IDF officials contend that as of now the Yesha Council is acting responsibly in that it is not allowing the situation to escalate to dangerous and violent levels.
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